Help!!! My Interview is in a week and I just found out my lawyer filled out the form improperly

[Erin B 10]

Our interview is on Feb 25th, I am not concerned about us passing the interview portion, we have been together for a few years, and have a daughter together. So we are not nervous. However, we just found out that our lawyer checked the box saying my husband has never been arrested which is not true.

He was arrested 3 years ago, for assaulting a police officer, but the charges were dropped and eventually expunged due to lack of evidence, and a videotape that show the officers beating him, not the other way around. We would not be concerned with this, except when we brought it up with our lawyer he was outraged and claims he did not know about this, and that we have committed purgery, and is telling us they will likely deport him for this!

However, he did not ask us if he was arrested, my husband says he told him, but the lawyer says he didn't tell him. Also we have a paper that we signed from his lawyer stating that he could pull his background, so we figure he should have caught it there as well. I do believe my husband told him, he has never tried to hide his arrest from anyone.

The question is how do we handle this in the interview, do we bring it up and say the papers were filed improperly? Our lawyer will be there, and I am fearful he will start saying that the papers were filed correctly and that we did not disclose this to him, when we did! He wants us to just hope they don't ask, but we feel like he is trying to cover his own #### at this point, and not trying to do whats best for us! If they don't ask should we just be upfront and say this was just brought to our attention???

What are the chances they will actually deport him for this? Anyone been through this before?

[VanessaTony 3,567]

I found this: http://criminal.lawyers.com/Criminal-Law--...ment-FAQ.html#5 which says that depending on his state, that "expunged" means it never happened.. which means ticking "no never arrested" is the correct answer which effectively means the arrested never happened.

What state are you from?

Edited February 18, 2010 by Vanessa&Tony

[Erin B 10]

I found this: http://criminal.lawyers.com/Criminal-Law--...ment-FAQ.html#5 which says that depending on his state, that "expunged" means it never happened.. which means ticking "no never arrested" is the correct answer.

What state are you from?

We currently live in California, but he was living in Maryland when this happened.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

We currently live in California, but he was living in Maryland when this happened.

Okay heres some things I found:

- http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/publicservs/expung.shtml

- http://www.courts.state.md.us/courtforms/j...ccdccr072br.pdf

So basically I would call the courts and just confirm with them (to make you feel better) but from what I've read, as his record has been expunged, then he has a clean record, i.e. no arrest. But! The documents also state that there are several levels to the expungement.

I suggest he calls and speaks to the courts about it to see what they say. Perhaps even the police to find out if it was removed at that level which is the most important part as if it's not clean at the "police" level then the arrest record still exists.

Hope that makes sense. there's still time before the interview.

Good luck!

[belinda63 3,053]

If it was expunged it was as though it never happened. If this is truly the case with this charge you are not required to mention it.

[Erin B 10]

Well the I-797C notice we got says you must bring the original arrest report even if it has been expunged. Which is problematic since according to the court, there are no papers because it was expunged