Jonathan Wolfgram v. New Hampshire Department of Safety

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Hampshire held that the Department of Safety could not maintain publicly accessible notations of a petitioner’s habitual offender certification and decertification after the convictions underlying that status had been annulled. The court interpreted the annulment statute and habitual offender law together, concluding that the Department must maintain the information in a manner inaccessible to the public. The judgment was reversed and remanded.

Holdings

1. When a person's habitual-offender status has been decertified and the convictions underlying that status have been annulled, RSA 651:5, construed together with the habitual-offender statutes, requires DOS to maintain the related certification information in a manner inaccessible to members of the public. DOS may not retain notations revealing that information on the person's publicly accessible motor-vehicle record.
2. The provision stating that annulled convictions may be counted toward habitual-offender status permits DOS to consider those convictions when determining whether a person qualifies for habitual-offender certification; it does not exempt habitual offenders from the protections of the annulment statute or require their annulled convictions or habitual-offender status to remain on a publicly available record.

Questions Presented

1. Whether RSA 651:5 requires removal from a publicly accessible motor-vehicle record of notations concerning a person's habitual-offender certification and decertification when the convictions underlying that status have been annulled.
2. Whether RSA 651:5, X(a)'s provision allowing annulled convictions to be counted toward habitual-offender status requires or permits DOS to retain public notations revealing those convictions.
3. Whether the court needed to reach Wolfgram's constitutional challenge after resolving the statutory issue.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded