Some General Thoughts and Questions

[acp5762]

Originally Posted by London Rayne

I am confused...when you are arrested then let go, that's not a charge right? If it's not on your record, you were never charged with it in the first place. If a case goes to court or not, the charge is not there until the judge says, "Guilty." I have been arrested for a ton of crap, yet have a clean record so I was never "charged" with anything.

If the DA does not prosecute but you are still arrested, then it was in fact thrown out by HIM before it ever got to court. Sorry, but you're confusing me here. I know plenty of cops, and they seem to explain this better. I guess you and I have different lingo when it comes to this. When I say 'thrown out" I mean before or after it might go to court.

When you are arrested you are charged with something. But you can be held for questioning without neccessarilly being charged with a crime. The police will still read you your rights then ask you questions pertaining to their investigation. If you go to court and are not convicted that doesn't mean it was thrown out. Your case still went to court.

[MrGiz]

Naivete'

A "conviction" record "may" be expunged if you're quite lucky... but that does not mean it disappears. At best, a line may be drawn through it, in the record books!

An "arrest" record never goes away, or disappears!

[London Rayne]

Originally Posted by MrGiz

Naivete'

A "conviction" record "may" be expunged if you're quite lucky... but that does not mean it disappears. At best, a line may be drawn through it, in the record books!

An "arrest" record never goes away, or disappears!

Actually it does...and you can make sure of it if you know a cop who can get into the system. Most people fall for that, "pay 500 bucks and it goes away" crap, but then a cop or the FBI maybe can still see it...it just won't show up on a background check.

There are ways to have it totally disappear, but as I said it has to be done from the inside. I won't elaborate on that one any further though lol.

ACP...I know the process, but it's the wording I messed up on. When I say "thrown out" I mean either way. If you do or don't go to court, and are not convicted.

[acp5762]

ACP...I know the process, but it's the wording I messed up on. When I say "thrown out" I mean either way. If you do or don't go to court, and are not convicted.

Well I was just trying to help ya out. I wasn't sure what ya meant.

[MrGiz]

As I said... naivete'

[London Rayne]

Giz...YGM.

[Jannisary]

You can be arrested for a suspected crime such as prostitution and not be formally charged in court if the prosecutor's office decides for whatever reason to not prosecute it.

But you'll still have that record of your arrest and you could still have your name and picture plastered all over the local news as being arrested on a prostitution charge.

In Illinois a few years back a provider got busted by local police. She had other clients still booked for that day and they got her to cooperate enough to get the guys to come up to the room. Those guys got arrested and their names were put in the local newspapers and on the local tv news. I'm sure it caused those guys a lot of problems. The county prosecutor released a statement saying they were requesting more information from the police before filing charges. As far as I know, no charges were ever filed against those 4 or 5 guys.

So, they may have dodged the bullet of getting formally charged in court with the crime but I'm sure a lot of other damage was already done.

As far as making arrest records disappear... they don't hardly ever truly disappear. Now in a corrupt city where there is little to no oversight on the integrity of their computer systems then maybe it could happen. Even then there is a probably a paper record somewhere in some filing cabinet or even just some notes jotted down in an officer's notebook. If the FBI or other LE agency with ample resources and time start to dig and look into someone the arrest that supposedly got erased could very well be turned up.

[Laz]

Originally Posted by Jannisary

You can be arrested for a suspected crime such as prostitution and not be formally charged in court if the prosecutor's office decides for whatever reason to not prosecute it.

But you'll still have that record of your arrest and you could still have your name and picture plastered all over the local news as being arrested on a prostitution charge.

In Illinois a few years back a provider got busted by local police. She had other clients still booked for that day and they got her to cooperate enough to get the guys to come up to the room. Those guys got arrested and their names were put in the local newspapers and on the local tv news. I'm sure it caused those guys a lot of problems. The county prosecutor released a statement saying they were requesting more information from the police before filing charges. As far as I know, no charges were ever filed against those 4 or 5 guys.

So, they may have dodged the bullet of getting formally charged in court with the crime but I'm sure a lot of other damage was already done.

As far as making arrest records disappear... they don't hardly ever truly disappear. Now in a corrupt city where there is little to no oversight on the integrity of their computer systems then maybe it could happen. Even then there is a probably a paper record somewhere in some filing cabinet or even just some notes jotted down in an officer's notebook. If the FBI or other LE agency with ample resources and time start to dig and look into someone the arrest that supposedly got erased could very well be turned up.

And people think I am heartless for thinking the government has pleny of money. As long as they have the funds to do things like this we need to cut taxes.

[urhuckleberry]

Make this headache go away. My brain is hurting...



Huck

[London Rayne]

Originally Posted by Laz

And people think I am heartless for thinking the government has pleny of money. As long as they have the funds to do things like this we need to cut taxes.

The Government can make an entire person disappear if they want to...an arrest record is elementary.

I am not talking about local beat cops...I am talking about much higher up, but as I said...not the place to elaborate.

[Laz]

Originally Posted by London Rayne

The Government can make an entire person disappear if they want to...an arrest record is elementary.

I am not talking about local beat cops...I am talking about much higher up, but as I said...not the place to elaborate.

I believe it but I would hope it was over something more important than a fuck.

[Old-T]

Originally Posted by Laz

I believe it but I would hope it was over something more important than a fuck.

It generally is.

Two types of situations I have seen: those where it is dealing with things VERY much more serious than consetual sex among people, or personal favors as happen in any human endeavor. The former being the vast majority.

[London Rayne]

Originally Posted by Laz

I believe it but I would hope it was over something more important than a fuck.

I would imagine so.

[ShysterJon]

This thread makes my head hurt, too, because there are so many inaccuracies in it.

Maybe it'll help to VERY ROUGHLY outline the steps of a typical criminal prosecution in Texas:

1. incident (a/k/a 'crime')
2. perception of incident by the complaining witness (a/k/a 'victim') and report to LE, or perception by LE
3. arrest of suspect by LE
4. bail process by court
5. LE conveys investigation file to DA
6. DA decides whether probable cause exists that an offense has been committed
7. suspect formally charged by information (for misdemeanors - DA need only sign it), indictment (felonies - by grand jury only), or complaint (minor misdemeanors) and therefore becomes a defendant
8. disposition of case by plea bargain, trial dismissal, etc.

In Texas, some criminal background records (including arrest records) can be expunged or sealed, as long as all the conditions of the law are met.

[MrGiz]

Trouble is... You are speaking "theory of law"... in reality, it has been my experience, that the word "expungement" means practically NOTHING!!