Dubai Stu

I emailed your post to a friend who is a criminal attorney in Illinois and a former clerk for an Illinois criminal trial court. I had said in my email that I question whether an expungment would be a deep enough purge that a Homeland security background check wouldn't see through it. This is what he said:

"Your inclination is correct. At the very least, a deep background may show the individual was arrested but may not show the charge or disposition (which may actually hurt the petitioner in some instances).

The problem in Illinois is that the State Police read the statute as not binding on them to purge the record of an expungement petition so it often takes a fight, or at a minimum some begging, to get the records person at headquarters (in Springfield) to do their job.

While expungement is better than sealing, a petition for expungement and sealing is better and more comprehensive in Illinois. Don't ask me why this is but petitioners always had more success in getting more of the "criminal footprint" removed by filing this more comprehensive motion.

I clerked for several Illinois trial court judges during law school and one of my primary responsibilities was to review and advise the judges whether to grant expungement and sealing petitions. I have been out of that loop for 3 years now."

If you are the beneficiary of an Illinois expungment, this might be a "t" that you might want to make sure is crossed.

Update:

Here is another response I received from another colleague who practices criminal law in Illinois:

"They are still around. They are "impounded" in the clerks office and you can file a motion to unseal and reseal which I've seen routinely done for young licensed proffesionals to be, that are going in front of character and fitness or the department of prof reg that licenses doctors etc....they need access to the disposition and often the arrest report. At the same time, fingerprint/booking cards are sent back by cops to the lawyer/petitioner after expungement...they've been good at complying lately after some recent litigation going after the state police."

I don't want to hijack this thread too much, but I just wanted to pass this on. As a compromise measure, why not check the "no" box on the GOES application, but note the expungment in the comments. This will meant that at least an algorithm won't deny you admission to the program.