Potential legal discrepancy?

[waityouresmart]

Good news: I've just been accepted!
Background : I was cited a couple years ago for underage drinking, which was all dropped in a day or so and nothing ever came of it. My lawyer assured me it was taken care of, that it was not an arrest, and I could put no on all the forms when asked about criminal background. Excellent.

Now, beginning to look at signing up for the required background check, and searched my name, just because, in the county where the offense occurred. "Abandoned" notice to appear with my name on it. ....... ..

So then I check the school's secondary where I was accepted to, and see that it asked if I had ever been arrested. I had checked NO as per my knowledge and my lawyers written statement that says "...was not an arrest..." I'm currently panicking that this is going to come up in the background check now as an arrest . It's public record for God's sake. So I decided to let the school know what was up, and that I was getting mixed advice on whether this may be something of interest on the background check. Explained I wanted to disclose asap to prevent confusion in the event it becomes something. I attached the letter that my lawyer sent that said it was not an arrest and explained I had answered the app question accordingly

I am essentially looking for any advice or thoughts as to what or if the consequences may be? Current students or adcoms? Is this something that could warrant a rescinded offer - a minor "charge" that was dropped, if it even comes up, that I possibly should have disclosed prior? Or am I freaking out, and the background checks are really just looking for felonies and worse things than an underage drinking violation? Anxiously awaiting a reply from the school, but their disclaimer on the bkgd check site says "documented misdemeanors will be considered on a case by case basis"

Side note: the fact that my lawyer sucked/etc is not relevant. I know one of you were going to say it. Oh & try not to bash me for not getting a background check before filling out my applications-again, not constructive

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[JoeCaputo]

Do you have the wording of the question you answered "no" to?

 

[waityouresmart]

Do you have the wording of the question you answered "no" to?

"Have you ever been arrested where the charges lead to pleading guilty, not guilty, no contest, or dismissed"

 

[JoeCaputo]

"Have you ever been arrested where the charges lead to pleading guilty, not guilty, no contest, or dismissed"

Thanks. That is important. The one you want to look in to is the dismissal. I am not 100% sure what is considered a dismissal. When you get arrested the case goes to the local prosecutors office who has 48-72 hours to make a decision on your case. It sounds like the decision may have been to file no charges, in which case, there was nothing to be dismissed. But it could be that there was a charge that was dismissed. That is what you want to find out. Maybe a lawyer forum on reddit or something?

 

[waityouresmart]

Thanks. That is important. The one you want to look in to is the dismissal. I am not 100% sure what is considered a dismissal. When you get arrested the case goes to the local prosecutors office who has 48-72 hours to make a decision on your case. It sounds like the decision may have been to file no charges, in which case, there was nothing to be dismissed. But it could be that there was a charge that was dismissed. That is what you want to find out. Maybe a lawyer forum on reddit or something?

Thanks for the help. And yeah, a lot of grey area. The public record says dropped/abandoned, and I am basically taking this to be a case "dismissal." Assuming that is the case, and I unknowingly answered incorrectly and proceeded to bring it to the schools attn and explain why, any other comments or thoughts?

 

[BombsAway]

Ask your lawyer?

 

[Goro]

Gonnif and I are old enough to remember Vice President Spiro T Agnew trading away his position for a nolo contendere plea. He was one of the worst Vice-Presidents ever, but Dick Cheney actually made even him look good.

BTW, and completely trivial nolo contendere is latin legal no contest, though the best definition is "I didnt do it your honor and I promise not to do it again"

 

[libertyyne]

and it was some really stupid small scale real estate deal that he had to resign over. at least Nixon had a presidential scale to his crimes,

Was it the real estate or was it the bribes?

 

[libertyyne]

technically it was the same thing as Al Capone; federal tax evasion for not reporting the income from the illegal activity, namely the bribe. as executive of Baltimore county and later governor of Maryland he systematically shook down engineers and riad contractors in order to steer state contracts their way. its as low level local political corruption as one can get.

So the life lesson is : when conducting illegal activites make sure to pay your taxes.

 

[mavric1298]

I thought that was all setup because it allowed them to require the stamp, but make the stamp impossible to get, thus making the thing illegal - so they can go after drug dealers for tax evasion for example. They did this with firearms sales too I believe to make it illegal to sell things without having to been on record voting for a bill that had potential backlash.

So back to the matter at hand, an important distinction is what the questions ask. Do they ask directly about felony, misdemeanor, or citation. Because those are all very different. You cannot be "arrested" for a citation, and by the language on almost all the apps, a citation most of the time wasn't requiring disclosure. Almost all of them ask about felony/misdemeanor...which does ential an arrest. I spoke to my lawyer as well about an MIP, and he said from his legal perspective that unless they said something about citations, questions about arrests do not require disclosure of citations. The kicker is - every state has different MIP laws, including differences in counties and cities. Just like moving violations. Some places a speeding ticket can count as a misdemeanor, so it would need to be listed. Luckily my MIP was in a place were it was a citation, so I didn't have to list it



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[waityouresmart]

Abandoned refers to an arrest and forwarding to prosecutor but no action was taken at all. Hence the case was abandoned. It is, in a sense, a level even before dropped as the DA's office found the arrest was unsupported or would not be worthwhile to even start any prosecutorial action. Compare this to "dropped" where the DA's office has taken some action such as initial arraignment or indictment but latter dropped the charges.



As for the answering "no" to the above question, legally you are absolutely correct. You were not arrested, but initially received a citation; you did not ever enter any plea (guilty, not guilty or nolo contendere); nor was any action ever taken by a court in dismissing your case. You didnt even have charges dropped by DA.

My guess is the question actually wanted to know about anything interaction by the police but was poorly written.

I really wouldnt worry about this as I think at most, after acceptance when criminal background check comes back it might prompt the dean to get a short explanation from you. In that case you would say you received a citation for underage drinking but the DA refused the case and it was abandoned. Do not use the word "arrest" in your explanation. I would doubt it would even go this far at all

You will be ok

Thank you so much for your thorough response! Feeling a lot better about it now & hoping it all works out.