Whenever a person is acquitted of a charge and it appears to the judge presiding at the trial wherein such acquittal occurred that the defendant was factually innocent of the charge, the judge may order that the records in the case be sealed, including any record of arrest or detention, upon the written or oral motion of any party in the case or the court, and with notice to all parties to the case. If such an order is made, the court shall give to the defendant a copy of such order and inform the defendant that he may thereafter state that he was not arrested for such charge and that he was found innocent of such charge by the court.
Cal. Penal Code § 851.85
Arrest, by Whom and How Made
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Martin Karl Maurer v. Individually and as Members of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Peter J. Pitchess, John P. Owens (1982)
Most recently applied in 206 Cal. App. 4th 84 - Kerner v. Superior Court (April 2012)
Added by Stats. 1980, Ch. 1172, Sec. 3
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.