Seeking advice on arrest record

E

etranger

New Member
1970 was a bad year for me: after the break-up of a serious relationship, I discovered solace in alcohol. The years flew by in a blur of hangovers but eventually I graduated and left. I returned to work in the same city, and filed an I485 in 2003. Last month, my case was transferred from Nebraska to the local office in Chicago. I told my lawyer about it and he asked if I had been arrested; I said "No" in all honesty. I have, indeed, always have said "No" to this question on entry to the US since leaving the US the first time.

Last week, the Local Office sent me a letter stating that a review of my case showed that I had indeed been arrested once on 3 counts of deceptive practice in 1972, but that I had indicated otherwise in my application, and gave me 35 days to respond. My lawyer said I have to find the disposition of the case; he was not pleased and had nothing else to say and seems to take the position that it's my problem -- he's been paid.

I went to the Police Department but they did not have any records. They gave me a number in Joliet to call, and they did find such a record. However, there was no disposition. They suggested I go back to the Police Department and invoke the Right of Access to Review to inspect and possibly add comments to the case, which I did; the results should be back in 2 weeks.

The then-Director of the Foreign Students Office said he did not remember but would have if the case had gone to trial. There were always students in trouble and the matter could have been settled and then dropped without going to court. A check of the county Court records did not show anything on this matter.

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. I have little hopes of any records of case disposition would turn up, though. What options do I have, other than make plans to leave?
 
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A friend of mine was put on probation for 4 years about 10 years ago - the charge was conspiracy. He was a teenager and was hanging out with wrong crowd at the wrong place and there was a drug sting. Everyone was charged. I believe conspiracy is the easiest charge for the cops when they really don't have a great case. My friend had a green card then.

There years ago he applied for his green card renewal and he was put on deportation notice. Immigration lawyers weren't really helpful, but one took on the case, but was not very optimistic. Plus the case was with an unsupportive immigration judge in Chicago. In December 04, the judge was ready to sign the deportation order, but wanted some further clarifications from the immigration folks (on how they were going to implement the order, or something to that effect, which wasn't really helpful to my friend). In the meanwhile my friend's dad stumbled upon some non-profit group in NY which provides legal assistance for such cases, and they pointed to some recent law that could be invoked - this also involved in him getting character reference letters from several people (he got about 15 - 20).

But the story has a good ending. Last week my friend had his final court hearing, and the judge called him (and his lawyer) to his chambers and said that he was granting relief. Apparently what they presented to the judge between Dec – Mar, helped.

Now I really don't have an idea about the law or the non-profit group that helped my friend. But do everything you can and talk to a lot of people. Don't give up and hopefully it should workout.

Also, my friend's case was a reminder to keep our kids out of trouble. The current legal/political climate is so unpredictable....
 
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Your problem is in two folds.

Problem 1: I guess USCIS does not know what is the magnitude of crime/misdemeanor for that case. Because probably they just retrieved the information that you were arrested in 1972, but then they don't know reason, court conviction record etc. Probably they would like to know that in interview. So just collect as many records regarding the case and in addition some proof that charges were dropped without any conviction. IN this forum I have seen people getting approval with drunk driving, shoplifting or domestic violence convictions. So this problem is not serious I guess.

Problem 2: This is more serious than first problem - saying "NO" regarding arrest record. That would be considered perjury (lying under oath). Not only immigration, in any legal matter perjury is considered very serious crime (remember, Martha Stewart did not go to prison for insider trading, but for perjury). I think you need to talk to your lawyer to discuss how to handle it. I guess somehow you have to explain that as charges were dropped you misinterpreted that as expungment of arrest record and hence you always said "no" with honest intent. Basically you have to prove that saying "no" was not to mislead USCIS, but it was just a honest mistake.
 
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Frodo,

I have no memory at all. That's why all of this past 29 years I have been walking around thinking that I had never been arrested. Yet, there is a record of it with the State.
 
matter resolved

The good news: 2 days before my interview, the State Attorney's office found partial records of my arrests of 33 years ago. There were no details except that all charges were dropped at the request of the complainant. I asked for and received a letter from the State Attorney that these were the only records they had on file.

At the interview, the Officer asked if I had ever been arrested, and I replied, Yes. She took the letter from the State Attorney, read it, put it into my file and did not ask anything else about it. The bad news is that I am caught by Retrogression for the rest of the world.

Some advice for those who may be in a similar situation: the date of the arrest may be much later than the date of the charge/complaint/case, which was why the court could not locate anything about my case (because I only knew the date of the arrest from the CIS notification letter). The Circuit Court clerk was kind enough to find time for me, and finally found my case when she looked at the files 13 months before the date of the arrest. After that, it was just a matter of asking the State Attorney to look for the records dated the same. Still, it took 5 months of persistent running back-and-forth between the Circuit Court and the State Attorney.

To answer SU_SU, the statute of limitations do not come into play. The crux of the matter was whether there was any intent to deceive on my part when I filled in the I-485 application form.
 
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