Kevin Morgan had a rough childhood growing up in east Kansas City.
After his parents divorced, Morgan had to step up and help his mother pay the bills. He couldn’t find a steady job, so he ended up becoming a product of his environment: a community filled with drugs. Morgan sold drugs and eventually started using them to ease his stress. When he was 17, Morgan was convicted on three counts of possession.
He served nine years of probation and completed the sentence in 2013. Morgan went on to earn a degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
He was working to turn his life around. But even as a college graduate, he was rejected for job after job because he had a criminal record.
“It made it so hard because of these collateral consequences I was stuck with,” says Morgan.
By chance, Morgan ran into a lawyer who introduced him to the Clear My Record Missouri UMKC Expungement Clinic. There, law students could help erase his record at no cost.
In Missouri, a person is allowed an expungement for one felony and two misdemeanors in their lifetime. With one charge now removed, Morgan has filed for clemency for his remaining two records.
“That clinic has given me hope,” Morgan says. “I believe that everyone deserves another chance.”
Now 43, with a new lease on life, Morgan created an organization called Sent1One Ministries to help formerly incarcerated people with temporary housing and lessons on reconnecting in society.
Over the past seven years, the UMKC Expungement Clinic has cleared the records of nearly 60 people, giving them better opportunities for jobs and housing. But the clinic closed in January of this year, after its grant funding ran out. Having shown that it works, the clinic’s leaders now hope others in Kansas City’s legal community will step up to fill the need.
“What’s happened is people and organizations in the community saw the value to individuals and to the community of making expungement available to people who can’t afford lawyers,” says Ellen Suni, who started the clinic in 2017 after retiring as dean of the UMKC School of Law.
'I'd probably be dead or back in prison'
Paying a lawyer for a traditional expungement can cost up to $5,000, says Johnny Waller Jr., who worked as the clinic’s program manager. Waller was convicted in Nebraska at age 18 for possession and received an expungement elsewhere.
“If I didn’t have the ability to do all the things that I do, I’d probably be dead or back in prison cause there's literally no other choices,” Waller says. “That's either what happens you're going to die or eventually return back to prison.”
Sixty-nine percent of people convicted of a felony return to prison within two years if they aren’t able to find full-time jobs, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections. But for those who do get full-time jobs, the recidivism rate is much lower — just 23%.
As Suni began laying the clinic’s structure, she discovered more than 1.5 million people in Missouri had some sort of criminal record. And many people who were leaving correctional facilities could not afford lawyers. Suni secured a grant from Missouri Foundation for Health, based on the theory that helping to clear people’s records might also improve a community’s health.
“When you can’t get a decent job, you can't get decent housing, you can’t send your kids to good schools ... it's a mess,” Suni says. “Getting an expungement can be life altering.”
Suni started the clinic in 2017 with a mission to get formerly incarcerated people integrated back into society through work and housing. Under the tutelage of Suni and other lawyers, students would assist with all court cases and clients would get their records cleared for free.
In Missouri, felonies such as murder, armed criminal action, and forgery can not be expunged. But crimes such as stealing, drug possession, and disturbing the peace can.
“We become really intimate and familiar with those individuals’ cases and we really care about them,” says Bailey Baker, who helped with people’s cases for two and a half years. As a law student, Baker was able to draft petitions and occasionally handle court hearings.
“Clients would come back to share stories about the houses they bought or the jobs they received, the people they’ve helped, the charities they started,” Baker says. “It’s just so amazing and impressive.”
'Trials and tribulation'
More than 1,100 people applied to get an expungement. But many of their charges didn’t fall under the criteria of cases that could be expunged in Missouri.
“We discovered that the need was huge,” Suni says.
Cortez Lewis wishes he would have heard about the expungement clinic after he was released in February of 2023 after serving 13 years.
“I went through trials and tribulation while serving time in prison and it's a blessing God got me through it,” says Lewis, who is now vice president of Lean On Me Ministries, one of Morgan’s nonprofits.
Lewis has had trouble finding proper housing due to his credit score. Lewis says he is not the same person anymore. All he asks for is a chance, but each rejection makes him feel hopeless.
The UMKC clinic was the only pro bono expungement service in western Missouri. Learning that there is no other service like it in the area, Cortez says, “gives me no hope.”
Waller is in the process of establishing his own expungement service. Since February, he’s been in discussions with others about the logistics of starting another clinic. He’s also advocating for members of the legal community to host their own free expungement clinics.
“We as a city have a duty to provide another expungement clinic to those seeking expungement in Kansas City,” he says.
Until then, Suni and students at the UMKC Expungement Clinic are working to clear the 12 unfinished cases they accepted before the clinic closed.
KCUR is licensed to the University of Missouri Board of Curators and is an editorially independent community service of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
