Expert: John L - 8/10/2009

Question
Brother had a domestic battery abuse charge from being a drunken fool with an ex-girl friend one night. The charge has been expunged. Will this still be a problem for him to re-enlist in the army? This happened 3 years ago and he has never been in any trouble besides this with the law, except for a couple of traffic things. To our understanding the expungement gives him the ability to carry a firearm again which is the essential premise to the lautenberg amendment and why people with this type of charge on their record are dq'd. Also, the expungement no longer qualifies this as a qualifying conviction which is another criteria to the lautenberg amendment. he did tell the recruiter of the charge when he initially called and all the recruiter said was to let him pull his record and see what comes up; we just kind of want a 2nd opinion so to speak and to know if we are understanding the DoD memos that we found on the internet; they were kind of old. Do the recruiters do some type of special police check ... do they still get access to things that have been expunged? or do they just get told what is a matter of public record?

Answer
It all boils down to why it was expungeed.  Nothing is really expunged, it is a misnomer.  If he was convicted or had to do classes to get it dropped, often referred to as diversion, he cannot join.  If it was nolle prosse  or found not guilty, he is fine.  No special police check is needed, it all shows when  government agency askes for all history.  Even an expungment can qulaify for lautenburg in the military if it was court diversion or court ordered counseling.  A recruiter can look at his specifc circumstances and tell him pretty quickly.