However my lawyer assured me that I do not have to admit to being arrested aka if asked on a job application I should say no.
Make sure you read the job application (or any other application that requires a background check). Anyone requiring a background check is going to value honesty. If caught lying on the application, which in more cases than not is what happens, the applicant is usually not hired. However, if honest up front, more often than not, depending on the circumstances obviously, you may be given an oppurtunity.
He also says that it will not show up on any background checks
Wanna bet?
and since I completed the classes and community service hours it will basically be like the whole thing never happened.
Don't kid yourself it happened and a record of it exists, expungment not withstanding.
Why are you asking us if your lawyer already gave you the answer
If I had a dollar for everytime I as a LEO heard someone in custody say that their lawyer took care of something, I'd ......
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Word to the wise, make sure you have a copy of any court order you are obligated to, you have read the court order, you understand the court order and you abide by the court order; otherwise you may very well find yourself under a new court order.
Should that happen, I seriously doubt you and your attorney will be sharing the same fate.
If I found myself in the same situation as
newshooter6, and my lawyer said for me to lie on anything, then my next question to that lawyer would be:
"Are you willing to pay to have a competent lawyer represent me should following your advice land me in more trouble?"
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/general-information/fact-sheet
As far as the NCIC background check is concerned, here is what is looked at:
….The federally prohibiting criteria are as follows:
· A person who has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year or any state offense classified by the state as a misdemeanor and is punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than two years.
Plain and simple, the question becomes, "How does YOUR state report the conviction to NCIC? in your specific case."
Also, note that the criteria is a crime punishable by; NOT punished by. That is a VERY important difference. Just because you were not sentenced to x amount of time, the type of conviction M or F is governed by what could you have been sentenced to not your actual sentence.
· Persons who are fugitives of justice—for example, the subject of an active felony or misdemeanor warrant.
· An unlawful user and/or an addict of any controlled substance; for example, a person convicted for the use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year; or a person with multiple arrests for the use or possession of a controlled substance within the past five years with the most recent arrest occurring within the past year; or a person found through a drug test to use a controlled substance unlawfully, provided the test was administered within the past year.
· A person adjudicated mental defective or involuntarily committed to a mental institution or incompetent to handle own affairs, including dispositions to criminal charges of found not guilty by reason of insanity or found incompetent to stand trial.
· A person who, being an alien, is illegally or unlawfully in the United States.
· A person who, being an alien except as provided in subsection (y) (2), has been admitted to the United States under a non-immigrant visa.
· A person dishonorably discharged from the United States Armed Forces.
· A person who has renounced his/her United States citizenship.
· The subject of a protective order issued after a hearing in which the respondent had notice that restrains them from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such partner. This does not include ex parte orders.
· A person convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime which includes the use or attempted use of physical force or threatened use of a deadly weapon and the defendant was the spouse, former spouse, parent, guardian of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited in the past with the victim as a spouse, parent, guardian or similar situation to a spouse, parent or guardian of the victim.
· A person who is under indictment or information for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
That being said newshooter6, I wish you the very best. As a LEO, I agree that the loss of the right to own a firearm over a seemingly insignificant marijuana conviction is harsh indeed.