Late one night, one of my sons was picked up by police in the
parking lot at a Wal-Mart in downtown Atlanta. Video cameras
showed he was with a group of young people who “forgot” to pay
as they strolled out of the store with a cart full of camping
equipment.
He was waiting at the car for his friends to finish shopping
and claimed he had no idea they didn’t intend to pay for their
goods. Police arrested the entire group, leaving it up to the
courts to sort the innocent from the guilty. After a frantic
middle of the night phone call where he INSISTED he was innocent
of shoplifting, we bailed him out of jail with $1,500 in cash,
and about a month later the case was heard by a judge and the
charges against him were dismissed.
Despite the fact that he was never charged with a crime, his
mug shot from the Fulton County Jail lives on forever and it’s
the first thing that pops up when a potential employer does a
Google search. Ouch! That’s when we discovered the convoluted
and difficult process of getting a record expunged. Not everyone
is eligible for expungement, but it’s worth the time and effort.
This kind of thing can haunt you the rest of your life as you
apply for jobs, ask for financial aid or fill out a rental
agreement.
Seems like double jeopardy for the person involved.
OK, so here’s the state’s attitude in these kinds of matters:
We’re going to arrest you for a crime we think you
committed. When the judge finds out you really didn’t commit a
crime, you’re let go without even an apology, despite the fact
you were treated like a criminal when they handcuffed you,
transported you in the back of a cop car to a jail where they
strip-searched, finger-printed and then threw you in a jail cell
with a couple hundred of Atlanta’s scariest individuals.
In a lot of cases people wanting to expunge their records
have to hire an attorney to work through the legal system. A lot
of people can’t afford this, so they turn to agencies such as
the Georgia Justice Project that helped more than 600 people
last year navigate the current clunky system to have their
records expunged from the public records.
According to the Georgia Code, the person who’s the subject
of the records must request the expungement. Since our son was
arrested these are the steps he needs to follow to get his
record back to the pristine condition it was in before this
interlude with the criminal justice system:
In the case of a person arrested and not convicted, they may
make a written request for expungement to the original agency
having jurisdiction in the case. Upon receipt of the written
request, the agency shall provide a copy of the request to the
proper prosecuting attorney. The prosecuting attorney will then
review the request to determine if it meets the criteria for
expungement. If the request meets those criteria, the
prosecuting attorney will then review the records of the arrest
to determine if any of the material must be preserved in order
to protect the constitutional rights of an accused. If the
agency declines to expunge the arrest record, the individual may
file an action in the superior court where the agency is
located.
I don’t know about you but I think the whole entire process
would work so very much better if they’d just automatically
expunge the records of people whose cases are dismissed. Does
this system seem fair to you? Georgia state Rep. Jay Neal
plans to introduce a bill in the 2012 state legislative session
which would automatically restrict public access to records of
any arrest or criminal charges that didn’t result in a
conviction. It all makes total sense to me.
My boy is not the only one in Georgia this has happened to,
and Georgia isn’t the only place where this kind of thing
happens. It turns out, that in other parts of the country; you
are guilty after proven innocent.
Here are some thoughts from a Kentucky attorney named Julie
Kaelin who knows a thing of two about the issue, having worked
in the Louisville public defender’s office for years:
“The only answer (in my humble opinion) is to
have a way of truly segregating records in a manner that allows
a person to move on with his or her life, but allows for access
to and knowledge of the conviction by the defendant, the clerks,
prosecutors, and judges. I have no easy answer to that, as it
doesn’t make much sense to charge the person money who has had
the case against them dropped… What does make sense is helping
people get their foot in the door—not tripping them on their way
in. Remember, I’m not talking about people who have long
criminal records or even just two offenses in their past. This
is for the mom who thought she could get to the bank in time to
cover a check, or the kid who was in the back seat of a car he
didn’t know was stolen. I don’t feel the need to ban them from
productive society….”
She makes so much sense. Now if the Georgia Legislature can
just show as much wisdom.
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