Cite as: 10 CNCA § 1127

A. A record of any child under this act, or any evidence given in such cause, shall not in any civil, criminal or other cause or proceeding in any Court be lawful or proper evidence against the child for any purpose whatever, except in subsequent cases against the same child under this act. The records of law enforcement officers concerning juveniles shall be maintained separate from records of arrests, and shall not be open to public inspection, or their contents disclosed, except by order of the Court.

B. If latent fingerprints are found during the investigation of an offense, a law enforcement officer may fingerprint a child for the purpose of comparing his fingerprints with the latent fingerprints, and the fingerprints may be sent to a law enforcement agency for comparison purposes only. If the comparison is negative or if the Court finds that the child did not commit the alleged offense, the child's fingerprint card and all copies of his fingerprints shall be destroyed immediately after the juvenile proceeding is completed unless the child is reported to a law enforcement agency as a missing child or a custodial parent, legal guardian or legal custodian of the child requests issuance of the fingerprint card to the parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian. If the child is reported to a law enforcement agency as a missing child, and only until the child is located, his fingerprints may be retained pursuant to the provisions of this section. If the Court finds that the child committed the alleged offense, or if the commission of the offense is admitted or not contested by the juvenile and his parents pursuant to an informal adjustment, deflection or diversion of the referral, his fingerprints may be retained either in a central state depository or in a local district court file which local depository may be a duly constituted law enforcement agency or agencies designated by the presiding judge of the juvenile docket.

C. No adjudication by the Court upon the status of a child in a juvenile proceeding shall operate to impose any of the civil disabilities ordinarily resulting from conviction of a crime, nor shall a child be deemed a criminal by reason of such adjudication, nor shall any arrest or detention under this chapter or any adjudication in a juvenile proceeding be deemed a detention or an arrest or conviction for purposes of employment, civil rights, or any statute, regulation, license, questionnaire, application, or any other public or private purposes; provided, however, that nothing herein shall prevent an adjudication in a juvenile proceeding:

1. from being considered in connection with the sentencing of said child should he be convicted in a criminal action after he has become an adult; or

2. from being used to show the bias, if any, of the child should he be a witness in any civil or criminal action either while a child or after he has become an adult.

D. Subsections (A) and (B) of this section shall not apply to the use, confidentiality and disposition of the records and fingerprints of a person who is sixteen (16) or seventeen (17) years old and charged with one of the crimes enumerated in 10 CNCA § 1104.2.