Mercer County Arrest Records

When a person is arrested for a crime in Mercer County, they are typically taken through the standard procedure, called "booking," at the nearest police station or jail facility. The booking process entails collecting the arrestee's personal data, belongings, fingerprints, DNA, and other details needed for the creation of official documents like arrest records.

Prosecutorial offices often require arrest records to pursue charges against suspected offenders. Defense attorneys can also review the records when preparing legal arguments for clients and members of the public looking up loved ones' locations.

Finding arrest records in Mercer usually involves approaching a local law enforcement agency that made an arrest, such as the county sheriff's office. However, information from an arrest record may also appear in other criminal justice agency records, like the Mercer County court records.

Are Arrest Records Public in Mercer County?

Yes. The West Virginia Code, Section 29B-1-3 (West Virginia Freedom of Information Act) governing public access to official government records mandates entities run with public funds to disseminate non-confidential information to requesting parties. For this reason, people can query a law enforcement agency to view or obtain copies of an arrest record in Mercer County.

Still, this access is not all-encompassing; certain records or parts of information in a record are redacted or restricted from public perusal. A few examples include:

• Juvenile arrest records
• Sealed records
• Medical and health information
• Personal identification information, including driver's license, social security, state ID, and passport numbers
• Details of an ongoing criminal investigation where disclosure may jeopardize a defendant, victim, or witness's privacy or security
• Personal information of victims, witnesses, and confidential informants

What Do Public Arrest Records Contain?

Criminal justice agencies, like the Mercer County Sheriff's Office, local police departments, and even courts, grant access to public arrest records generated within the locality. These include:

• An arrestee's name, gender, ethnicity, age, mugshot, and physical descriptors (weight, hair color, eye color, height, tattoos, and scars)
• Offenses for which a person was arrested
• When the arrest was made (arrest date and time)
• Where the arrest was made (arrest location)
• Arresting agency and officer
• Bail amount and type
• Date of arraignment
• Date of scheduled release
• Details about any outstanding warrant of arrest (if applicable)
• The presiding court

Mercer County Arrest Statistics

According to the latest Crime in West Virginia publication, Mercer County recorded 304 arrests in 2019. The county's population at the time was 41,695. More recent arrest reports may be retrieved from a local law enforcement office or via the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Crime Data Explorer (CDE).

Find Mercer County Arrest Records

Anyone seeking to obtain arrest records in Mercer County should first determine why the arrest occurred and which agency conducted the arrest. For arrests made by local enforcement agencies, one can approach the specific arresting department for records under West Virginia's FOIA. An agency may require a written request carrying an arrestee's name and date of birth (if known) to find an arrest record, and fees may be charged where record reproduction is needed.

State or federal agencies can also apprehend people in Mercer. In such cases, the arrestees may be held at a regional jail until they finish their court proceedings and later transferred to a state or federal prison facility. Anyone interested in finding someone arrested in Mercer can search booking records at the Southern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility.

The Daily Incarcerations portal for the West Virginia (WV) Regional Jails, which is maintained by the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) in West Virginia, can be used to find detainees from Mercer County. People looking for state prisoners can utilize other Offender Search tools on the DCR's website. Details about offenders who have been discharged or moved from the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation custody will not appear in the search results. In such cases, individuals may contact the DCR for more inquiries.

On the other hand, federal law enforcement agencies maintain arrest information on federal detainees separately, depending on which agency conducted the arrest. Additionally, the Bureau of Prisons maintains an online Federal Inmate Locator to aid people in locating their loved ones in federal custody. Users can perform an inmate search using an inmate's name or register number.

Moreover, arrestees in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can be tracked using the agency's Online Detainee Locator System. Individuals can search available data by entering the defendant's full name, county of birth, or Alien Number (If known).

Free Arrest Record Search in Mercer County

Individuals can conduct a free arrest record search in Mercer by requesting the records from local law enforcement agencies under the West Virginia FOIA. A fee may not be assessed if the requester seeks to inspect a record.

Aside from government tools, certain third-party public records vendors independently aggregate data from law enforcement databases and sell it to customers. Users may access such data for free. However, a nominal fee may apply if they wish to obtain complete arrest information.

How Long Do Arrests Stay on Your Record?

In most cases, arrests last indefinitely on a person's record. However, records of arrests that never resulted in a conviction may be expunged (removed or sealed) from the public record. Be that as it may, government offices with statutory permission, such as courts, prosecutorial offices, the Department of Corrections, the West Virginia State Police, and the Attorney General, may maintain access to expunged records under certain conditions.

Expunge Mercer County Arrest Records

A person convicted of misdemeanors or non-violent felonies may petition the court to expunge their arrest record in Mercer County. Expungement generally restricts or seals public access to a conviction or arrest file. However, sealed records are still accessible to certain authorized parties.

West Virginia's expungement laws are outlined under W. Va. Code §§ 61-11-25, 61-11-26, and 61-11-26a. Non-conviction (arrest) records can be expunged under § 61-11-25, while qualified convictions can be removed under §§ 61-11-26 and 61-11-26a.

A motion to expunge an arrest record can be filed in the Mercer County Circuit Court. The court clerk's office is responsible for issuing the necessary forms or paperwork to complete this petition. The court does not charge any fee to expunge non-conviction records.

Once an expungement petition is filed, the court may invite relevant parties to the case for a court hearing, including the petitioner, their legal representative, and the prosecutor. This hearing often determines whether the expungement will be approved. In some cases, the court may grant a record expungement without a court hearing, provided the petitioner has no pending bills, charges, or proceedings.

If the court issues an expungement order, the subject of the record may claim that they have never been arrested for the said offense. The order instructs every agency maintaining the record to remove traces of such information from their database.

Mercer County Arrest Warrants

Mercer County arrest warrants are judicial documents or directives issued by judges. They authorize a peace officer to take someone into custody and present them before the court. Arrest warrants are typically issued when there are reasonable grounds to believe that a named individual has committed a particular crime.

Before an arrest warrant can be issued in Mercer, the affiant (requesting official) must present an affidavit detailing probable cause for the warrant's issuance in court. They may also need to present admissible evidence in court to support the claim. Nonetheless, judges may issue arrest warrants if someone violates a court order, like a condition of parole or summons.

A Mercer County arrest warrant contains the name of the person to be arrested, the reason for the warrant's issuance, the county and agency of issuance, the date of issuance, and the issuing judge's name, title of office, and signature.

Do Mercer County Arrest Warrants Expire?

No. Mercer County arrest warrants do not have an expiry date. Once issued, these legal directives remain executable until the named subject is taken into custody. In certain cases, however, a court may recall or quash an arrest warrant.