The fact that a conviction had previously been expunged pursuant to Penal Code 1203.4(a) does not preclude later efforts to clear the defendants record with respect to the expunged conviction. Meyer v. Superior Court (1966) 247 Cal.App.2d 133. In Meyer, the defendant had been convicted of a wobbler as a felony in 1960, and had his conviction subsequently expunged pursuant to Penal Code 1203.4. He then attempted to have his felony reduced to a misdemeanor pursuant to Penal Code 17(b), which was modified in 1963 to include the reduction language and probation language that Penal Code 17(b)(3) has today. The trial court refused, stating it had no jurisdiction. The court of appeal held that the conviction may be reduced from a misdemeanor to a felony even well after the granting of an expungement under Penal Code 1203.4.
In the present case, the conviction had already been expunged in 2008 on purely equitable grounds. The original expungement order, however, was entirely ineffective to eliminate the conviction for immigration purposes. Matter of Roldan, 22 I. & N. Dec. 512 (BIA 1999) (en banc). Because the conviction continued to exist for deportation purposes, the criminal court retains the authority to take further action to expunge the conviction on additional grounds in the interests of justice " because of grounds of legal invalidity in the original plea and sentence -- that will indeed be effective to eliminate the adverse immigration consequences of the conviction. Although a conviction has been expunged, a person should not be barred from pursuing a more effective remedy, particularly where the final decision as to whether he is worthy rests within the sound discretion of the superior court. (Ibid.)