COVINGTON, Ky. — Kenton County Prosecutor Rob Sanders took to X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday to criticize members of his own party for backing a bipartisan bill proposed in the Kentucky legislature.
Supporters refer to House Bill 569 as the Clean Slate Act as it would expunge many charges or convictions from someone's criminal record if they serve their time and then stay out of trouble for five years.
"This is the worst legislation a Republican has proposed in decades!" Sanders wrote. "What happened to holding criminals accountable and being honest with the public?!? This bill would have us pretend felons don’t exist!"
Consultant Alaina Sweasy, director of Lane 13 Consulting, urged Kentucky lawmakers to pass the bill to help others avoid going through the same troubles she did.
"I was younger, in my 20s, made some mistakes, suffered from substance abuse disorder," she said.
Sweasy said she had picked up charges in her 20s as a result of her addiction.
"I had one felony — shoplifting, but they were mostly misdemeanors," she said.
She said her charges followed her until she was able to get clean and go through what she described as an expensive and convoluted process of hiring an attorney and filing for expungement of each criminal charge.
"It was just very a costly and complicated process," she said.
ACLU policy strategist Kungu Njuguna has also been in Frankfort lobbying for the bill's passage as it would order the Clerk of Courts to identify any crimes eligible for expungement and order a court automatically expunge the record unless there's a protest from local commonwealth attorneys.
"This automates the expungement process," Njuguna said. "It is a simple bill."
Njuguna acknowledged Sanders' criticisms but said the bill wouldn't expunge all — or even the majority — of felony records.
Current Kentucky law only allows certain Class-D felonies, including possession of a controlled substance, identity theft and mail theft, to be expunged.
"Currently, under the law, if someone does the petition-based system, that felony would disappear," he said.
HB 569 would eliminate the need to apply for expungement and would, rather, eliminate the record five years after the sentence is served so long as no new charges are brought or pending.
Violent or sexual crimes would remain crimes that can't be stricken from a criminal's record through the expungement process.
Njuguna urged the legislature to streamline the process he also had to use. The former Jefferson County assistant attorney had to overcome charges including DUI and wanton endangerment to get his law license back after years of helping put people in jail himself.
"I can remember giving them deals, convicting them and sending them to jail," he said. "And then I found myself as someone on the other side of the law and someone who was addicted to drugs."
Njuguna said, with bipartisan support, he expects the Clean Slate Act will have the chance to reach Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's desk.
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