Curious, hope you can help

[wejjer]

Here is the story...

This occurred about 2-3 years ago

After a night out at the bars my roommate and i arrived back home intoxicated. We are good friends, but that night we got in an argument and stupidly got in a physical fight. Apparently there was commotion and one of our neighbors had called the police about it. The police showed up arrested us and fingerprinted us. Our case was brought to family court since we were roommates, we did not need to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, and we were each given a temporary limited restraining order, basically stating that if we threatened each other verbally or physically for a period of time then we could be arrested again and charged with a felony. That wasn't an issue for either of us as i stated earlier we were friends, and we realized we had just acted like drunken idiots that night.

Anyway, we met with the prosecutor, they explained to us since we were friends and have no priors, and it seems it was a one time mistake, they were willing to nolly(sp?) the case if we went to a certain amount of anger management/substance abuse sessions by a certain date and we had no more run ins with the law. We did the sessions, neither of us had had an further legal issues, and the case is now nollied(sp?).

I am now job searching and i might receive an offer from a big firm. From what I heard they do VERY THOROUGH background checks, especially with criminal records.

if they do a background check on me, will they be able to pull my nollied case? What gets nollied, the arrest record? case ? everything, etc?

how is a nollied case different from a sealed case or expunged case?What is the name of your state?

 

[wejjer]

sorry the term was nullity. If you're charge was nullitied, will the actual arrest stay on your record?

 

[CdwJava]

A case that is "no lo" (nolo contendere) is one where you have essentially plead guilty without actually admitting guilt.

You case may have been a deferred entry, or it may not. Unless you have paperwork indicating the matter was dismissed, it is likely still on your state criminal history at least as an arrest.

Whether an employer will find it or not (or whether they can even look for it) depends on your state's laws and specifically what happened to the case.

I would recommend you contact the office of the Attorney General in your state and find out how you can check your own criminal history record, and with what agency you may do this.

- Carl

 

[garrula lingua]

Hi, Carl,
...in some Eastern and many Southern states, a prosecutor will decide to "nolle" a case:
meaning not prosecute.
In most of California, it's similar to a Prosecutor sending a case to an office hearing - it's a 'decline to prosecute'.

OP: the arrest record may be there (unless you were cited to court & were never fingerprinted and photoed).
There won't be a court record.

If there is no arrest record, there shouldn't be any 'public' record (it might show on your rap sheet, which is only accessed by law enforcement).

[definition:
plural nolle prosequis in Anglo-American law, request by a prosecutor in a criminal action that the prosecution of the case cease, either on some or all of the counts or with respect to some or all of the defendants. It usually is used when there is insufficient evidence to ensure successful prosecution or when there has been a settlement between the parties out of court.]

OP, you need to IDENTIFY YOUR STATE when you ask a question.
The law, and procedures, differ between states.
"Nolle" isn't used in California.

 

[wejjer]

thank you for your responses... the state was CT