I did not request anything
I appeared in court and was prepared to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge, the person who had been checking at the DA's office if my name was in the system, had explained to me, that if my name wasn't in the system it meant that the DA had not pressed charges against me. Eventually when my name did show up, the same person told me, you have been charged so you have to appear before the judge. So I did, I did not have an attorney, the judge read the charge, he said, I'm sure now after that fact, that he read that I had been charged with an infraction which was punishable with a fine, he asked me if I could pay it that day. I said yes. Then, because he didn't mentioned anything about the diversion program, I said to him, by paying this fine, does this mean that I now have a conviction on my record? That's when he said to me, you were not charged with a misdemeanor, but with an infraction; he used some legal term that I didn't understand, but my take on it was that he said the infraction did not have the consequences of the misdemeanor. He warned me about any future problems, he said, if you do commit another violation the DA will look at this infraction and may decide to charge you with a misdemeanor.
What I need to understand is, what's on my record now?
