Appellants Luz Santiago ("Santiago") and Marlene Lockhart ("Lockhart") appealed from separate Superior Court orders denying their individual Stipulated Motions seeking to seal and to expunge1 their arrest and booking records in possession of the Virgin Islands Police Department and to simultaneously seal the records in the Superior Court ("Superior Court" or "trial court") pertaining to their arrests. Appellant Yahanatan Nugent ("Nugent") appealed from a denial of his Stipulated Petition with the People of the Virgin Islands ("People") seeking to seal and to expunge his arrest record. The trial court dismissed with prejudice the underlying criminal cases against Santiago and Lockhart from which their motions emanated. However, the case against Nugent was dismissed without prejudice. Santiago, Lockhart, and Nugent ("Appellants") appealed only the issues pertaining to their abortive attempts to expunge and to seal their arrest and booking records. Because of the commonality of issues, the cases will be decided together.2 For the following reasons, we agree with the trial court's orders denying the parties' Stipulated Motions and the Stipulated Petition to expunge and to seal the Appellants' arrest and booking records. However, we will remand the two cases for the trial court to afford Santiago and Lockhart an opportunity to either withdraw from their agreements or Stipulated Motions with the People or to accept our decision in their individual cases. We affirm the trial court's denial of the parties' Stipulated Petition to expunge and to seal the arrest record in Nugent's case.
Supreme Court Of The Virgin Islands