Seeking Lawyer/Military Advice

#1
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WiseGuy

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#1
A buddy and I went to talk with Army recruiting office today. He is wanting to be a 15T, Blackhawk repairman, and eventually a crew chief.

He has a couple simple possession charges from weed when he was younger. I don't know the specifics regarding pleaing down or convictions, but I did hear them say that he would have to get one expunged.

So just wondering if anyone out there knows the most effective way to go about that and if he needs an attorney, a referral would be nice. This is in the Tri-Cities by the way. Thanks in advance for any help and advice offered. If someone needs more specifics I can get in touch with him and find it out.
 
#4
#4
Bump with more info.

He said the last offense occurred two, maybe three, years ago. He's 21 now, for reference.
 
#5
#5
WiseGuy said:
Bump with more info.

He said the last offense occurred two, maybe three, years ago. He's 21 now, for reference.
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From what I gather POG jobs are pretty hard to get with the force shrinking, more candidates than spots.
 
#6
#6
Toujours Pret said:
From what I gather POG jobs are pretty hard to get with the force shrinking, more candidates than spots.
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The recruiters today said that they've been told to no longer accept infantry recruits. They're looking more for combat support now. That's with the army at least. It shocked the hell out of me.
 
#7
#7
Yeah, we're shrinking drastically. Infantry is supposedely full and a lot of your non POG jobs are becoming increasingly hard to promote within.
 
#9
#9
#10
#10
WiseGuy said:
Finally a recommendation!!! Haha, thank you very much. Any experience yourself in expungement?
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No, sorry, I work as an in-house attorney and don't dabble in those sorts of issues. Matt will be able to help you though or can steer you to someone else who can in the tri cities area. Don't think there will be much too it.
 
#11
#11
WiseGuy said:
A buddy and I went to talk with Army recruiting office today. He is wanting to be a 15T, Blackhawk repairman, and eventually a crew chief.

He has a couple simple possession charges from weed when he was younger. I don't know the specifics regarding pleaing down or convictions, but I did hear them say that he would have to get one expunged.

So just wondering if anyone out there knows the most effective way to go about that and if he needs an attorney, a referral would be nice. This is in the Tri-Cities by the way. Thanks in advance for any help and advice offered. If someone needs more specifics I can get in touch with him and find it out.
Click to expand...

That is my area, but I am in Memphis. Not sure I know anyone in the Tri-cities. I would have to see how his cases were settled. If they were dismissed, then it simply is a matter of entering an expungement order. If he received diversion and completed it, then there is a fee for the expungement order. If he pled guilty, it probably can't be expunged. There is a relatively new expungement law that allows for some non-violent convictions to be expunged, but it requires a certain amount of time to pass without any other convictions. His best bet is to call a local attorney as the other poster suggested and provided. Good luck!
 
#12
#12
volfanbill said:
Yeah, we're shrinking drastically. Infantry is supposedely full and a lot of your non POG jobs are becoming increasingly hard to promote within.
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There's nothing supposed about it. Its getting tight everywhere (still not as bad POGs though).
 
#13
#13
volfanbill said:
Yeah, we're shrinking drastically. Infantry is supposedely full and a lot of your non POG jobs are becoming increasingly hard to promote within.
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Not impossible to promote just more difficult. As long as you have good evals, no history of UCMJ, and no GOMARs you will get promoted. Had a buddy that reclass Intel guy that picked up his 8 in 14. On the Reserve side it is even easier.
 
#14
#14
WiseGuy said:
A buddy and I went to talk with Army recruiting office today. He is wanting to be a 15T, Blackhawk repairman, and eventually a crew chief.

He has a couple simple possession charges from weed when he was younger. I don't know the specifics regarding pleaing down or convictions, but I did hear them say that he would have to get one expunged.

So just wondering if anyone out there knows the most effective way to go about that and if he needs an attorney, a referral would be nice. This is in the Tri-Cities by the way. Thanks in advance for any help and advice offered. If someone needs more specifics I can get in touch with him and find it out.
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Unless the Army drastically changed their policies in recruiting I don't see why he would need to do this. I used to be a recruiter and unless he's just dying to join the Army this could be a pricey risk. #1 there's no guarantee the Army will still let him in, so he may get it expunged for nothing. #2 does the job he wants to do allow for a person to have a waiver to get into it? This is Huge!!! Some jobs require an unblemished record. #3 He still has to be both medically qualified and ASVAB qualified. So many things can DQ you physically. Is he color blind? Can he pass his depth perception test? (This is failed a lot!) if these become an issue does he still want to join? I can't stress enough how big of deal all of this, I ALWAYS tried to make sure that my people weren't job locked, basically meaning if their #1 Job choice wasn't available are the open to do other things. Your friend really needs to be 100% sure when he does all of this that he's joking the Army because he wants to be in the Army not just to be a Blackhawk Repairman. One thing many people fail to realize is once you join you're open to the needs of that branch, don't let anyone fool you if a branch of service says "hey we don't need you in this career field anymore you have 2 options retrain or get out" and sometimes you're retrain options aren't the best. Look I'm not some disgruntled military person, I just retired after 20 years in the AF, my father in law is a retired O-6 Army and my brother n law is active duty Army E-7. Big decision for you both Good Luck!Just my 2 cents
 
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#15
#15
VolGee4 said:
That is my area, but I am in Memphis. Not sure I know anyone in the Tri-cities. I would have to see how his cases were settled. If they were dismissed, then it simply is a matter of entering an expungement order. If he received diversion and completed it, then there is a fee for the expungement order. If he pled guilty, it probably can't be expunged. There is a relatively new expungement law that allows for some non-violent convictions to be expunged, but it requires a certain amount of time to pass without any other convictions. His best bet is to call a local attorney as the other poster suggested and provided. Good luck!
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Really appreciate your reply. At least there's a chance sounds like.

I forwarded him the contact information for the local attorney that was posted above. Maybe I can get JCLawyerVol to also weigh in and see if he knows someone.
 
#16
#16
Sin City Vol said:
Unless the Army drastically changed their policies in recruiting I don't see why he would need to do this. I used to be a recruiter and unless he's just dying to join the Army this could be a pricey risk. #1 there's no guarantee the Army will still let him in, so he may get it expunged for nothing. #2 does the job he wants to do allow for a person to have a waiver to get into it? This is Huge!!! Some jobs require an unblemished record. #3 He still has to be both medically qualified and ASVAB qualified. So many things can DQ you physically. Is he color blind? Can he pass his depth perception test? (This is failed a lot!) if these become an issue does he still want to join? I can't stress enough how big of deal all of this, I ALWAYS tried to make sure that my people weren't job locked, basically meaning if their #1 Job choice wasn't available are the open to do other things. Your friend really needs to be 100% sure when he does all of this that he's joking the Army because he wants to be in the Army not just to be a Blackhawk Repairman. One thing many people fail to realize is once you join you're open to the needs of that branch, don't let anyone fool you if a branch of service says "hey we don't need you in this career field anymore you have 2 options retrain or get out" and sometimes you're retrain options aren't the best. Look I'm not some disgruntled military person, I just retired after 20 years in the AF, my father in law is a retired O-6 Army and my brother n law is active duty Army E-7. Big decision for you both Good Luck!Just my 2 cents
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1 possession charge waived gets him into the army. 2 waived would allow him to go into an aviation MOS.

If he only gets the one he plans on just seeing what's available, so that's something he needs to put thought into before committing to the money this process will take.

Great advice though.
 
#17
#17
SergeantVol said:
Not impossible to promote just more difficult. As long as you have good evals, no history of UCMJ, and no GOMARs you will get promoted. Had a buddy that reclass Intel guy that picked up ehis 8 in 14. On the Reserve side it is even easier.
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Things have drastically changed within a year. Points are sky high or maxed in most MOSs. The way points are awarded is about to change though. Had 3 of the nine SGMs within my MOS tell me points won't drop anytime soon and I should reclass if I want to promote.
 
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#19
#19
VolGee4 said:
That is my area, but I am in Memphis. Not sure I know anyone in the Tri-cities. I would have to see how his cases were settled. If they were dismissed, then it simply is a matter of entering an expungement order. If he received diversion and completed it, then there is a fee for the expungement order. If he pled guilty, it probably can't be expunged. There is a relatively new expungement law that allows for some non-violent convictions to be expunged, but it requires a certain amount of time to pass without any other convictions. His best bet is to call a local attorney as the other poster suggested and provided. Good luck!
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^ good info
 
#20
#20
GoBigOrangeVols gave you good advice. :)


And, like VolGee said, it depends on how the simple possessions were disposed of to answer whether they can even be expunged.

Was he on diversion? Was it an agreed order and dismissal, straight out dismissed?
 
#21
#21
FLVOL_79 said:
Does he have a heartbeat and a direct deposit account? Army or Marines will take him!
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I had a guy come into my office one time interested in joining tether Air Force. He was pretty rough around the edges and I had a suspicion he had either been to jail or rehab a few times. So I flat out asked him when was the last time he was in rehab... He didn't hesitate and Sao he got out 2 weeks ago for meth. I politely disqualified him and thanked him for his interest. I saw him about a month later getting on the bus for boot camp for a different branch. They just told me that he never said a word about rehab or meth. Smh
 
#22
#22
VolGee4 said:
That is my area, but I am in Memphis. Not sure I know anyone in the Tri-cities. I would have to see how his cases were settled. If they were dismissed, then it simply is a matter of entering an expungement order. If he received diversion and completed it, then there is a fee for the expungement order. If he pled guilty, it probably can't be expunged. There is a relatively new expungement law that allows for some non-violent convictions to be expunged, but it requires a certain amount of time to pass without any other convictions. His best bet is to call a local attorney as the other poster suggested and provided. Good luck!
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Our drug laws are ridiculous. Tennessee should have some rules for allowing young people who had convictions under 21 to expunge their records more easily. Shouldn't follow someone for the rest of their life.
 
#23
#23
JCLawyerVol said:
GoBigOrangeVols gave you good advice. :)


And, like VolGee said, it depends on how the simple possessions were disposed of to answer whether they can even be expunged.

Was he on diversion? Was it an agreed order and dismissal, straight out dismissed?
Click to expand...

I sent him pictures of the important parts of the thread and encouraged him to contact that number. He'll know more about the dispositions of his cases. Let me text him.
 
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