Legal Question in Criminal Law in Illinois

I am trying to find out if a 1985 (DuPage Co., Illinois) conviction was a felony or a misdemeanor. All these years I have thought I was convicted of a felony for �failure to appear in court� for an original charge of grand larceny/grand theft auto because I remember my attorney saying something along the lines of �Good news, the prosecutor dropped the original charge, but he is charging you with a Class C felony failure to appear since the original charge was a felony.� The jury found me guilty. I completed one year of probation and paid a fine I remember being about $750.

Fast forward 30 years from the original incident and arrest in 1983. I am a mature, law-abiding citizen who was glad to have been scared straight, but now I would like the governor of the State of Illinois to pardon me for my past offense. So, I started my research to find out how I can get info on my conviction and go about the process, and I found out that Class C in Illinois is the lowest misdemeanor. Then the Illinois State Police responded to my UCIA Name Based Inquiry saying there is no record of a conviction for me. Also, I am not finding in the Illinois State statutes whether or not a failure to appear charge is a felony if the original charge was a felony. So, please let me know if the State's Attorney can indeed charge someone with a felony for failure to appear in Illinois. And if I was indeed convicted of a felony, wouldn't it still be on file? If a misdemeanor, did it possibly get expunged due to length of time or for some other reason? Thank you!


Asked on 1/24/13, 1:28 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Sal Sheikh www.BetterCallSal.com

Go to the DuPage Co. Clerks office and request your file.

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Answered on 1/24/13, 1:37 pm


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