302 Expungement - Westmoreland County

[-=Mister_X=-]

Hello -

Last month I was denied a gun transaction due to the fact that there are several 302s listed from 13 years ago.

Would anyone be able to provide me with an expungement lawyer in Westmoreland County that can help me?

Greatly appreciated (in advance)

X

[wecroft]

Hello -

Last month I was denied a gun transaction due to the fact that there are several 302s listed from 13 years ago.

Would anyone be able to provide me with an expungement lawyer in Westmoreland County that can help me?

Greatly appreciated (in advance)

X

Don't know what a "302" is, but if it was an offense that is expungable, just go down to the court clerk's office and fill out the forms. You don't need a lawyer.

[GunLawyer001]

Don't know what a "302" is, but if it was an offense that is expungable, just go down to the court clerk's office and fill out the forms. You don't need a lawyer.

Wow, completely wrong in every way. Amazing fail.

A 302 is not an offense, it's a commitment for psych evaluation.
There are no "forms" for expungements sitting around the county clerk's office (assuming you mean either the Clerk of Court of the Prothonotary in a Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas.)
Yes, you do need a lawyer to draft the pleadings for this type of relief, which is authorized by the UFA. I'd try Jon Pushinsky:

1808 Law & Finance Bldg.
429 4th Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1503
Phone: work(412) 281-6800
Fax: fax(412) 281-6808

Jon is very knowledgeable in this area. If you can hire him, you'll be in good hands.

People, please refrain from offering legal opinions if you have no basis at all for them. Folks come here for help, not to see if you can type words.

[gumbys1up]

Atleast this willbe on topic.. Im hoping you "gunlawyer" could point me in the right direction..

I personally have tried to apply pardon I sent the like 85 bucks or whatever it was (this was about a year ago also) and I haven't recieved anything from them.. They tell me

"send it certified" so I do... And still nothing.

Now I had to argue with the state police firearms divison just to even be allowed to OWN a gun..which took place about 2-3 years ago by writing them a letter. and they agreed and said ok sure.. u just can't get a LTCF.

Which led me to trying to get my ltcf... Well because of the "Drug etc act"
it's not a prohibiting offense for me to not be allowed to OWN a gun.. just the state doesn't trust me to carry it on my hip.. with my shirt over it ( I OC all the time)

My question is could you point me in the right direction of someone that can possibly help me with this? I really would prefer to have my LTCF for obvious reasons and the state is jerking me around. When I called the office a bunch of times and they told me they had sent it out.. Well I haven't got anything.

Any help would be great. Im not rich either lol... its sad i havta go through a song and dance.. because I got high when i was 18 (im 24 now) and im prohibited for life???? that's goofy..

u can have 3 DUI's and STILL have your ltcf.
once agian any help would be great

[GunLawyer001]

Atleast this willbe on topic.. Im hoping you "gunlawyer" could point me in the right direction..

I personally have tried to apply pardon I sent the like 85 bucks or whatever it was (this was about a year ago also) and I haven't recieved anything from them.. They tell me

"send it certified" so I do... And still nothing.

Now I had to argue with the state police firearms divison just to even be allowed to OWN a gun..which took place about 2-3 years ago by writing them a letter. and they agreed and said ok sure.. u just can't get a LTCF.

Which led me to trying to get my ltcf... Well because of the "Drug etc act"
it's not a prohibiting offense for me to not be allowed to OWN a gun.. just the state doesn't trust me to carry it on my hip.. with my shirt over it ( I OC all the time)

My question is could you point me in the right direction of someone that can possibly help me with this? I really would prefer to have my LTCF for obvious reasons and the state is jerking me around. When I called the office a bunch of times and they told me they had sent it out.. Well I haven't got anything.

Any help would be great. Im not rich either lol... its sad i havta go through a song and dance.. because I got high when i was 18 (im 24 now) and im prohibited for life???? that's goofy..

u can have 3 DUI's and STILL have your ltcf.
once agian any help would be great

Pardon applications are one of the things that I do for a living. I advise everyone to apply one time only, and give that first application the maximum effort, because once they deny you, every future application for a pardon is essentially futile.
Hire a lawyer who's been through the process, and do it right.

[jerkin]

While I know nothing about 302's and I imagine the process is vastly different, I can tell you that you can certainly apply for an expungement for a criminal offense yourself and they do have forms for it at the clerk of courts, at least in Beaver County, as I have one sitting in front of me from when I did mine almost 2 years ago.

It's called a "Petition for Expungement" and I got it from the clerk of courts, filled it out while I was there, paid them $68 and a few months later got a letter from the Central Repository-Expungement Unit that states "all criminal history record information in the custody of this agency pertaining to the arrest of: My name .... has been expunged". There is also another letter that says "No Record of Criminal Arrest" with my name on it.

The only thing I had to do was go downstairs to adult probation and get a form stating that I had completed ARD then take all of the paperwork to the DA's office. That was it, did it myself with no lawyer, with the form they provided me. They wouldn't give me any help in filling out the form but it was pretty self-explanatory and only a couple pages long.

It's best to take the paperwork from your arrest with you as you will need the dates, case# and OTN number for the forms.

[GunLawyer001]

While I know nothing about 302's and I imagine the process is vastly different, I can tell you that you can certainly apply for an expungement for a criminal offense yourself and they do have forms for it at the clerk of courts, at least in Beaver County, as I have one sitting in front of me from when I did mine almost 2 years ago.

It's called a "Petition for Expungement" and I got it from the clerk of courts, filled it out while I was there, paid them $68 and a few months later got a letter from the Central Repository-Expungement Unit that states "all criminal history record information in the custody of this agency pertaining to the arrest of: My name .... has been expunged". There is also another letter that says "No Record of Criminal Arrest" with my name on it.

The only thing I had to do was go downstairs to adult probation and get a form stating that I had completed ARD then take all of the paperwork to the DA's office. That was it, did it myself with no lawyer, with the form they provided me. They wouldn't give me any help in filling out the form but it was pretty self-explanatory and only a couple pages long.

It's best to take the paperwork from your arrest with you as you will need the dates, case# and OTN number for the forms.

Expungements of arrests WITHOUT CONVICTIONS, usually after ARD for DUI's, happen often enough that some counties may have forms. Some counties may do it automatically after completion of ARD. But any request for expungement can be contested by police, and the courts have allowed police to keep non-conviction arrest records where there was a good case to be made that the arrestee really may have done the deed. Just because witnesses die or are scared off, or the jury was hung, or critical evidence was seized improperly, doesn't mean that the system has to erase all the records. Sometimes they find it handy to have that info for your next crime.

Remember "Dirty Harry", after Callahan beat the crap out of Scorpio, found the murder weapon, tortured Scorpio into revealing where the little girl was buried? I bet they'd keep that arrest record even after the charges were dismissed.

But arrests without convictions won't prohibit anyone from a PICS approval, so anyone coming to PAFOA because they are denied by either a criminal conviction of an involuntary commitment, will NOT be able to "expunge" that record and pass PICS without a lawyer and without a formal petition to Common Pleas, and usually a pardon of the conviction. Relief is available for some types of prohibitors, but expungement for prohibitors is not easily available.

I don't want PAFOA members thinking that an expungement is a simple process that you can probably do yourself if you put enough quarters in the parking meter and take an hour or two to do it right. These are all adversarial proceedings before Common Pleas Court judges. If you ask any lawyer to do it for you, it will take hours of work, and a fair amount of cash before it's all done. So don't run screaming that the lawyer (whoever you talk to) wanted to rip you off for doing this simple task.

[jerkin]

Gunlawyer, I think I fit into the category you mentioned where they kept some of the records. There are 2 boxes checked on my form the first one states:

"Expunged from the file of criminal history record information available for routine dissemination under the provisions of the criminal history record information act, 18 Pa.C.S.A. section 9121. This expungement effected under the provisions of 18 Pa.C.S.A. section 9122 upon seccessful completion of conditions of ARD, or any other pretrial or post-trial diversion or probation program.

The second box checked reads:

The fingerprints, name, and criminal history record information pertaining to the above captioned case are being retained solely for the purpose of determining subsequent eligibility of any pretrial or post-trial diversion or probation program and shall be made available to any court only upon request, in accordance with 18 Pa.C.S.A. section 9122.

So I guess there are different types of expungements. I know mine doesn't show up on a background check but it was only an M3 to begin with and was not a prohibitor. Maybe I should have retained a lawyer, lol. You are also correct that some counties do it automatically, a friend had a dui in Tionesta a few years ago and after ARD his record was automatically expunged without going back to court.

[GunLawyer001]

Gunlawyer, I think I fit into the category you mentioned where they kept some of the records. There are 2 boxes checked on my form the first one states:

"Expunged from the file of criminal history record information available for routine dissemination under the provisions of the criminal history record information act, 18 Pa.C.S.A. section 9121. This expungement effected under the provisions of 18 Pa.C.S.A. section 9122 upon seccessful completion of conditions of ARD, or any other pretrial or post-trial diversion or probation program.

The second box checked reads:

The fingerprints, name, and criminal history record information pertaining to the above captioned case are being retained solely for the purpose of determining subsequent eligibility of any pretrial or post-trial diversion or probation program and shall be made available to any court only upon request, in accordance with 18 Pa.C.S.A. section 9122.

So I guess there are different types of expungements. I know mine doesn't show up on a background check but it was only an M3 to begin with and was not a prohibitor. Maybe I should have retained a lawyer, lol. You are also correct that some counties do it automatically, a friend had a dui in Tionesta a few years ago and after ARD his record was automatically expunged without going back to court.

ARD is supposed to be for non-violent first-time offenders. They have to retain enough info so that they can tell if you're a first-time offender the NEXT time. (In practice, I've heard of some people getting ARD multiple times.)

[-=Mister_X=-]

GunLawyer001 - Thank you very much.

X