Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

I have one conviction for trespassing in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which happened a few years ago under very stupid circumstances, to put it succinctly, and I want that to be taken off of my record because I want my record to be totally clean like it was before, but also because I'm going to try to get a job as a security officer and would like to try to get into law enforcement in the future and I don't want that stupid thing coming up and making a bad and truthfully inaccurate first impression and possibly cause me to not get the job.

I just called the Fredericksburg general district court at 540-372-1043 and asked how I could get that taken care of, and she said that they don't do expungements and she said that because it was a conviction, I couldn't take it off of there, but I *really* want it off of there. Isn't there any way at all that I could get it off, even if I have to pay a thousand dollars or more? I mean, I know money talks, so I was hoping there would be some way that I could pay a lot of money and the normal rules regarding this could be overlooked and that could be taken off of my record.

Now, I also had a case in Manassas, Virginia where I was basically unknowingly in the wrong place at the wrong time and, to make a long story short, was initially charged but the case was later "null process" because they ended up realizing that I was totally innocent, but still that came up in the records for the general district court in Manassas, who I called first before calling the Fredericksburg court, but the clerk at the Manassas court told me that I could just come into the court and... -- well, I don't remember exactly what she said now, but basically she said I could come into the court and fill out some paperwork and pay some money and get it taken off of my record since it was null process. What I don't understand is why the clerk at the court in Fredericksburg told me that they don't do expungements at all and the one in Manassas apparently does. Is this something that just varies from one court to another, or is one of these two court clerks just incorrect in the information they gave me?

In searching for this, I also came across something on Wikipedia called the Second Chance Act that allows someone to get rid of a conviction if they meet certain requirements, one of which being that they have no other convictions other than the one they're trying to get rid of and that it's a nonviolent one. I read all of the requirements of this and I'm eligible for it, except for that I would need to do at least one year of community service, which I would have seen if there was a way I could just pay a fee, even a large fee, instead of the year of community service because I really want to just go ahead and try to get this job as a security officer rather than having to wait another year. However, it also says this later on down the page when talking about "disclosure":

"The Department of Justice would maintain nonpublic manual or computerized index of expunged records containing former offenders names and contact information for the agency, office, or department with custody of the expunged records for contact purposes. The former offender would be required to make their records available in the following scenarios:

To the licensing agency or office when attempting to obtain a license to carry a firearm;

To law enforcement when involved in a criminal investigation;

To any city, state, or federal employers when applying for a job in those fields related to investigation or prosecution of people under civil or criminal statues, such as a police officer.

Anyone other than the offender disclosing information about their expunged criminal offense would be subject to fine or imprisonment for up to a year."

That last part says that if you're trying to get a job as a police officer, then you would still have to disclose that information, which, as I said, I would like to do that in the future after doing the job as a security officer for a few years, which would also give me time to get a degree in criminal justice, so...if that's the case, then it's really pointless for me to even bother trying to go through this process because I would have to disclose it anyway when trying to get a job in law enforcement.

The most important point of all of this that I'm asking is for me to get my record totally purged and clear if there is any way at all to do so, even if that means me having to pay more than a thousand dollars to do it. It would be well worth it to me because for me, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't think about this and it bothers me terribly. I guess a lot of people wouldn't be so worried about seemingly minor things like that, but...I guess maybe it's just my personality type. I just really took pride in having a totally perfectly clean record, and I desperately want that back, especially considering both of these cases never should have happened in the first place, and also because I'm afraid of this affecting me being able to get this job as a security officer and also affecting me trying to get into law enforcement in the future. It drives me crazy because I know I would be *excellent* at both of those jobs because it's like I was made for them and it's what I dream of doing. ...I just want so desperately to have a clear record again.

Is there *any* way at all that I can go about doing this and making it like those stupid things never happened? Please let me know if there's any way at all to erase this from my past once and for all.

Thank you in advance if you resolve this issue for me.

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