Commonwealth v. Blaiklock

HOFFMAN, Judge:

Appellant contends that the lower court erred in denying her petition to expunge her criminal arrest records concerning an alleged instance of retail theft. For the reasons which follow, we conclude that the lower court abused its discretion in denying appellant’s petition and, accordingly, reverse the order of the court below and direct that the records be expunged.

On January 15, 1979, appellant was charged with the summary offense of retail theft, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3929, arising from an incident which had occurred earlier that day in the Bonwit Teller department store in…