Hello and good afternoon. In 1996 I was charged with a class B misdemeanor in NY but pled guilty to a violation, a non-fingerprintable offense in NY. I paid a $50 fine and received a conditional discharge. In 1997 the fingeprints, DA records and police records were sealed as per 160.55 of the NY CPL. However the court file remains unsealed due to the conviction. According to 160.55, it is supposed to leave the defendant's record looking as if he/she were only given a ticket for the offense rather than having been arrested an fingerprinted

A few years later out of curiosity I did a background check of my record through a company that searched criminal court records for companies and individuals. This company went to the NY state Office of Court Administration(OCA), the database that searches for convictions in NY, and returned these results to me. It was a 10 year search done in 2001.

RECORD FOUND
Date of Offense: 6/21/96
Offense: SEALED
Judgment: PLED GUILTY
Disposition: PLED GUILTY TO DISORDERLY CONDUCT (Violation)
Disposition Date: 6/22/96
Sentence: RECEIVED CONDITIONAL DISCHARGE
Casetype: NOT SPECIFIED

With respect to the arrest charge(the B misdemeanor) being 'sealed", is this something that always happens in every court when the original charge is reduced to a lesser one? This was not a "plea bargain" but a "guilty plea" (unless i am mistaken).

The original charge is listed on my certificate of disposition in number form and the original complaint is still public record in the court file. Some people at the OCA tell me they seal the arrest charge if the charge was reduced, others say "they used to do that but no more"

Does anyone know how this works?

Yes, the court seals their records, but in today's computer age, with court documents and court schedules being put online, with para legals doing searches every day in court records to do advertising for attorneys and looking up records, if any info gets put online, it can never be completely erased.

With that also remember the finger prints that went to the FBI are not taken out but always stay there for identification purpose, so while the state may have sealed thiers, the FBI will not seal thiers, it does not show any actual crime only has fingerprints on file for identification purpose only.

You can go back now if you would like and request it to be explunged from the record completely, then it would only be viewable by national security. ( records are never sealed or hidden from national security reseaerch) Remember sealed is only for public requests.

With a 160.55 sealing NY sends an expungement order to the FBI. Supposedly there is supposed to be a "no record found" if you are printed by the FBI for a job. I think you mentioned that the prints don't get removed for law enforcement purposes.

If Georgia checks their records(the Ga Crime Info Center) would my FBI record show up if the expungement order went threough? This would be for a professional license

Sorry no FBI do not erase fingerprints, but the fingerprints does not show any charge, only ID, NCIC records shows charges. People are fingerprinted for jobs, for school, for day care centers, for gun permits and more. And yes even explunged records are still there for police and those doing national security jobs are always available.

And it depends on what the professional license is for, if it is for a job that requires a national security clearance, then those doing that background will see it.

Remember FBI is federal and do not have to follow state court orders.
But with that Fingerprints don't even show crimes, they are ID only, the criminal records are where criminal records are keep, they are only connected to fingerprints by ID name and number.

Remember if you were arrested as John Doe in Mich 10 years ago, and finger printed as John Doe ( often happens with people with no ID on them) After that you are caught in GA and use Bill Doe as your name, then the ID of John Doe will show up when they run your finger prints.

And the police will always have access to all of your records, arrests even if dismissed, convictions even if explunged and more. So no record except that of Juv offenders are actually sealed, adult records are only sealed from public viewing.

It is the matter of what the term sealed means, to you, you thought it meant no one ever could see it, but that is just not the case.

** I worked for the Justice Dept for many years, and then was a State law enforcement officer in GA and viewed 100's of background searches.
Also to work for our department you also to have a national security clearnance, so we knew what they could see and not see.