Background Check Advice

Pilot Fighter said:
I think it's much more likely that your flight school revealed that you were grounded for a period than a criminal records search was able to mine this information. All they had to ask was, was so-and-so ever grounded for health, safety, or as a disciplinary measure?

So, your flight school reacted to info provided by student health? Did someone require you to see student health?

My spidey-sense tells me that there are a few things missing from this story. Talk to an aviation attorney.
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Didn't even think about this. Yes, the school took the wise action to investigate the claim, as they should with any allegations of this magnitude. During that process they put you on a flight hold, send you off to student heath, and once they saw nothing was wrong with me, they gave the thumbs up and I was flying again. I thought all this was behind me 6 years ago.
 
JC150 said:
Yes, the school took the wise action to investigate the claim, as they should with any allegations of this magnitude.
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I don't see how it's a flight school's business to be "investigating" allegations. That's what the police are for. If you weren't charged with a crime why would they even know, let alone take action?
 
JC150 said:
First time poster, I hope this is in the right section...

6 years ago, I lived with roomates who sold drugs, partied, and drank from the dorm room. As a result, I spoke to my RA who called the police and one of the roomates was arrested. Afterwards, my roomates fabricated a story about me and made some allegations that are embarrassing. The accusations include homicidal and suicidal statements along with wanting to fly an airplane into the ground and kill lots of people on campus. The police came to my dorm room and they talked to everyone for roughly half an hour and left. The police made a report of the statements and what happened, I was put on flight hold status, and the university began their investigation. Skip ahead 2 months, I was transferred to a new dorm, put back on flight status, and no other interactions with the police occurred.

I recently interviewed with a regional airline who rescinded their offer following the background check. I did not mention this incident prior to the background check because I was never arrested nor did I get charged with anything.

I just interviewed with another regional that doesn't do a background check until after the ATP-CTP is complete. During the interview, they only asked about DUI and criminal convictions, so this incident does not meet either criteria. After ATP-CTP, there is a 1 week gap until new-hire class. During the first day of new hire class, the background check process is conducted.

On the application and during the interview, I was only asked about DUI's and arrests, both of which I said no to. I have never been arrested or ever been criminally charged. The police report from 6 years ago contains false statements that has already cost me one job, and I am trying to get ahead of this. I imagine this will come up again during the next background check. I am looking for advice on how to handle this.

Do I call HR and tell them about this BEFORE ATP-CTP? Or do I wait until after ATP-CTP, and tell someone about it during day 1 of new-hire training?

I want to re-emphasize, the statements in the police report are false, I was never arrested, and no charges were filed. The university found nothing wrong with me and I was put back on flight status. But there is still a police report out there with my name on it accusing me of saying things I never said, and it already cost me a job. What should I do?
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You (if I'm assuming correctly by the age clues given in your narrative) and your generation are the a bit screwed. You are the first generation to have to deal completely with ubiquitous and often opaque databases. These databases could have the ability to haunt you for life.

In the “old days” if a judge adjudicated a false arrest, or laughed a charge out of court, that judge could literally rip up the documentation of the action, throw it in the nearest trash can, expunge the charge, and your record would be clean, as in there would be no remaining records indicating the event even happened. And if by chance there were, they’d be moldering away in a records box in a warehouse somewhere. Not any more. Today, when almost any action is taken by a LEO at almost any jurisdictional level, the reports of those actions are immediately transmitted to state and national databases from which extraction can be virtually impossible. And just to be clear, the document transmission generally takes place immediately, as in before any review or adjudication of the matter takes place.

Today, almost everything is recorded, even simple field reports which most LEOs are now directed to take more assiduously than in the past. And all that info gets transmitted to databases largely beyond, often, even a judge’s ability to correct. The reasons are varied: jurisdictional issues, incompetence, complexity, privately-owned databases used by public entities, etc. In any case, it’s damned hard now to ensure that all records are purged when an expungement is ordered.

This is going to be a huge problem for your nascent generation, in way similar to, but much more profound than a pot bust was a big problem for many reaching employable age in the 80’s and even into the 90’s. After that, a sort of immunity-of-mass kicked in. So many people had minor drug infractions and so many people had taken a toke here or there that the stigma evaporated and no one really cared anymore as long as an applicant was currently clean. We can only hope that the same happens with these electronic records.

Given that you have no charges, arrests, or convictions, one would hope that you can prevail. As most have pointed out, you will need to hire a good attorney, spend money and time to deal with this, and get the records expunged. If the facts of the matter are as you stated, you should be on solid ground for expungement. But even then, all the records may not disappear. Records, and indices to records, are supposed to be deleted, but in many cases are found later not to have been.

Going forward, if one finds oneself in this sort of situation, it seems to me it would be prudent to obtain and retain as much documentation of the event (at the time of the event) as possible, and, if possible, receive expungement immediately.

I fear this kind of thing is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
 
Derg said:
Did you get an attorney yet?

What did he (or she) say?

You didn't?

Go geet one!
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You gotta make it audiovisual!

findLawyer.jpg

(Not actually click here)
 
Update: I have contacted a few attorneys. Long story short, if criminal charges had been filed, there is a way to get them expunged. However, the only way to get something expunged like this is to sue the police department, but because it happened so long ago, none of the attorneys said they would be willing to take the case.

What are my options? I could tell the HR department now before ATP-CTP and there is a chance they could let me go. Or I can wait until after ATP-CTP, bring it up before the background check, and hope they don't let me go.
 
JC150 said:
Update: I have contacted a few attorneys. Long story short, if criminal charges had been filed, there is a way to get them expunged. However, the only way to get something expunged like this is to sue the police department, but because it happened so long ago, none of the attorneys said they would be willing to take the case.

What are my options? I could tell the HR department now before ATP-CTP and there is a chance they could let me go. Or I can wait until after ATP-CTP, bring it up before the background check, and hope they don't let me go.
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Tell them now, before ATP/CTP. The longer you wait, the more likely they'll bounce you.
 
Update: A lawyer told me I should ask the police department to make an additional police report saying the accusations were unfounded and no further actions were needed. Do you think that will be enough? It doesn't sound like I can get rid of this report at all.
 
Can you find out who accessed the record? I would also get a lawyer on the flight school and if they released medical records without permission.
 
Pilot Fighter said:
Hmmmm.
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Not entirely grocking the "hmmmm", but thinking it may indicate some doubt about the charges.
If, in fact, no criminal charges were filed, he is correct that it will be more difficult to have the records expunged. Weird, but true. It's actually easier to have a criminal conviction expunged than criminal charges, and it's easier to have criminal charges expunged than records of an investigation of some sort.
 
Derg said:
I'd get another attorney.

It's a multi-million dollar gamble you're looking at.

You could be stuck flying Navajos full of sex toys in Amarillo or you could be a 787 captain one day. it's worth pursuing.
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Yeah but... the 787 carries the sex toys to Dallas where the Navajo picks them up. ;)
 
Crop Duster said:
Not entirely grocking the "hmmmm", but thinking it may indicate some doubt about the charges.
If, in fact, no criminal charges were filed, he is correct that it will be more difficult to have the records expunged. Weird, but true. It's actually easier to have a criminal conviction expunged than criminal charges, and it's easier to have criminal charges expunged than records of an investigation of some sort.
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That is correct, no criminal charges were filed. I was never arrested or even detained for that matter. It's simply a piece of paper of false allegations that is holding me back from my dream job...
 
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