Arrest Records for Graham County, Kansas

If you have a name and need to know what Graham County’s court system shows for it, the records live in two distinct places: the district court files held by Graham County District Court Clerk Tiffany Breinig at the Graham County Courthouse, 410 N Pomeroy Ave., Suite 9, Hill City, KS 67642, and the Kansas Judicial Branch’s CaseSearch statewide portal, which lets you search district court cases online at no charge. Graham County sits in the 17th Judicial District alongside Decatur, Norton, Osborne, Phillips, and Smith counties. For arrests that led to state prison time, the Kansas Department of Corrections maintains a separate historical offender lookup. The Clerk’s records-request fee is not published online — call to confirm before submitting a written request.

If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Graham County inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.

If you need records outside Graham County

A nationwide database search may surface records that Graham County’s local portals cannot show. Cases filed before the district court joined the Kansas eCourt system, records from other states where the person has lived, and federal charges never appear in CaseSearch. A preliminary scan through the tool below is free; a full report requires creating an account.

Sponsored: Nationwide Criminal Background Check (we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you).

This tool is not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and may not be used to screen anyone for employment, housing, credit, or any other purpose covered by that law.

How to look up arrest records in Graham County

Tiffany Breinig’s office at the Graham County Courthouse, 410 N Pomeroy Ave., Suite 9, Hill City, KS 67642, is the physical home of Graham County District Court case files. Call ahead before visiting — hours and services can change without notice, and the Courthouse observes Kansas state holidays. The Clerk’s records-request fee is not posted online; ask when you call to confirm the current amount and acceptable payment methods.

For online access, the Kansas Judicial Branch’s CaseSearch covers district court cases statewide at no charge. It does not cover municipal court cases, and records are only available online from the date each court joined the eCourt system. Older case documents may exist only on the courthouse terminal in Hill City. Before searching, review the CaseSearch user agreement — it governs how results may be used. The Kansas Judicial Branch also publishes guidance on requesting court records that explains what the portal shows versus what requires a formal written request.

To request records in writing, download the Kansas Open Records Act request form from the Kansas Judicial Branch and mail or deliver it to the Clerk’s office at the address above. Under the Kansas Open Records Act, an agency must act on a public-records request as soon as possible and no later than the end of the third business day after receiving it — acting on it can mean explaining a delay and naming the earliest date the record will be ready, not necessarily delivering the record itself within that window.

For arrests that resulted in state custody, the Kansas Department of Corrections maintains the KASPER offender search. KASPER is a historical record of people who have been released or discharged from state custody — it does not show who is currently incarcerated. For current county jail custody, contact the Graham County Sheriff’s Office directly; the Sheriff’s Office phone number is listed on the Graham County departments page.

City ordinance violations — lower-level charges handled by municipal courts in Hill City or other Graham County municipalities — do not appear in CaseSearch at all. Those records are held by the relevant municipal court. If the arrest you’re researching involved a city ordinance charge, contact the city directly to ask about its records process.

Graham County is part of the 17th Judicial District, which also serves Decatur, Norton, Osborne, Phillips, and Smith counties. District Judge Jessie Thompson and Magistrate Judge Morgan Zeigler serve Graham County. If a case was appealed, the Kansas Judicial Branch’s appellate court records search covers Court of Appeals and Supreme Court decisions.

Are Graham County arrest records public?

What does Kansas law actually require agencies to release — and what can they withhold? The Kansas Open Records Act, K.S.A. 45-215 et seq., establishes a default-public rule: government records are open unless a specific statutory exception applies. Jail booking rosters and police blotter entries are open records in Graham County. An agency may withhold booking photos and other investigation records at its discretion — call the Graham County Sheriff’s Office to ask about its current practice on booking photo releases.

Sealed and expunged records are the clearest exception to the default-public rule. Once a Graham County District Court judge grants an expungement under K.S.A. 21-6614, the record is removed from public view. CaseSearch will not show it, and the Clerk’s office will not confirm it exists in response to a public inquiry. Law enforcement agencies retain access, but the general public does not.

Juvenile records carry their own protection. Cases adjudicated in juvenile court are not public records and do not appear in CaseSearch. A person who was arrested as a juvenile and whose case was handled in juvenile court will not have a publicly visible Graham County arrest record from that proceeding.

Victim-protection redactions create a narrower but important exception. When a court determines that releasing certain identifying details would endanger a victim — in cases involving domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, for example — those specific fields can be redacted from the public version of the record. The case itself remains visible; only the protected information is removed. No specific case needs to be named here to illustrate the rule: it applies whenever a Graham County judge makes that finding.

Records involving ongoing investigations may also be withheld temporarily. An arrest that has not yet resulted in charges being filed, or where the investigation is active, may not appear in court records at all — because no case has been docketed yet. The Sheriff’s booking record may exist while the court record does not.

What’s in a Graham County arrest record?

A Graham County arrest record typically contains entries from two separate systems that capture different moments in the same case. Understanding which system holds which fields saves time when you’re looking for a specific piece of information.

On the Sheriff’s side, a booking entry — created when someone is processed into the Graham County jail — includes the person’s name, date of birth, booking date and time, the arresting agency, and the charge or charges as they were written at the time of arrest. The charge description at booking reflects what the arresting officer documented; it may differ from what the prosecutor ultimately files in court. Booking entries are open records in Kansas. Whether the Graham County Sheriff’s Office publishes a live online roster is not confirmed in published documentation — call the Sheriff’s Office to ask about current availability.

On the court side, the Graham County District Court docket — accessible through the Kansas Judicial Branch’s CaseSearch — shows what happened after charges were filed. The docket entry for a case includes the case number, the filed charges (which may differ from the booking charges), the names of the attorneys of record, scheduled hearing dates, and the disposition. The disposition is the official outcome of the case: guilty plea, not guilty verdict, dismissal, diversion, or another resolution. It appears as a docket entry once the case closes, and it is the field that matters most for background-check purposes.

At the Graham County Courthouse, 410 N Pomeroy Ave., Suite 9, Hill City, KS 67642, Clerk Tiffany Breinig’s office holds the physical case file. That file may contain documents not visible in CaseSearch — charging documents, motions, plea agreements, and sentencing orders. Older cases, predating the court’s entry into the Kansas eCourt system, exist only in paper form at the courthouse.

For cases that resulted in state prison time, the Kansas Department of Corrections KASPER database may show the person’s name, offense, sentence, and discharge status. KASPER reflects the corrections record, not the court record — the two may describe the same conviction differently.

Booking photos are a separate question. Kansas law allows agencies to withhold them at their discretion. Whether a Graham County arrest record contains a viewable booking photo depends on the Sheriff’s Office release policy; call the office directly to ask.

How to expunge an arrest record in Graham County

After a sentence is fully satisfied — probation discharged, supervision ended, fines paid — the clock starts on eligibility to petition for expungement under K.S.A. 21-6614. The waiting period runs from that end date, never from the arrest date or the conviction date itself.

For most misdemeanors, traffic infractions, and lower-level felonies, the general route requires at least three years to pass after the sentence was satisfied or supervision ended. A diversion agreement — where charges are held in abeyance pending completion of conditions — can be expunged three or more years after its terms were fulfilled. Class A, B, and C felonies and other serious offenses on the statute’s list require at least five years after the sentence was satisfied or supervision ended; the three-year route does not apply to them.

Drunk-driving cases follow their own track. A first DUI conviction or diversion requires at least five years after the sentence or diversion was satisfied. A second or later DUI conviction generally requires at least ten years, but the statute carves out violations committed between July 1, 2014 and July 1, 2015 — the ten-year rule depends on the date of the offense. No drunk-driving case qualifies for the standard three-year route.

Arrests that did not result in a conviction — charges dismissed, case never filed, acquittal at trial — have their own path and often move more quickly. Juvenile records can be expunged once the person has reached age twenty-three or two years have passed since final discharge, provided no later conviction or adjudication bars it. City ordinance convictions and diversions are cleared in municipal court on the same three-year general route, measured from satisfying the sentence or fulfilling the diversion.

At the hearing, the court must also find that the person has not been convicted of a felony in the past two years. That is a look-back at the time of the hearing — it is not an additional waiting period. A defined list of serious offenses can never be expunged under Kansas law. Nothing can be expunged while a person is required to register under the Kansas Offender Registration Act.

To petition, file in the Graham County District Court — the same court that handled the original case, docketed in the original criminal case number. The Kansas Judicial Branch’s court records guidance page can help you identify the correct case number. The filing fee is set by statute; ask Clerk Tiffany Breinig’s office at the Graham County Courthouse for the current amount. If you cannot afford the fee, ask the Clerk about the indigency waiver process.

You can file the petition yourself without an attorney. The Kansas Bar Association’s client referral service and the Kansas Board of Indigents’ Defense Services locator can help you find legal assistance if you want it. Once a Graham County judge grants the expungement, the order goes to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which notifies the FBI and other agencies. Law enforcement retains access to the sealed record; the public does not.

Quick contacts for Graham County arrest records

Frequently asked questions about Graham County arrest records

What does a bond hearing look like in Graham County, and how is the amount set?

At a first appearance before a Graham County District Court judge or magistrate, the court reviews the charges and sets an appearance bond. The judge may require cash or sureties, or release the person on their own recognizance. Unless the magistrate makes a specific finding otherwise, a bond for a felony or misdemeanor against a person carries a condition of no contact with the alleged victim for at least seventy-two hours — but the magistrate can order otherwise. The bond amount is set case by case; Kansas law does not publish a fixed schedule, and this article does not publish bond amounts. To find out whether a bond has been set in a specific Graham County case, search the case in Kansas Courts CaseSearch or contact Clerk Tiffany Breinig’s office at the Graham County Courthouse, 410 N Pomeroy Ave., Suite 9, Hill City, KS 67642.

How do I get a Graham County arrest record expunged?

Petitioning to seal an arrest record in Graham County is a routine legal procedure filed in the same district court that handled the original case. Under K.S.A. 21-6614, most misdemeanor and lower-felony convictions become eligible three or more years after the sentence is fully satisfied or supervision ends. Class A, B, and C felonies require five or more years. Arrests that did not result in a conviction often qualify on a shorter timeline. File the petition with Clerk Tiffany Breinig at the Graham County Courthouse; ask the Clerk’s office about the current filing fee and whether an indigency waiver is available. The Kansas Bar Association client referral service at ksbar.org can help you find an attorney if you want one, but self-filing is permitted. Once the judge grants the expungement, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation removes the record from public databases and notifies the FBI.