Q: I received a misdemeanor under the Drug and cosmetic Act for Pa State Board of Nursing. For my first offense, I was offered an ARD. I checked my criminal court record numbers, they stated NO RECORDS EXIST. I am job seeking, worried about my record and decided to Google myself. There it is, my name, license number, offense, and punishment of 1-year suspension listed. WTF? This will prevent me from getting a job and now I must explain my misdemeanor. Isn’t that what the auto expungement was for as stated. I paid my fine in full, finished my probation of 3 months. It is over, the 1-year probation as well starting 4/20/16 to 4/20/17. Why are they listing it still? What gives? I do realize the state board and criminal court are two different entities. I just don’t know what I didn’t’ do correct. Will it go away ever? Please advise. Thank you. (Pittsburgh, PA)
A: It sounds like you successfully completed ARD in Allegheny County and the DA expunged your record for you. Your expungement removes all records from criminal data bases such as Allegheny County, the Bureau of Criminal Information, the Uniform Judicial System, the PA State Police and the FBI. There is no way for the expungement order to reach the hundreds of criminal record search websites proliferating the internet. It is possible that one or more than one of them have your arrest record posted. You can send them a certified letter demanding them to remove it or correct it. It is most likely that a future employer in PA will run your record through the PA State Police and not rely on any of the hundreds of rogue websites that provide this “service.” You can always answer, I was never convicted of a crime, truthfully. If asked were you ever arrested, you will have to say yes. Additionally, if the state board took some action against you, that has nothing to do with criminal court. That information is controlled by whatever board you are licensed by. If their disciplinary action against you was posted on the internet, you must ask them why so and how to remove it.