Expungement of Petty Theft Conviction a Mistake, Although Defendant Consequently Faces Deportation
Defendant Hyung Joon Kim immigrated to the United States from South Korea at age six. He became a lawful permanent resident in 1986, but not a citizen.
While a juvenile, he was arrested multiple times and was placed on probation before he was eighteen. Within months after turning eighteen, he was convicted of first degree burglary and placed on probation. Within the next two years, he was convicted two more times for theft-related crimes. One was first degree burglary again and he was again placed on probation.
The second of the two offenses, in 1997, was petty theft with a prior. Kim was sentenced to three years in state prison.
Kim then served approximately two years of the three year sentence and was released. He was then placed on three years of parole. The Department of Homeland Security (then named the INS), initiated deportation proceedings in 2002.
Kim filed numerous challenges to his multiple convictions. Each challenge failed to eliminate a basis for deportation.
In 2011, he again attacked his 1997 petty theft conviction, by way of an “invitation” that the court dismiss the judgment of conviction under Penal Code
