youthful offender status and job applications

[?teacher?]

my name is brian and my state is New York. When i was 17, 10 years ago, i was arrested and convicted of criminal possession of stolen property. a friend of mine and i were drunk one night at the start of college and we stole a couple of plastic signs off of businesses. we met with the DA in this small college town and he said that since i was only 17 he was going to process this as youthful offender status so that the file would be sealed. my question is, i have not been in trouble with the law since but now its 10 years later and im a certified teacher in ny but im applying for jobs. on the application it asks if youve ever been convicted of a crime and if so what is the situation. my question is, do i have to report that ive been convicted of a crime if the file is sealed and it was a youthful offender status. i dont want this incident 10 years ago to prevent me from getting a job. please help. also, if this is not the proper place to post, please tell me where.

 

[?teacher?]

any help or suggestions? i vaguely remember when this happened that they were going to discard my fingerprints and remove everything if i did not get into trouble for 6 months. something like that..please help

 

[magic55]

No. For the schools background check purposes, your youth record should have bveen completely erased.

 

[Ohiogal]

Magic55, be very very quiet.
You are wrong.
If you are asked if you have ever been convicted or found guilty of a crime you have to disclose but you also state that as a juvenile you were stupid and did yadda yadda yadda and it was sealed to your knowledge since you haven't been in trouble.
You have to disclose because if they find out you lied (which is possible if the record wasn't actually sealed) then you can be fired and then try to explain why you were fired.

 

[magic55]

No you are wrong, he dosent have to disclose it. But if it wasnt sealed then he is just SOL. He should check and see if his record was infact sealed.

 

[CdwJava]

It will likely depend on whether the offender was tried as an adult or not. If tried as a juvenile, then the result was likely NOT a conviction, but a "true finding" (or similar terminology. In my state this would not need to be disclosed for a teaching position. But, NY may have a different take on this.

Here's a link to start searching ...

http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/ospra/dueprocess.htm#3

- Carl

 

[?teacher?]

thanks for the posts. carl, i didnt realize that was on their site. my next question is, what is the easiest way to find out what is on my record. other than of course what the fbi wants which is a copy of my fingerprints and a 10 week delay for them to process this.

 

[CdwJava]

Check here to get info on how to review your state criminal offender record:

http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/ojis/recordreview.htm

- Carl

 

[?teacher?]

thanks for the help. there is that ridiculous 50 dollar fee for getting a piece of paper. still requires the fingerprint card to be completed. i guess those are my options. thank you for all the help.

do you think it would help to contact the district attorneys office who prosecuted me to find out what they normally do under those circumstances or to see if they could pull up my file to find out what they did in my particular case?

 

[magic55]

Well he will tell you the same thing if you were charges as a minor, but he most likely wont pull up your record. Even if so I advise you to pay the $50 and run a background check on yourself to make sure that it isn fact sealed, then you will have no worries.