rpg16 5/17/2017 8:19 AM PDT: What she did does not appear to be illegal or, save for the fact that she appears to have somewhat exaggerated the scope of the court order, immoral, and I don’t really see why this event deserves the level of attention that, for example, the forged court orders have justly received. She asked Google to de-index and Google said no. If I was in that situation I might do the same thing, and I don’t blame her at all for trying.

Not a believer 7:31 AM PDT: So, another repuglican office seeker is trying to protect his criminal wife….So, what else is new?

QuantumCatBox 5/16/2017 7:26 PM PDT [Edited]: In the Court Order that is linked to Womack writes for “Explanation of Court Order”: “Court order to destroy all records.” But she was never issued a court order to destroy all records. On the petition that the judge signed Womack checked off the box next to “I hereby move for an expunction pursuant to G.S. 15A-146 and certify as follow:”

N.C.G.S.A. Sec. 15A-146(a) If any person is charged with a crime, either a misdemeanor or a felony, … and the charge is dismissed, or a finding of not guilty or not responsible is entered, that person may apply to the court of the county where the charge was brought for an order to expunge from all official records any entries relating to his apprehension or trial (emphasis added).

(b) The court may also order that the said entries, including civil revocations of drivers licenses as a result of the underlying charge, shall be expunged from the records of the court, and direct all law-enforcement agencies, the Division of Adult Correction of the Department of Public Safety, the Division of Motor Vehicles, and any other State or local government agencies identified by the petitioner as being record of the same to expunge their records of the entries (emphasis added).

I do not believe Womack received a court order to “destroy all records” but rather received a court order pursuant to NCGSA 15A-146 to expunge from “all official records” any information relating to her arrest and trial. In the context of the statute official records pretty clearly indicates records held by a government agency. It appears that she has mischaracterized the court order that she was granted, or at least her lawyer did.

I’m not sure if it was this or another blog but I remember a while back reading a post about a case dealing with the issue of expungement and public records. The judge’s opinion delved into the metaphysical of how an expungement does not mean that the arrest never actually happened.

King Goat 5/16/2017 7:08 PM PDT [Edited]: The fetishism of ‘free speech’ continues, and all other values must be steamrolled over.

Police make a ton of mistaken, and all too often rotten, arrests. Thankfully we have a justice system which interposes others who can recognize this fact and reverse their mistakes and miscarriages of justice. Of course, politically and sociologically, the harm is done to one’s political, social or economic endeavors from the arrest itself. But no, a society which has long recognized ‘sealing’ records can’t also allow suppression (and by ‘suppression’ we mean ‘can’t use government regulated medium to report existence of’) of reports of a mistaken, but of course still damaging to actual human beings, government act! That would be to trifle with free speech, which brooks no exceptions (oh, except, ‘obscenity,’ trade secrets, non-disclosure agreements, defamation, etc., etc.,), no matter which little people get trampled for (oft departed from) abstract principles sake!

jdgalt 5/16/2017 6:28 PM PDT: Thanks to articles such as this one, attempts to “vanish” embarrassing information, even without a lawsuit, will lead to the Streisand Effect. I predict the same even in countries with “right to be forgotten” laws.