Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

In 1975 I was arrested for a felony of theft. I accepted a plea bargain agreement. I plead guilty and received 5 years probation. The way it was explained to me was if I served my probation successfully the guilty verdict would be dismissed and the charges be dropped from my record. I did serve my probation successfully and I have certified court copies saying the following.

Now comes the defendent in the above numbered and styled cause and shows to the court that he has satisfactorily completed his probationary period.

Wherefore, defendent petitions this court for and order dismissing the indictment against him, setting aside the verdict of guilty and restoring his civil rights.

Next document:

This matter having come on regularly before the above entitled court on the petition of "me" the above named defendant, for an order dismissing the indictment against him, setting aside the verdict of guilty and restoring petitioner's civil rights and the court having read the motion and the files contained herein, and being advised in the premises, now, therefore it is hereby ordered that the indictment against "me", the defendent herein, be and it hereby is dismissed, and the verdict of guilty, entered in the above-entitled cause, be and it hereby is set aside, and that the full civil rights of the defendant, "me" be and they hereby are restored in full.

My question is this; I am trying to be an insurance adjuster and one of the requirements is that you not have been convicted of a felony. I thought I had a clean record. I worked for UPS for 19 years and they performed a background check on me and it was clean. Now I am trying to work temporarily for the State Census Bureau and in their background check this charge showed up. I am just now finding out about this problem and I am searching for a solution. Am I elighble for having my record exponged of this charge? This is the only time I have been arrested before or since that charge. The court documents say the indictment has been dismissed and the guilty verdict is set aside and my civil rights have been fully restored. I reside in the state of Texas. I talked with the district clerks office in the county where my charges originated and they said they don't see documents written like this anymore and they really don't understand their meaning. Can you please let me know what dismissing the indictment and setting aside the guilty verdict mean along with restoring my full civil rights. Thank you for your assistance. In your opinion would I be eligible for a job that required no felony convictions?


Asked on 4/05/10, 12:02 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Keith Engelke Law Office of S. Keith Engelke

It sounds like you got deferred adjudication. Currently when a court does this, there is no verdict of guilt, the judge says something like "I find there is enough evidence to find you guilty but I defer a finding of guilt" Here there was a finding of guilt and a verdict that was set aside.

My guess is that in 1975 things were different.

You need to contact an attorney, preferably someone who practiced in 1975, who does expunctions and motions for non disclosure of criminal records. You are definitely eligible for at least one of the two however, I'm not sure which. I'd try for an expunction, but the general rule is that defendants who get deferred adjudication are not eligible for expuncton.

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Answered on 4/11/10, 10:11 am


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