Declaratory Order for Juvenile Assault in Texas, HELP!!!

[nettie376]

Hello all.

I was arrested twice in 3 day when I was 15 for assault: bodily injury to family member. Both charges were bogus and the second was outright self defense because my step father was on top of me and choking me. Both he and I were arrested because my mother deemed me 'unsafe' in an attempt to protect him, the aggressor, and because she used her position as a dispatcher to sway the officers' judgments. In any case, I was never prosecuted. I can explain the surrounding toxic circumstances to the assault charges and provide character witness statements from teachers, etc.

Since then, I've always made amazing grades, been active in the community, graduated with honors, and was accepted into 2 Honors Programs at Baylor University as a premedical student with an Academic Excellence scholarship. I left Baylor to pursue the conviction that I'd enjoy nursing more than anything else.

I'm now 22 and am graduating with my ADN in May (4 months from now). I have the options to:

1. Write a declaratory order now and hope it's done soon enough to take the NCLEX soon after I graduate (average wait is 3-6 months). I don't know my chances of this taking longer due to the fact that the charges are assaults, however bogus.

2. File to seal my juvenile record, which takes 6-7 months, and provide a copy of the orders saying my record is sealed upon taking the NCLEX. However, if anything comes up on a fingerprint history even if I have an order sealing my record (if it isn't sealed completely), the TBON will want a declaratory order filed, which will take even longer.

What should I do?

[caliotter3]

I would seek advice from an attorney experienced in dealing with your state's nursing board. You can probably find such an attorney at the referral service at The American Association of Nurse Attorneys: TAANA Executive Office - Home

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I thought you had a background check while in school. If so, and the state put any restrictions on it, then you abide by what they said. It should not be news to the BON. But really, I believe they are looking for patterns of behavior. Good luck!!

[nettie376]

I did have a background check prior to admittance into the program. I assumed that my juvenile record was sealed and was admitted into the program at age 20. Because of my admittance, I thought I didn't have a problem. I called the Juvenile Records office yesterday, though, and discovered that the record was never sealed. I don't understand it, but I guess it never came up on the background check.

[ncullom]

I've been scouring the internet for information on this type of issue, and I read about something called automatic restriction of juvenille records in Texas. It says that juvenille records cannot be accessed by anyone for any reason other than by a criminal justice agency for a criminal justice purpose, or for research. The records are automatically restricted when you turn 21 and only become visible again if the offender commits another class A or B misdemeanor or worse as an adult. If I am understanding this correctly, a person who commited a crime as a juvenille which is 16 and under can legally answer no to question #1 on the D.O. if they haven't done anything else major since. Here's this link so people can check it out. I'm curious to find out if anyone else has heard of this.

Automatic Restriction of Access to Records