Being kept out of service

[el_zool]

What is the name of your state? Washington

I need some help, please. Five years ago, as a juvenile, I plead guilty to five misdemeanor charges. Today, those charges are keeping me from serving in the military. My recruiter has told me that the only way to serve would be to have one or more of those charges dropped completely from my record. Apparently, the fact that they're sealed is immatterial. If anyone knows of any way that this can be accomplished, I would most sincerely appreciate the assistance. Thank you.

[dallas702]

If you were convicted of those charges there's no way to "drop" them. Sealed juvenile records....especially misdemeanors....shouldn't ordinarily exclude you from military service, but apparently the infractions you committed were serious enough for them to be concerned.

Care to list the charges?

[el_zool]

The seriousness of the charges is irrelevant, I'm told, as they're all misdemeanors; it's a matter of the number of charges. But for clarity's sake...

1 ct possession stolen property 3'
1 ct attempted possession stolen property 2'
2 cts vehicle prowl 2'
1 ct attempted vehicle prowl 2'

And by state law, sealed records are confidential and they SHOULDN'T be able to use them to determine my eligibilty, but apparently they can, according to a number of sources inside the US Army.

It just really sucks that on one day when I was 17, I made one mistake which will now keep me out of the military which will in turn keep me out of federal law enforcement. Because so far, I haven't heard of any way that this can be accomplished.

[fozzy2]

The applicable regulations appear to be found in AR 601-210 (for the army, at least). It appears that your record has been deemed "serious criminal misconduct." Even misdemeanors can count as such - because laws and applications vary so much from jurisdiction to jurisdiction the military often makes its own rough analysis of the severity of the crime. There are lists of representative charges in the regulation, and many become "serious" if over $500 was involved or if you were fined over $500, etc. etc. even if charged as misdemeanors.

At any rate, if the Army has determined that you have a record of "serious criminal misconduct" then you will need a waiver from CG USAREC to enlist. I.E. the general in charge of the recruiting command. To get that you need to convince the recruiter that it is worth their effort to help you submit a waiver package. According to the regulation you can not begin the waiver process until at least 6 months after your last conviction --- but count on waiting longer. Normally the military will want to see *years* (note plural) of clean living before it will give you a waiver. They don't just hand these out. Quite on the contrary, they are an exception.
You may need to put a few more years between your convictions and you before you try to enlist. Just make certain you stay out of trouble and try to do something productive, like work and/or go to school.

Those records, by the way, are not "sealed" from the U.S. government. You don't think they'd admit to doing something illegal, do you?

[el_zool]

It has been over five years since the first and only time I ever got in trouble with the law. However, according to the two recruiters I spoke to, there is no provision allowing me to serve currently. After doing some digging, my recruiter found that with five charges on my juvenile record, there is only one chance for a waiver being approved, and that would be five consecutive years without legal trouble since my original incident(AR 601-210, 4-24, p, 2). I told the recruiter that the closest I've come to legal touble is a single speeding ticket about four years ago. He said that counts and would nullify any waiver request, but the other recruiter I spoke to wasn't sure about that. Anyone have any insight here? I can't seem to find the specific subsection of the aforementioned recruiting guidelines that deals with this eventuality. Thanks.