Out of Gas

[dz1rfj]

Living in Virginia.

Over 20 year ago I was arrested while with a firend in UPSTATE NY. He pulled over, and ran out to siphon gas. Being a guest in the area, with no car, I remained behind, the owners came out and found me, not him. I was arrested, out on bail. WHne appeared as requested, the judge asked if I had a lawyer, I said no. Judge said, get one and reappear when requested.

I never got another communication from the court, clerk, or judge.

A recent employment backround check produced a POSSIBLE record in NY. The cour was the very same courthouse.

Has this job application opened a can of worms? What law applies here? From the job perspective, I did not lie, as I was NEVER convicted, and it was aover 7 years ago.

Any advice would be great!

Warm Regards,

Out of Gas

 

[seniorjudge]

Living in Virginia.

Over 20 year ago I was arrested while with a firend in UPSTATE NY. He pulled over, and ran out to siphon gas. Being a guest in the area, with no car, I remained behind, the owners came out and found me, not him. I was arrested, out on bail. WHne appeared as requested, the judge asked if I had a lawyer, I said no. Judge said, get one and reappear when requested.

I never got another communication from the court, clerk, or judge.

A recent employment backround check produced a POSSIBLE record in NY. The cour was the very same courthouse.

Has this job application opened a can of worms? What law applies here? From the job perspective, I did not lie, as I was NEVER convicted, and it was aover 7 years ago.

Any advice would be great!

Warm Regards,

Out of Gas

Standard answer on statute of limitations:

There are thousands of posts similar to yours on this forum, so I have prepared a standard answer. Use what is helpful; disregard the rest.

The statutes on limitations is, among other things, a statute telling the government how long it has to file a criminal charge. It stops running the day the charge is filed.

This is not a game of tag where, if you can keep from getting caught, you are home free.

Some states and jurisdictions will pull old warrants after awhile; some states and jurisdictions keep warrants active forever.

My best advice: surrender.


Stand by for other opinions.

 

[rlrl]

It depends...

on a few factors. If the court issued you a warrant 20 years ago:

If the FBI fingerprinted you your warrant would show up on the background check

If NY state fingerprinted you your warrant would show up on the background check

If a private employer ran a background check directly through the NY state office of Court Administration(OCA) they might see your warrant issued or your arrest pending.

if an employer got the record via a Consumer Reporting agency, the reporting agency would be bound by certain rules.If say the reporting agency reported the record to an employer in Va.(which uses the federal FCRA law) the arrest or other adverse information could be reported for up to 7 years from the date of arrest. If you were convicted then the record could be reported indefinitely (but you say you were never convicted). if you can be expected to earn more than $75,000 per year than the rules don't apply

NY employers go by the NY version of the FCRA. if there was a criminal conviction, then any arrest information is permitted to show up in the Consumer Report. A pending charge is also permitted to be reported. The conviction is allowed to be reported for 7 years. However if the consumer can be expected to be earning $25,000 or more on the job, then the 7 year rules don't apply.

Hope this helps

 

[dz1rfj]

RLRL - Thanks for the info

The county/village DID fingerprint me. The judge was pretty specific when I returned for the 1st date, I was to come back with an attorney. He told me I would receive a court date in the mail. I almsot got the impression he was too busy to deal with my case, and it went away, as I never heard a thing again.

The local county clerk is locating (after 20 years) the file, to provide the status to the backround screening company. NYS takes a LONG time to get to these types of tasks completed. My divorce took over a yearin suffolk county NY.

Would I have a warrant all these years, and not even know it? After small traffic stops in NY and TX? Woudl I be granted access to the NSA in 1997 if this was not dropped?

Lexis nexis shows no records.. Is there a fee based access to the OCA that shows status I could access? Depending on the status? How would you recommend I proceed? I would expect to earn $30,000 in 2006, and $70,000 in 2007.

Thanks again!

 

[dz1rfj]

Senior Judge

Thanks for the reply!

I did not hide or run from the court date. I showed up, without an attorney. The judge seemed too busy for my case. He told me I would receive notification in the mail of a new court date.

I never heard a word. I had since been stoped for minor traffic in NY and TX. If a warrant was issued for not showing up again, why did I not get served? If a warrant was not issued, that goes along with my thoughts that the judge never followed - up/ dropped it, and that is why there was no warrant found during a traffic stop.

How do I acess the OCA for a status...WHen you say surrender, I see nothign to surrender for. If a collection company can find me, I assume the police could too if they were looking for me, right? The IRS knows where I live, the phone companies, etc,etc. With no news from that court ever again, what would you have concluded, as a 19 year old?

Respectfully,

re-living the 80's

 

[rlrl]

Contact OCA

You can get an application online from the OCA. I don't remember the web address so do a google search by entering in "NY state office of court administration criminal history check". Once on the site print out the application and write your name dob in the spaces provided. It will cost you $52. Send to the NY State office of Court Administration, Office of Administrative Svce, Criminal history Search, 25 beaver Street(rm 840 front chamber), New York NY 212-428-2810.

You may want to call them first to double check that the county you are searching will be on this database.

You have to enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope to get the results

 

[rlrl]

The OCA...

only reports matters of public record from the courts. They report to the public , employers and to background reporting companies. The OCA on it's own doesn't have anything to do with how much money you will be making. if the employer used a background reporting company then the reporting company is the one that would decide if they should/shouldn't report it based on your salary

if the employer used a background agency, then you can ask for a copy of what info was included in your report. if they didn't use a company and did the check on it's own you can't go this route

it's hard to describe it's kind of complicated...