New Jersey Expungement Lawyer: Why Expungements Matter.

A Board of Education member who resigned days before being disqualified by the state said that he broke someone’s jaw when he was a teenager and that he is now “being punished” more than three decades after the fact.

Reached for comment Thursday, Steve Rogan, 49, of Poplar Street, said he resigned because of family health concerns and that he was disqualified by the state from serving on the board because of an incident that occurred in 1981, when he was a juvenile living in the borough.

“What happened was when I was 17, I broke somebody’s jaw, aggravated assault, and I didn’t go to court until I was 18, and that’s the reason I’m not allowed on the Board of Ed.,” Rogan said. “Thirty-one years ago I did something and I’m being punished by the government, by the governor.”

The Board of Education is looking to fill a vacancy following Rogan’s resignation. Rogan, who had served on the board since April of 2009, filed his letter of resignation on Jan. 4, according to Corey J. Lowell, business administrator and board secretary.

The board received a Jan. 5 letter from the state Department of Education Criminal History Review Unit stating that Rogan had not completed the fingerprinting process required for the criminal history background check. In a letter dated Jan. 10, the state told the board that Rogan “was disqualified from serving as a board member due to a disqualifying event,” Lowell said Wednesday.

Allison Kobus, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education, said Thursday that by law the state cannot disclose the results of a criminal background check.

The disqualification comes under a law signed by Gov. Chris Christie last May requiring all board members to comply with criminal background checks and step down if they have past convictions for a wide array of crimes. Kobus said there is no time limit for how far back in a board’s member’s past the convictions occurred.

Rogan isn’t the first school official in Monmouth County to step down under the law; last September, Asbury Park school board president Remond Palmer was permanently disqualified from serving on the board due to a 1989 cocaine possession conviction.

According to a post on the Keansburg school district’s website, the Board of Education is accepting applicants for Rogan’s seat on the board through Feb. 16, with interviews to be conducted Feb. 28 at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. at the Joseph Bolger Middle School, 100 Palmer Place. The term will run until November, when it will be placed on the ballot at the annual election, according to the notice.

This story is yet another example of why an expungement is so important.  Whenever a person is charged with a crime, he or she will have a “criminal record.”  Evidence of the criminal arrest will remain regardless of how the case is resolved.  As such, it is important for anyone who has been charged with a crime to consult an expungement attorney to discuss the expungement process.

Even if a case is dismissed, the criminal record including any fingerprints, photographs and the record of the charge/arrest remain on their record forever. If a defendant is convicted of the crime, it is even more important to assess eligibility for expungement.  An experienced expungement lawyer can help. Criminal records can follow a defendant long beyond the day he or she left the courthouse. Prospective employers, colleges and universities, insurance companies, landlords, adoption agencies, banks, and mortgage lenders routinely check these records for evidence of a criminal past.

The right to have an arrest or conviction expunged is rooted in New Jerseystatute.  The law provides that “expungement shall mean the extraction and isolation of all records on file.” N.J.S.A. 2C:52-1(a).  “If an order of expungement is granted, the arrest, conviction and any proceedings related thereto shall be deemed not to have occurred, and the petitioner may answer any questions relating to their occurrence accordingly.”  N.J.S.A. 2C:52-1(a).  The plain language of this statute reveals that, in nearly all instances, if you are questioned about the existence of an arrest or conviction you may legally deny that such an event ever took place.

The law also sets forth the public policy motivations behind the process: “This chapter shall be construed with the primary objective of providing relief to the one-time offender who has led a life of rectitude and disassociated himself with unlawful activity, but not to create a system whereby periodic violators of the law or those who associate themselves with criminal activity have a regular means of expunging their police records.”  N.J.S.A. 2C:52-52.

If the expungement is granted, “all records specified in the expungement order shall be removed from the files of the agencies…and shall be placed in the control of a person who has been designated by the head of each such agency.”  This is designed to “ensure that such records or the information contained therein are not related for any reason and are not utilized or referred to for any purposes.”  If someone were to make a request for information concerning your criminal record, “all noticed officers, departments and agencies shall reply, with respect to the arrest, conviction or related proceedings which are the subject of the order, that there is no record information.”  N.J.S.A. 2C:52-15.  Any person who reveals to another the existence of an arrest, conviction or related legal proceedings may be charged with a criminal disorderly persons offense.  N.J.S.A. 2C:52-30

This law firm has experience helping clients obtain expungements throughout New Jersey.   Al Mollo, Esq. recently in a television commercial explaining the benefits of a New Jersey expungement.  Please contact our office at (732) 747-1844 or e-mail Al Mollo directly at amollo@mollolawfirm.com.  You can also visit our website at www.mollolawfirm.com for more information.  Thank you.

Source: app.com, 1/27/12