Juveniles Eligible for Deregistration or Non-Publication
A person who has registered as a sex offender for an adjudication of delinquent conduct, regardless of when the delinquent conduct or the adjudication for the conduct occurred, may file a motion in the adjudicating juvenile court for a hearing seeking exemption from registration or an order under Art. 62.352(b)(2) that the registration become nonpublic.
The person may file a motion under Subsection (a) in the original juvenile case regardless of whether the person, at the time of filing the motion, is 18 years of age or older.
A person required to register or already registered as a sex offender in this state because of an out-of state adjudication of delinquent conduct may file in the juvenile court of the person’s county of residence a petition under Art. 62.351 for an order exempting the person from registration under this chapter.
Two chances for deregistration
A subsequent motion may be filed if a previous motion for deregistration under has been filed concerning the case.
List of agencies to receive notice
Like a petition for expunction of records, Article 62.353(d) requests a list of all public and private agencies and organizations, including public or private institutions of higher education, that possess sex offender registration information about the case. The motion for deregistration included on your CD includes a list of all the public and private entities that collect sex offender registration information.
The Three Options at the Conclusion of the Hearing
At the conclusion of the Motion to for Deregistration, the juvenile court can issue an order for one of the following options:
Grant the Motion
As set forth in Article 62.353(f)-(i), if the court grants a motion, the clerk of the court shall by certified mail, return receipt requested, send a copy of the order to the department, to each local law enforcement authority that the person has proved to the juvenile court has registration information about the person, and to each public or private agency or organization that the person has proved to the juvenile court has information about the person that is currently available to the public with or without payment of a fee. The clerk of the court shall by certified mail, return receipt requested, send a copy of the order to any other agency or organization designated by the person. The person shall identify the agency or organization and its address and pay a fee of twenty dollars ($20.00) to the court for each agency or organization the person designates.
In addition to disseminating the order, at the request of the person, the clerk of the court shall by certified mail, return receipt requested, send a copy of the order to each public or private agency or organization that at any time following the initial dissemination of the order gains possession of sex offender registration information pertaining to that person, if the agency or organization did not otherwise receive a copy of the order.
An order must require the recipient to conform its records to the court’s order either by deleting the sex offender registration information or changing its status to nonpublic, as applicable. A public or private institution of higher education may not be required to delete the sex offender registration information under this subsection.
A private agency or organization that possesses sex offender registration information the agency or organization obtained from a state, county, or local governmental entity is required to conform the agency’s or organization’s records to the court’s order on or before the thirtieth day after the date of the entry of the order. Unless the agency or organization is a public or private institution of higher education, failure to comply in that period automatically bars the agency or organization from obtaining sex offender registration information from any state, county, or local governmental entity, in the future.
A person who has an adjudication of delinquent conduct that would otherwise be reportable under Art. 62.001(5) does not have a reportable adjudication of delinquent conduct for purposes of this chapter if the juvenile court enters an order under this subchapter exempting the person from the registration requirements of this chapter.
If the juvenile court enters an order exempting a person from registration under this chapter, the respondent may not be required to register in this or any other state for the offense for which registration was exempted.
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Require the respondent to register as a sex offender but restrict the public access to the information
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Deny the Motion
While Article 62.357 explicitly allows for the State to appeal any order exempting registration under Chapter 62, the article does not mention a reciprocal right to appeal any order denying a motion for exemption of registration. Instead, the text of Article 62.357(b) appears to only permit the respondent to appeal an order denying a motion seeking exemption under Article 62.352 for juveniles that have never registered as a sex offender. Before the 2005 legislative changes, one court of appeals held that the absence of a specific right to appeal a final order prevented the respondent from appealing a motion to exempt registration. See Ex Parte McGregor, 145 S.W.3d 824 (Tex.App.-Dallas, 2004). Article 62.357(b) allows an appeal of an order requiring registration, but in a motion for deregistration the court is arguably addressing the exemption and not the order requiring registration. Furthermore, the article related to unregistration orders is completely separate from the article concerning deregistration orders. Because the statute only allows an appeal of a juvenile court order under Article 62.352(a), a respondent’s only redress may be to represent the motion a second time.
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