How A Washington Expungement Can Work for You
I just heard from a former client who received an expungement last summer.
His original case - we did not handle it or it would have had a different outcome - went like this: late night, popular bar, guy reputed to be a sex offender of some kind was hassling our client's (we'll call him Stan) friends, words were exchanged, Stan punched the guy, got up and left the bar, the guy and a friend of his trailed him outside, made some kind of 'move' toward Stan, Stan sprays mace at them and walks away. A police officer comes by seconds later, guy makes complaint, Stan is picked up walking a street over and arrested. The guy refused medical assistance.
Stan was charged with Assault 3ʳᵈ. The reason? The local prosecutor had recently handled the murder of a sex offender and vowed to stomp down on ‘vigilantism.’ Stan’s timing was awful. He (college student) had a court appointed attorney with no criminal defense history (he was trying ‘something new’). Stan had no previous record but an erroneous DUI was reported during the sentencing -when he pointed out that he never been arrested before, his lawyer responded "Well, it wouldn't make a big difference anyway.”
Stan served 26 days in county jail and a year on probation.
He came to us as soon as he was eligible for an expungement. This time, he said, he was taking no chances and hiring a criminal defense attorney who “had done this before” to handle what he considered to be one of the most important matters of his young life.
Even though he currently lives over twenty-one hundred miles from Seattle, Stan hit the phone and email and tracked down everything we needed to begin the process including his Certificate of Discharge.
He was patient while we hit some delays – his sentencing court is infamous for moving slowly – very slowly – on expungement applications, something we explained to Stan going in. It took about six months before it went through. Great day for Stan because he had career plans that would have been made extremely complicated if he had to explain the conviction. We advised that he wait to do anything for 6-8 weeks, the average amount of time it takes the FBI to delete its records.
Two months later, it was time for Stan to move ahead with his plans. But . . . he hesitated. After his previous experience with the criminal justice system he had a tough time accepting that his case was 'gone.’ He saw ‘screw ups’ around every corner, imagining the case ‘popping up’ at the worst possible moment. He hesitated to fill out the application for his 'dream occupation' as well as his 'this job will tide me while I take classes’ substitute teacher’s application.
He made it worse when he made the mistake we all make when we’re nervous about a serious issue: he checked the internet late one evening. Where he was greeted with horror story after horror story about expunged/vacated conviction disasters that to the trained eye were all missing a key piece of information - like "By the way, I was also arrested in Utah for . . ."
Stan finally. Nervously, filled out those applications.
His substitute teacher's application at one the largest school systems in the U.S. sailed through, he was interviewed last Thursday and starts next week.
His' dream career' application had to go through the Department of Homeland Security. No issues, his certification was approved in two weeks, he’s been taking classes – each one requires a background check – for the last month.
He’s a believer now – it really works,
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425-300-5566