What First-Time Defendants Should Know About Diversion Programs
Most people who call our Franklin County criminal defense lawyer have never been inside a courtroom, and the question they ask first is whether this is going to follow them for the rest of their lives.
For a lot of first-time defendants in Missouri, it doesn't have to. Prosecutors can offer diversion: you agree to conditions for six months to two years, and if you meet them, the charge is dismissed. Fall short and the case picks up where it left off.
Key Takeaways
Missouri prosecutors can divert a nonviolent, nonsexual case for six months to two years under RSMo 557.014; the decision is theirs alone and cannot be appealed.
Franklin County's Drug Court runs as post-plea diversion. You plead guilty first, and the plea is withdrawn only if you finish.
A dismissed charge still leaves an arrest record, which is closed under Missouri law but not erased.
How Prosecution Diversion Works in Missouri
Since 2019, RSMo 557.014 has let every prosecuting attorney in Missouri divert a case before or after charges are filed. The agreement must be in writing and run between six months and two years, and the prosecutor can extend it, by no more than two years, to finish restitution or as a penalty for slipping.
The statute sets a floor. The offense has to be nonviolent and nonsexual, with no child victim and no unlawful weapon. It cannot violate a current probation or parole condition, and it cannot be a traffic offense committed on a commercial driver's license. Above that floor, each county prosecutor writes their own criteria, so eligibility in Union differs from eligibility in Clayton.
During the program the prosecutor can impose any condition that protects the community or you. Staying out of trouble is the only one the statute requires; community service, treatment, and program costs paid before dismissal are up to the office. Finish to the prosecutor's satisfaction and you're entitled to a dismissal, though the Missouri Bar's analysis of the law notes how much room "satisfaction" leaves the prosecutor.
Diversion, SIS, and Treatment Court Are Three Different Things
People use "diversion" loosely, and the differences matter.
True prosecution diversion under 557.014 involves no guilty plea. You never admit the offense in court, and when it ends there is no judgment of any kind.
A suspended imposition of sentence, or SIS, is a plea. You plead guilty, the judge withholds sentencing, and you serve probation. No conviction enters if you complete it, but the plea stays in the file and surfaces for some employers, licensing boards, and immigration purposes. We walk through that distinction before any client decides whether to accept a plea deal.
Treatment court is a third path, and 2019 legislation required every circuit to have one by August 2021. The Franklin County Drug Court takes most of its cases on referral from the Prosecuting Attorney's Office as post-plea diversion: you plead guilty, sentencing is held, and the file goes to the drug court judge. Three phases, at least 32 weeks clean. Finish and you withdraw the plea and the charges are dropped. Get terminated and you are sentenced on the plea you already entered. It is limited to felony drug charges, or nonviolent felonies driven by drug use, pending in Franklin County, for defendants living in Franklin or Gasconade County.
Who Actually Gets Offered Diversion
First offense, nonviolent, and a prosecutor who thinks you'll finish. That is the short version.
Around here that means low-level possession, shoplifting and other property misdemeanors, bad checks, and some first-time DWI charges, though a DWI with an accident or a high blood alcohol reading usually gets charged straight through. Felony charges that get diverted in Franklin County mostly go the drug court route. Traffic violations are often eligible unless you were driving on a CDL.
Your record, your age, whether the victim objects, and whether restitution is realistic all go into the decision. So does the strength of the case. A stop without probable cause or a search the officer cannot justify is a case the prosecutor would rather divert than defend at a suppression hearing.
What a Dismissal Does and Does Not Do to Your Record
When the charge is dismissed, Missouri's closed-records statute takes over. The court file and arrest record become closed records, invisible to the public and to most employers running a standard background check. Law enforcement, the courts, and certain licensing agencies can still see them.
That is not expungement. Under RSMo 610.140, a petition to expunge can be filed three years after a felony sentence or probation ends and one year after a misdemeanor, subject to a lifetime limit on the number of offenses. A diversion dismissal is not a conviction and does not count against that limit, but the arrest itself may need its own petition to disappear entirely.
One more wrinkle. The prosecutor can dismiss without prejudice, which means a new charge before the statute of limitations runs can bring the original case back.
Where First-Time Defendants Get Hurt
The agreement is a contract, and the prosecutor wrote it. Read every line.
Some agreements require a written statement of facts or a stipulation that the police report is accurate. Fail the program and that document comes back as evidence. We negotiate those clauses out or narrow them whenever the office allows it.
Fees and restitution are due before the dismissal, not after, and the statute says so. A $1,500 restitution balance you cannot pay at month 18 is a failed diversion, however clean the rest of your file is.
"Any newly discovered criminal behavior" ends the program at the prosecutor's sole discretion. Not a conviction. Behavior. A municipal citation, a bar fight nobody charged, a photo with a drink in your hand while you're under a no-alcohol condition. Prosecutors read social media posts, and so do the people who report to them.
Missed court dates are their own problem. Diversion cases often stay on the docket for status checks, and skipping one can produce a bench warrant that ends the agreement before anyone reviews the merits.
Before You Sign
Ask whether the dismissal will be with or without prejudice, and get the answer in writing. Ask what the program costs in total, treatment and supervision included, and whether the office accepts a payment schedule. Ask what counts as a violation and who decides.
Then weigh diversion against the alternatives. A weak case can be dismissed outright. A strong defense can win at trial. Diversion fits when the evidence is solid and the conduct was out of character, and your other legal options deserve real weight before you accept an offer the prosecutor made in the first five minutes.
Talk to a Former Franklin County Prosecutor First
William P. Moon has practiced for more than 15 years and worked in the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's Office before founding the firm with Daniel Briegel and Kevin Whiteley. Between them, the three attorneys have tried more than 50 jury cases in mid-Missouri. That matters here for one reason: prosecutors offer better diversion terms to a defendant whose lawyer is ready to try the case.
We charge flat fees, so the cost is known before we start, and the first consultation is free. Contact us at 4 S Church St in Union before you sign anything.
