Results

Kelly’s client retained her before applying for a permit to carry due to a long criminal history from before he became sober, much of which he barely remembered. Kelly examined his extensive criminal record and court documents to determine that, despite his many convictions and having served time in prison for Felony DWI, the only charges on his Minnesota record that would cause him problems with gun rights were three Theft of Motor Vehicle convictions from Chisago, Ramsey and Dakota Counties. As these charges were considered crimes of violence under Minnesota State law at the time her client was released from probation, he became subject to a lifetime ban on possessing firearms. Although the Minnesota Supreme Court determined in 2020 that the Minnesota Legislature intended through subsequent amendments to the law to remove this offense from the list of crimes of violence, a judicial order was still needed to update Federal records. Kelly was able to obtain the appropriate paperwork showing her client’s rights were restored. As soon as he clears up issues related to convictions in another state, he will be able to receive his permit to carry and update his federal records so that he can purchase firearms without denial or delay.  

Kelly’s client and his mother, while traveling through Rice County to look at colleges, got into an argument that led to them hitting each other and her client being convicted of Misdemeanor Domestic Assault. Since the offense, Kelly’s client went on not only to finish college but to complete a PhD program in Biochemistry and several post-doctoral programs. Now in the job market to become a professor, he found himself losing competitive opportunities due to the old domestic assault conviction that still appeared on background checks. Kelly was able to convince the judge that her client had rehabilitated. The expungement was fully granted and her client can now apply and contend for his dream teaching positions without being held back by his conviction.    

Kelly’s client sold an eighth of an ounce of marijuana to a confidential informant while in college and was convicted of Felony Fifth Degree Possession in 2001 in Beltrami County. He was forced to leave college as a result of the offense but later went back, eventually graduating from the Minnesota School of Business. He also got married, had three sons and established a successful banking career. But none of those many successes could restore his gun rights. He is an avid outdoorsman and dreamed of hunting once again, teaching his sons what his dad once taught him. The judge was persuaded by Kelly’s arguments her client is an upstanding citizen and agreed to restore his rights.

Kelly’s client, now a successful instrument technician living in Colorado, was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile in Anoka County for Felony Second Degree Assault due to an incident where he swerved his car at high school bullies who had been targeting him, thus becoming subject to a lifetime ban on possessing firearms. He had grown up hunting with friends and loves the outdoors, and wished more than anything to engage in his passions in the mountains of Colorado. Kelly was able to convince the judge and prosecutor that her client had rehabilitated. His rights were restored and he is now free, for the first time in his adult life, to go hunting and possess firearms.  

Kelly’s client grew up hunting pheasant on family land with his father, an expert hunting guide. As a young man, he was convicted in Dakota County to Felony Third Degree Assault and subject to a lifetime ban on possessing firearms for pushing a drunk man who had hit on his girlfriend out of a hotel room, breaking the man’s arm in the process. Almost twenty years later, after marrying, having a child, and establishing a successful career as a car salesman, he approached Kelly, having decided it was time to find out whether he could hunt once again with his dad and teach his own young son firearm safety and how to hunt. Kelly convincingly argued on behalf of her client before the judge, who restored her client’s rights. He now plans to go out hunting with his elderly father as soon as the season starts and to pass along these family traditions once his son is old enough.