In point of fact, there are 49 other states in the Union and I can tell you that in Illinois for example they don't say during the plea colloquy that pleading guilty is the same as a conviction; they say that pleading guilty is the same as being found guilty by a judge or a jury after a trial.

I provided two examples above wherea plea of guilty does not result in a conviction at all and I was hoping you would reply to those examples . . . is there something wrong with those examples? Can you respond to the examples I provided?

On the contrary, this constitutes actual advice in response to the OP's question because it provides an actual solution to the problem of attending the funeral (don't go) unlike the posts that just say "take care of your warrants" without attention to the plight at hand.

Ari,
Point taken.

OK, I'll put it in simple terms.

If I had to fly to Grannie's funeral, and I had outstanding felony warrants out on me, I would either

1) Resolve the warrants or at least get a lawyer involved to see what my options are

or

2) Not go. Period.

In my opinion, which not everybody agrees with, and is apparently totally wrong as some people don't agree with it is I would not risk some local cop running names of people in obitutaries against outstanding warrants to see who I can pick up that weekend and close a few warrants.

If you go and the warrants are still there, there are two options.

First is nothing happens, second is you get stopped for something or they are waiting for you, and you end up in jail.

While apparently I'm totally wrong, because there is no longer an option to discuss anything in Flyertalk without people beating the crap out of you who don't agree, I would still miss the funeral if there was a chance of me ending up in jail for going.

It's not worth the risk to me.

No one beat the crap out of you. :o

Your opinion is rational when explained as it is above; it was others' comments in passing (such as "If you have warrants, take care of them") that do not inform the discussion nor help the OP to which some objected in this thread.

Flying with a felony probation violation warrant
 

Hello, I'm looking to fly to Chicago from Las Vegas but I don't know if I can fly without getting arrested. I was convicted of Felony Perjury in Portland, Oregon and received felony probation in 2008. I ended up leaving, and for the past 5 years I've had a felony probation violation. I have been pulled over by the police here in Vegas a couple of times and didn't get arrested. Actually the first time, I tried to lie about my name, but the cop could tell I was lying, so he asked me I had a warrant, and I said yes. He ran my real name, then came back and told me that they didn't want to extradite me, so he let me go. There was another time when I was with my husband when he got pulled over. The officer asked for my ID, which I gave to him; again, there was no problem, he didn't even mention that I had a warrant. So, I'm trying to find out if I can fly without running into trouble. I know that there are no guarantees, but I would like to know what my changes are. Also, I am fully aware that the best way to not get arrested is to take care of the warrant; this is not the answer I'm looking for.Thanks ahead of time.

I'm not a cop at all and have no legal training.

That said, all they TSA does is compare your name to the ticket and make sure you aren't carrying any prohibited items on board.

You're name would not be on a Do Not Fly list if you have a probation violation and I'm about 99.9% sure you'd be good to go and won't have any issues.

Thank you. I wasn't for sure if they ran everyone's name at the time of purchase, or if it was more of a random thing.

SecureFlight may well pick up an outstanding felony warrant. Whether OP gets picked up on that warrant at the airport by cops alerted to it, is entirely a question of law enforcement resources and no advice on FT can tell OP what's going to happen.

A 2008 warrant? Talk to your lawyer, make it right, get it off your back.

Passenger names/details are run against some lists, and most times most warrants aren't resulting in passengers being arrested at the airports. That is what happens most of the time.

Thanks for the info. Yes, I do need to deal with it and get a lawyer. I never had a criminal record until a boyfriend of mine got into some trouble and I lied to a grand jury about his whereabouts. Because we were from out of state, the DA wanted to teach me a lesson. Now, just because I had never been in trouble with the law before doesn't mean that I wasn't screwing up. At the time I skipped out on my probation I was on methadone for a heroin addiction. In Oregon it's up to your probation officer whether or not you can be on methadone. My PO said no, so I left. During these past 5 years I've been able to get my life on track. I'm almost finished with college, I own my own home and car now. I'm just terrified that when I go back I could be looking at 3 years in prison (the time left on my probation); everything I've worked so hard for will be gone. So yes, one of these days.

Lauren, this will haunt you for the rest of your Life if you do not take care of it and you will lose everything if you ignore the situation. Any conversation you ave with a lawyer is confidential but perhaps they can make an inquiry to see if they can get the warrant dismissed etc. if they find you first, then you ruin that chance. Don't Live in fear, settle this so you can enjoy your new life

As this has nothing to do with Board Administration, I'll transfer the thread to "Travel Safety/Security".

Thank you MR_MAMMA. Yes I know, if they catch me it will be all the worse. Me and my dad have chosen to handle this and get a lawyer after I'm done with my first degree (which will be in the next year). And I'm absolutely terrified. Thank you for the consideration and kindness. I also posted this question on an airliner forum and some of the people that responded had a bit of an attitude.

> just because I had never been in trouble with the law before doesn't mean that
> I wasn't screwing up.

IMO; by perpetuating your probation violation, you are still screwing-up. Fix it.
Immediately is the correct answer. The whole college, house, car thing is nice.
But it isn't gonna result in Oregon forgetting or forgiving. Hiring a lawyer to
negotiate resolution is the right thing to do. If you initiate the process, it's gonna
have a much better outcome than if/when Oregon gets their hands on you.

There is a chance that you may be detained or arrested at ORD. Whether or not
you are held and extradited will depend upon how much Oregon is willing to pay
for your return.

In the event that you are unaware; be VERY careful when speaking with ALL
federal employees, even the admin/clerks. Lying to a federal employee is a
felony. Omitting a material fact is considered lying. If you cannot tell be
100% truthful, do not answer questions beyond those to determine your true
identity (that 5th ammendent thing).

Genuinely bad ideas:

- Foreign travel
- Applying for any of the other trusted-traveller programs. You WILL be denied.

You don't need a photo id to fly. TSA will run a secondary check on you to see if you are carrying illegal items. That's how people fly when they loose their wallet for example.