CHL App - Criminal History Help - Expungment

[theyeti]

Greetings,

I am having a hard time with my CHL app and need some help and/or advice. Question 17 on the app asks for ANY criminal history along with the details and disposition of any charges. Well, in 1998 (as a freshman in college) I was arrested for Public Intox, Minor in Poss, and fake ID. I was taken to the city jail in Austin and was charged. However, the PI was dropped. They threatened a felony charge for the fake ID (tampering with a govt document), but it was reduced to a low level misdemeanor (prob a class C). I can't remember the final outcome and what my plea was for the charges as my attorney handled everything. (I tried hard to forget the experience.) Unfortunately, the law firm that handled it does not keep records from that long ago and I could not find anything in my own files. So, I do not know the disposition of these charges, technically. I believe I had probabtion and community service. Later that year, I received another ticket for an MIP (Class C Misdemeanor) in Gillespie County, but was not arrested. I plead no contest and did my community service.

HOWEVER, all of these charges were shortly thereafter expunged by my attorney and I have not had to deal with all of this in 10 years. In anticipation of my CHL, I knew this might come up so I tried to be prepared. I ordered an official criminal records check last month (did prints and all) from TX DPS and it came back clean. I mean, absolutely nothing. The language on the letter states "I certify that there is no record on file with the search criteria which was supplied, or that I am legally authorized to produce..." I supplied my full name, SSN and DOB.

So, do I put the arrest and subsequent ticket on the CHL app? It would require me to contact the county clerks to get the information, of which they might not even have since it was all expunged. It was my understanding that an expungement means that it never happened and that I am not required to disclose it on typical applications. Since the records check came back clean, it leads me to believe this is the case, but I want to do the right thing for the CHL and I don't want anything to hold up the processing.

Sorry for the long post, but thanks in advance for your advice. I hope that someone out there has some experience with this.

The Yeti

[seamusTX]

Welcome to the forum.

In my opinion, the right thing to do is to list the arrest and get a letter from the clerk of the court in Travis County saying that they have no record of a conviction.

I had a similar situation and it was easily resolved.

- Jim

[Commander Cody]

If it exists, it will be found. List everything and get the affidavits from the County Clerk.

[theyeti]

Thank you for the help. We'll see how it goes with the County Clerks. I just hope that I'm not required to appear in person! I don't live there anymore!

[seamusTX]

You can probably do it online. I had to get records from Chicago, and I didn't need to go there or do anything special. They are public records, except in the case of minors.

- Jim

[theyeti]

It turns out that Travis County shows no record. They even did a search while I was on the phone and could find no records. I asked them what I should do about disclosing it and they said I should ask the agency directly for the application (CHL dept of DPS), but that becuase of the expungement, the records don't exist anymore so they couldn't provide a copy of the disposition because there wasn't one. They could send a letter saying that no records were found, but I already have this from the DPS background search certified letter. Gillespie County has records but they are difficult to obtain as it went throug a Justice of the Peace court. They crank out MIPs in that county like no other.

Update: just got off the phone with the CHL office in Austin. He basically said that I probably didn't need to put any of it on the app, but if I wanted to be safe just in case something came up during the background check that I should probably list the Travis County arrest. Since the clerk could provide no disposition, he recommended that I list the disposition as expunged and say 'see attached' and attached the certified letter from the DPS. The MIP from Gillespie county, he said, did not require disclosure as there was no arrest made. It was merely a citation. I was one of proabably a hundred that day (Willie's 4th of July concert).

So, thanks for the help Jim, the call to CHL office confirmed to list any arrests, even if they were expunged to be on the safe side.

yeti