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Expungement Denied even after formal dismissal of charges

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Lostinlegalese

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia

Ok, this started back in a Spring 1997 ninth grade classroom when an African American student didn't like a progress report. They came up argued very loudly in my face and were then pulled away by friends just before the bell rang.

She and the same friends later fabricated a story in after-school-ROTC and claimed that I pushed the student and called them a jackass. The student took the story to the principal.

The principal called me in, I denied the accusations, and then a school investigation pursued.

The principal got written (unsworn) statements from every student in my class. After two weeks I was given a letter indicating the investigation was “inconclusive” and that no negative consequences were to be applied to me. (I later read the statements and only the 4 who were in ROTC together concurred…..the rest said nothing happened.)

The next day the police chief for the school district came in after school and said the mother did not like the investigation and chose to swear out a warrant for my arrest on simple battery charges.

After the arresting procedure on the following Monday, I went to recorder's court about a month and a half later. I subpoenaed ALL of my students before to which the principal warned me something would be placed in my record. My attorney set her straight on my rights to defend myself.

At recorder’s court, the accusing student made the statement, arguably giving the judge probable cause. She presented no witnesses on her side. I presented two compelling witnesses on my side, one a classroom student and another 11th grader who just happened to view the whole interaction when they stopped by the classroom door in the hallway during the commotion. The 11th grader observed the point at which the student left her desk to confront me and finally dragged away from my face.

Asked to demonstrate the push, it was really ridiculous......she ever so slightly nudged her mother on the right shoulder.

Not compelled to consider the validity of statements at recorder's court, the judge passed the case to state trial.

I waited until October when my attorney called me and told me I could move on with my life. He told me the DA's office decided to close the case by putting it on the dead docket. He informed me at the time that it was a form of dismissal.

Roll the clock forward...... I learned “dead docket” was indeed not a form of dismissal sometime in the early 2000s as the information age blossomed further. I further learned that it is an often used decision in Georgia to help avoid falsely accused defendants from suing the jurisdictions.

In 2006, I forwarded an expungement request through the school board police so that they could pass it to the DA’s office. (I actually never learned of a response until June 2009.) At the same time in 2006, I'd gotten a decent academic job and my ego said, "Screw them!"

Well, this past summer I set myself on a mission to get this expungement again. I went to the school board police captain and she said she had information on me from a previous request, the one in 2006. The request in 2006 had been denied with the stated reason being "the case is on the dead docket."

The captain directed me to the DA’s office where I was told the case would have to be made live again. Someone actually implied that I could end up being found guilty. I thought that was a joke and requested for my case to go to trial. That was sometime in June 2009.

My case went before the court in September 2009. The judge asked both the DAs and myself if either of us had an "accusation" to which both sides said no.

After spending some time jumping between two computer screens (probably trying to find any kind of criminal background on me on the internet), the judge made the decision to take the case off the dead docket and formally dismissed the charges.

Within two weeks I submitted another expungement request.

Just over the required two month response time I just learned that the expungement request was again denied pursuit to Georgia State Expungement statutes.

This is total BS! A case built on the lies of 15 year old teens running an asylum! At the same time, it is in a racially sectored city.

I am Caucasian, the accuser African American. At recorder's court, the judge was African American and there were politically sensitive people (as in NAACP) in the courtroom. Obviously he didn't have the wisdom of a true judge to simply quash the case in the first place.

The judge who later placed the case on the dead docket in 1997 was also African American. My attorney told me this past year that placing the case on the dead docket at the time was all the DA’s office was willing to do. I note that I have always denied ever touching that student or calling her any names. Being that my attorney covered my case on a pro bono basis, I imagine he accepted the “dead docket” as a happy medium**************he just didn't understand the consequences it has caused his client when filling out employment applications that now ask for both arrest history and whether such arrests ever involved juveniles.

The current DA in this city is African American and it is my contention that I am being discriminated against once again in this meritless case so that the county and the school board can continue to hide behind the very transparent screen they have continued to project for over a decade now.

I further note that in 1997 my contract was not renewed. When I applied for unemployment, the school board tried to deny my unemployment rights and supplied two arguments in writing for their decision: (1) failure to control discipline in the classroom, and (2) “policy violation of touching students.” (Quite honestly they made me begin to feel like some pervert.)

My criminal case was dead docketed just before my unemployment appeal case was heard at the Georgia Department of Labor. At the DOL hearing the only argument presented by the school board for not renewing my contract was failure to control discipline in the classroom. When I tried to ask why they'd written down the "policy violation of touching students" they acted clueless, said nothing, and looked directly at the DOL hearing officer. The DOL hearing officer said he would only rule on what they presented during that hearing, nothing else.

I responded to the classroom discipline matter with a big stack of referrals that related to students who were never punished for some of the most outlandish behavior imaginable. At one point, the DOL hearing officer simply asked the assistant principal, "Are you likely to respond in the same fashion to the rest of the stack of referrals he has?" The assistant principal answered affirmatively**************.....and I was later awarded my unemployment insurance rights.

This is a politically and racially motivated scheme that I want unraveled, if possible. For certainty I should not have to remain a "legally marked" person for the lies of juveniles that were never substantiated in a court of law. It’s corruption for adults to keep hiding behind a screen of legal jumbo.

One fact that I could previously pull up online was a motion by my attorney to suppress evidence, presumably the hand-written unsworn statements the students had supplied the principal with. I was under the impression that had the case gone to trial they would have needed to provide sworn statements to be used against me. Could the motion to suppress the evidence now be viewed as barring the government from material evidence? Could that view lead a DA to deny an expungement request in GA??

What can I do to remove this politically and racially motivated screen of deception?****************************..Thank you very much in advance for your advice.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 
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ecmst12

Senior Member
I see absolutely ZERO evidence that race has anything to do with it. I'm certain it is NOT recorded in the court docket or any of the other information, the race of the accuser.
 
I wouldn't hold your breath on the race thing. Even if in your locale your race is the minority, you are not generally considered a "protected class".

As for the expungement, it is not a right. The courts can decide, regardless of the outcome, to not expunge the record.
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
I wouldn't hold your breath on the race thing. Even if in your locale your race is the minority, you are not generally considered a "protected class".

As for the expungement, it is not a right. The courts can decide, regardless of the outcome, to not expunge the record.
Oh really? Which race do you have to be to be considered "protected"?
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
All races are equally protected. It does not matter whether one is in the minority or the majority, in most areas of life, discrimination on the basis of race is illegal. HOWEVER, there is no evidence that race was any kind of a factor here at all.
 

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