An Act to Clarify the Criminal History Record Information Act
Maine Legislature, Session 132, LD 1918
Committee: Judiciary
Amends: 16 MRSA §703, 16 MRSA §705

Legislative Document
No. 1918
H.P. 1279
House of Representatives, May 6, 2025
An Act to Clarify the Criminal History Record Information Act 
with Respect to Criminal Charges Dismissed as the Result of a Plea 
Agreement
Reported by Representative KUHN of Falmouth for the Joint Standing Committee on 
Judiciary pursuant to Resolve 2023, chapter 103, section 8.
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed pursuant to Joint 
Rule 218.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  16 MRSA §703, sub-§2, ¶G, as enacted by PL 2013, c. 267, Pt. A, §2, is 
amended to read:
G.  Information disclosing that a criminal charge has been dismissed by a court with 
prejudice or dismissed with finality by a prosecutor other than as part of a plea 
agreement in which the defendant pleads guilty to and is convicted of another criminal 
charge.  If a defendant admits to and is adjudicated as having committed a civil 
violation or a traffic infraction as part of a plea agreement, but does not also plead 
guilty to and is not also convicted of a criminal charge as part of that agreement, 
information disclosing that a criminal charge has been dismissed by a court with 
prejudice or dismissed with finality by a prosecutor as part of that agreement is 
confidential criminal history record information;
Sec. 2.  16 MRSA §705, sub-§5 is enacted to read:
5.  Charges dismissed as result of deferred disposition.  Notwithstanding any 
provision of this chapter to the contrary and subject to the Maine Rules of Evidence, 
including rules regarding relevancy, a party may introduce in any civil or criminal 
proceeding evidence that a defendant pled guilty to a crime as part of a deferred disposition 
for purposes of establishing that the defendant admitted to committing that crime, even if, 
after the defendant complied with the court-imposed deferment requirements, the 
defendant's guilty plea was later withdrawn and the underlying criminal charge was 
dismissed by the court with prejudice.
SUMMARY
This bill is reported out by the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary to implement 
statutory changes recommended by the Criminal Records Review Committee, which was 
established pursuant to Resolve 2023, chapter 103. The joint standing committee has not 
taken a position on the substance of this bill.  By reporting this bill out, the joint standing 
committee is not suggesting and does not intend to suggest that it agrees or disagrees with 
any aspect of this bill; instead, the joint standing committee is reporting the bill out for the 
sole purpose of having a bill printed that can be referred to the joint standing committee for 
an appropriate public hearing and subsequent processing in the normal course.  The joint 
standing committee is taking this action to ensure clarity and transparency in the legislative 
review of the proposals contained in the bill.
The bill clarifies that information disclosing that a criminal charge has been dismissed 
as part of a plea agreement is not confidential criminal history record information if the 
defendant pleads guilty to and is convicted of another criminal charge as part of the plea 
agreement.  By contrast, if, as a result of a plea agreement, a defendant admits to and is 
adjudicated as having committed a civil violation or a traffic infraction but does not also 
plead guilty to and become convicted of a criminal charge, information disclosing that a 
criminal charge has been dismissed as part of the plea agreement is confidential criminal 
history record information.
The bill also codifies the rule set forth in Gordon v. Cheskin, 2013 ME 113, that "the 
dismissal of [a criminal] charge after completion of [a] deferred disposition does not cast a 
blanket of confidentiality over the course of the proceedings up to that point."  Instead, "a 
court in a later proceeding is not precluded from considering the defendant's admission of 
guilt in open court.  An admission to specific behavior may be considered in a later 
proceeding, if that behavior is relevant to the matter before the court."