Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington

This past June I was arrested on a frivolous property destruction misdemeanor charge, which was the result of me hitting a window with my hand however did not actually do any damage. Everything was dropped; the prosecuting attorney came up to me while I was waiting to be arraigned and he told he there wasn't even a complaint filed from the county nor was it even something that he charged for. However now the issue is that I have an arrest that shows up on my record, or at least I think, and being that I soon will be out of college looking for jobs I have a feeling this will cause me some troubles with some companies. My two questions are 1) Is there any way to get this so it does not show up at all when a background check and if so how long must I wait to get this off of my record. 2) What is the law when it comes to disclosing or not something like this to employers?


Asked on 10/18/10, 9:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Sharon Chirichillo Olympia DUI Attorney Sharon Chirichillo

You could go to the court you had the arrest and ask for information. It is a good idea to have an idea to help you through this as it would require some legal investigation and research. I would imagine this is not what you would want to hear, there needs to be someone with legal training to actually see the record and documents you are mentioning and proceed from that with a plan.

As what you wrote is not per-se a conviction, in case it is or some sort of deferred finding or sentence you would want to look at vacating the record after a certain time period. Under WA State Revised Code of Washington- RCW 9.94A.640, there is a process in vacating a criminal record. Good luck.

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Answered on 10/24/10, 12:00 am


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