Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington
Years ago, my son-in-law's best friend was arrested on quite a few felony charges including felony assault, molestation, and some other equally horrible things. Our problem comes in that the jerk did not provide the police with his real name and instead gave my son-in-law's. He provided the police with his own birthday and even misspelled my son-in-law's last name slightly, yet these felonies were attached to my son-in-law anyway and now when a background report is done, these charges show up. Olympia has stated that if my son-in-law finds the former best friend and if my son-in-law then presses charges and if the former best friend confesses, the charges can be removed from his record. Surely there has to be another way to get these wrongful charges off his record without him having to be the person to find someone who disappeared.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Your description of the issue is inadequate for a complete answer; it is not clear from what you have written whether your son-in-law was actually convicted of any of theses offense, although you certainly imply that he was not.
If not convicted, none of these charges would show up on a public background check. And if your son-in-law was not prosecuted and convicted of these crimes, all he needs to do is appear at WSP headquarters in Olympia and provide his fingerprints. Once WSP compares fingerprints with the those of the individual actually arrested and charged with the crimes, the charges should no longer appear on your son-in-law's record.
The friend's record will always have your son-in-law's name because it was used as an alias.
Assuming the "friend" was convicted there should be a booking photo and sentencing fingerprints that do not match your son. Get a copy of these and you should be able to clear up the matter with Washington State Patrol (the official custodian of Washington State criminal histories).
At your service,
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