SAN JOSE – As he stood in the middle of the courtroom, Gabriel Ornelas Garcia told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Erica Yew that after an arrest in 2018 — capping a rap sheet of nine convictions for drug, theft and gang crimes dating back to his teens — he was determined to break the cycle.
“I vowed never to return,” Garcia, 29, said on a recent October morning
With the help of his family, including his wife, Amanda, and his now-1-year-old daughter, Garcia petitioned for his criminal record to be cleared.
There to help him was the Record Clearance Project, an undergraduate legal clinic that operates out of San Jose State University. The unique program tasks criminal justice students with helping people expunge their criminal records as they rebuild their lives. Research has found that barely more than 5% of people seek the legal relief within five years of becoming eligible.
“I just assumed people knew the general possibility that they could clear their records,” said project founder and veteran criminal justice instructor Peggy Stevenson. “The information was just not out there. … People just don’t know, and it makes all the difference in the world.”
The program started in 2008 as a class project for Stevenson’s students in a class on Courts and Society. Since its inception, more than 1,000 students have participated, working with lawyers to outline the full scope of a person’s life, from the circumstances of their crimes to their rehabilitation.
An array of conviction types can be eligible for expungement — and many qualify for automatic clearance, as long as a client has completed their parole or probation. Other convictions require a judge’s approval, which is where the students’ work comes in to produce a petition for review.
The program boasts a 99% success rate on more than 2,000 expungement petitions. The wire-to-wire expungement assistance is available only for Santa Clara County Superior Court convictions, though staff will guide people who have out-of-county records.
Garcia, who now works as a union laborer, said allowing the program an unvarnished look at his life was hard but therapeutic. Eventually, Judge Yew gave him the best news he would ever hear in a courtroom: “Your cases are dismissed. Congratulations.”
Outside the courthouse, Garcia exhaled.
“Goodbye to my past, welcome to my future,” he said. “It’s not impossible. But it takes a lot of courage and determination.”
With the help of Wish Book donations, the program can help others like Garcia who are seeking a second chance in life.
Later that same day, Stevenson, students and staff visited the Elmwood women’s jail in Milpitas to talk to women in custody, most of whom are eligible for expungement.
They were joined by Nancy Torres, who recounted more than three decades of a life clouded by heavy drug use, abusive relationships, and a life on the street that tallied up 68 felony and misdemeanor charges.
Nancy Torres talks to women in custody at the Elmwood women’s jail in Milpitas, Calif., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, relating her experiences in the criminal justice system and how she got her criminal record expunged with the help of the Record Clearance Project run out of San Jose State University. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
On the verge of turning 50 years old, she put herself through detox and got work at a Goodwill job training program. But her history hampered any attempt to advance.
She was in a sober living facility and mentored by Diana Carreras, a longtime mentor with the Record Clearance Project and former client, who introduced Torres to the program.
They said they could help. And in 2021, like Garcia, she sat in front of Judge Yew and listened as each of her 68 charges were dismissed.
“She said, ‘expunged, expunged, expunged,’ and I’m sitting there and I’m crying, feeling that weight off my chest,” Torres, 52, said in an interview. “I could walk out without looking around my back anymore.”
Back at the jail, she proudly told her audience about where she is now: lead manager at a local sobriety program and facility, and taking every opportunity from the Record Clearance Project to spread the word.
Nancy Torres talks to women in custody at the Elmwood women’s jail in Milpitas, Calif., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, relating her experiences in the criminal justice system and how she got her criminal record expunged with the help of the Record Clearance Project run out of San Jose State University. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
“It’s awesome to give back, to share my life with somebody and say, ‘Hey expunge it, because there is a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow,’ ” Torres said.
Stevenson can also boast about how her brainchild has produced generations of students heading into careers in law and social work who are imbued with the program’s restorative spirit.
“Doing this life-changing, profoundly positive work, and having students be able to accurately see they have been the force that made this difference is so rewarding,” Stevenson said. “I just love to step back and watch them do what they are trained to do, and worked hard to learn to do.”
Adriana Vazquez-Chavez, a 25-year-old San Jose State student, was in Judge Yew’s courtroom alongside classmate Cristal Ortiz to watch Jesus Navarro, who was connected to the court via video stream from Mexico, witness the expungement of a 1996 attempted murder conviction that led to his deportation.
Adriana Vazquez-Chavez, a student assistant with the Record Clearance Project, holds hands before embracing Carmen Navarro, whose son was cleared of past convictions, at Family Justice Center in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
The clearance of his record has given his family hope that he can one day reunite with them in the Bay Area.
Vazquez-Chavez and Ortiz helped convince the court that Navarro was no longer the man he once was. She wants to pursue a career as a criminal prosecutor, drawing on her experience with the program to instill more empathy into an integral part of the justice process.
“They tend to have the most power, and if I’m able to have an impact, I can vouch for more rehabilitation and plea deals rather than harsher sentences,” she said.
Omar Arauza, 27, a San Jose State alum attending the UC College of the Law, San Francisco, is also an aspiring criminal prosecutor — and has interned at the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office — and says his experience with the program “makes perfect sense” with his career path.
“My work with the RCP, I don’t think of it as contrasting. It’s complementary,” he said. “It was a very nuanced experience. … I needed that experience to gain important insight, skills and perspective that I want to carry on in my work.”
On the other side of the courtroom aisle, Ruben Souza-Marquez, 26, a fresh graduate from the Santa Clara University School of Law, says his time with the Record Clearance Project helped him find a trajectory to his research clerk internship with the county Public Defender’s Office.
“The program really inspired me to pursue criminal defense work,” he said. “The skills I learned in RCP really helped me to understand people’s situation better and try and negotiate these better outcomes.”
Laura Wright’s time with the program unlocked her life in ways that encompass parts of both Torres’ experience and that of the students. Wright, 45, recalls watching the RCP presentation at the Elmwood jail a decade ago while she was in custody for drug and theft crimes.
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After release, she started attending community college, held down a job and did volunteer work. Then with Stevenson’s help, she got her criminal record cleared.
She became a mentor for the program, transferred to Cal State Monterey Bay and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work. She started working with Community Solutions in Morgan Hill as an advocate for sexual assault survivors.
Last year, she earned a Master of Social Work degree, and now works full time at Community Solutions; she aims to qualify for full-time therapy work in two years.
“There’s a lot of stigma and a lot of barriers that come with any kind of criminal record,” Wright said. “I was very lucky to meet Peggy. Her program is life-changing.”
She can’t wait to get others to follow her.
“The full-circle goosebumps moment was two years ago when I went back to the (Elmwood) dorm. I told them, ‘I was here locked up, that was my bed over there,’ ” Wright said. “To see the hope on their faces, it’s just amazing.”
Gabriel Ornelas Garcia stands for a portrait after he was cleared of his past convictions at Family Justice Center in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
THE WISH BOOK SERIESWish Book is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by The Mercury News. Since 1983, Wish Book has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.
WISHDonations to The Record Clearance Project at San Jose State University will help provide legal representation, mentoring and other support to over 1,000 low-income people, primarily of color, who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. Goal: $50,000
HOW TO GIVEDonate at wishbook.mercurynews.com/donate or mail in this form.
ONLINE EXTRARead other Wish Book stories, view photos and video at wishbook.mercurynews.com.