In 1996 I had a class B misdemeanor charge reduced and pled guilty to a violation, a non-criminal offense in NY state. The fingerprint rap sheet record is sealed to govt employers except law enforcement but the computerized court record used to be unsealed to the public. However a recent lawsuit against the agency that runs the database has resulted in violations no longer being reported to the public(lots of confusion, too long to go into detail here) by computer though the actual paper court records still remain unsealed

What I really wanted to ask is when one is charged with a misdemeanor but has the charge reduced and pled guilty to a lesser offense like the violation, I know the violation is what one is convicted of

However, is the original charge which was reduced still "on your record" or is it considered dismissed and there is no need to have to refer to it again?

Does this give me the right to say that I was instead arrested for a violation and pled guilty to it(when in fact I was arrested for a misdemeanor and had it reduced to a violation via guilty plea) or does the original charge have to be revealed when applying for a job, etc?