A little Advice.

[slimmy07]

Expungement.Some states have established procedures for the subsequent "expunging of the record," "dismissal of charges," or "pardon" upon evidence of rehabilitation of the offender. Such action has the legal effect of extinguishing the initial "conviction" or "adverse juvenile adjudication" so that, under state law, the applicant has no record of conviction or adverse juvenile adjudication. In spite of this action, the record must be revealed and a waiver of the applicant's disqualification(s) is required at the proper enlistment decision level.

[slimmy07]

Records ARE kept some where some place. An expunged, sealed record NEVER truly goes away. It may not be available to the public or to certain background agenices, but I guarntee that someone in the county or city in which you committed that felony could obtain some type of record on your crime. Its not like its destroyed forever and it never happened. read my post above, regardless if its sealed or expunged it still NEEDS to be revealed or it possible that you could be discharged for fraudulent enlistment and or face criminal charges.

It's important to note here that federal law requires applicants to divulge ALL criminal history on recruiting applications, including expunged, sealed, or juvenile records. Additionally, in most states, such records are accessible to military investigators, regardless of what you have heard to the contrary.

[Petz]

Both of you are wrong. Maybe it's a case by case, state law by state law basis but I can tell you with 100% certainty that an expunged record is vanished from a persons' record.

I was convicted of a felony in 2000. Did 2 years probation, paid fines, etc. I finished probation and filed a motion with the DA to have the case dismissed. The DA and judge agreed. I then had my arrest record expunged.

A few years later I went to the RS to sign up and told them my whole history. They did a bunch of different bg checks on me and couldn't find ANYTHING. So I was left in a situation where I needed to get a waiver but there was no paperwork available supporting anything I was telling them. Luckily for me my probation officer still had a copy of the court minutes and I was able to use that for my waiver paperwork.

I've also legally purchased probably 10 firearms since then. No wait time, no holds, just paperwork, money, and walking out the door with a gun.

And to top it off, I've been fingerprinted and had my mug taken for a back ground check I had to have to get my Conceal Carry Weapons permit. 5 weeks later my permit was in hand.

My record is completely clean, not even a speeding ticket. In LA records ARE destroyed once expunged. It's actually written into LA's law that the records (fingerprints, court docs, arrest reports, mug shots) will be destroyed and all that shall remain is a paper saying "Person X has been expunged" with no explanation of what they were charged with or what used to be on their record.

So it may vary from state to state, but I can tell you for a fact Louisiana destroys the record. (except for lazy prob officers who don't get the memo)

I would say that this is the exception. It was dismissed which means they dropped the charges. Now if in fact that is what happened there wouldn't be any record of conviction.

EDIT: it might also be harder in LA to get an "expungement" if in fact they do destroy all the records. a history of felonies isn't exactly something you want to expunge. then when he commits it again the judge has no idea what was expunged before so he does it again.

[BR34]

I would say that this is the exception. It was dismissed which means they dropped the charges. Now if in fact that is what happened there wouldn't be any record of conviction.

EDIT: it might also be harder in LA to get an "expungement" if in fact they do destroy all the records. a history of felonies isn't exactly something you want to expunge. then when he commits it again the judge has no idea what was expunged before so he does it again.

The dismissal may be the exception, but I also had a couple smaller things, simple batteries from high school fights, noise ordinances and the like that were erased during the expunge process.