In this Ramsey County Criminal Domestic Violence case, Mr. Keller’s client was a prominent Hispanic artist from Minneapolis. The artist had been convicted of Violating an Order for Protection (VOFP) from an incident almost 10 years ago in 2001. When Mr. Keller’s client applied for citizenship, he was denied citizenship based on this 10-year old incident in which his client plead guilty with another attorney and the charges were later dismissed in 2003 after probation was successfully completed. Even though the client had no conviction for VOFP on his record, his previous guilty plea alone was enough to cause ICE (successor agency to INS) to deny the client citizenship and a renewal of his green card! As a result, Mr. Keller filed a Motion to Withdraw the Guilty Plea, got a Ramsey County Criminal Judge to schedule a hearing within less than a week of Keller Law Office’s filing the Motion, and subsequently got the Ramsey County Criminal Court to grant his Motion to Withdraw his client’s Guilty Plea, and then convince the St. Paul City Attorney’s Office to Dismiss the revived criminal charge against his client. Thus there was nothing left on his client’s record whatsoever. The client and his American born wife were extremely happy and were no ready for the Client to renew his citizenship application and become a U.S. Citizen so that he could continue his career in art and teaching art to young people.

