But out of the 3 articles on me, 2 gave the same wrong age, and 1 gave the right age.

There was only 1 court reporter. How could he ever get the age wrong?

What are the options for who got what wrong, and does this mean the courts might have faulty info? What does that mean for the criminal record?

Note that I happen to look closer to the wrong age (out of the 2 ages ever printed), but why would a court reporter guess?

What court reporters do is to quickly re-draft the same story to sell to multiple news outlets - he has simply made a mistake. If it is on the web, no-doubt someone will pick up on the error soon enough and it will be amended.

Because journalists are lazy and newspapers are prone to transcription errors. Unless you were both 17 and 18, and the court thought you were 17, then it has no bearing on your criminal record I would have thought.

The strange thing is though, that the incorrect age produced was 28 - and I truly look 28.

The correct age produced once, was 32.

I wonder at this. How did they get my age right at all? While still on 2 occasions producing a guess  of 28, which is not even a typographic corruption of 32?

It seems to me that if there is one court reporter he must either know my age is 32, or else guess my age based n appearance. how did both happen?

Lazy journalism. Doesn't matter one iota as to your criminal record. The court will have the correct information. If anything, is makes it better, as if anyone ever finds that article with the wrong age in (as long as there is no picture of you), you can tell them that must be someone else as the age doesn't match.