Difficulty Finding Employment Due to an Unclassified Misdemeanor Conviction

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Oregon

My husband recently separated from the military. We have been applying for a job a day, and some send immediate "Sorry, we are looking for someone else". He has an unclassified misdemeanor that was a contempt of court. The babysitter never showed up so that he wouldn't violate the court order to stay away from his ex-wife so he had to stay when she arrived because the babysitter never arrived, and he left as soon as she arrived to care for the kids, however this resulted in contempt of court. He is mostly applying to become a corrections officer/police officer, but we'd like to know if we should give up on that and try for a different area since it seems that these jobs won't take an unclassified misdemeanor?

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Quoting Lexa Hayes

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My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Oregon

My husband recently separated from the military. We have been applying for a job a day, and some send immediate "Sorry, we are looking for someone else". He has an unclassified misdemeanor that was a contempt of court. The babysitter never showed up so that he wouldn't violate the court order to stay away from his ex-wife so he had to stay when she arrived because the babysitter never arrived, and he left as soon as she arrived to care for the kids, however this resulted in contempt of court. He is mostly applying to become a corrections officer/police officer, but we'd like to know if we should give up on that and try for a different area since it seems that these jobs won't take an unclassified misdemeanor?

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He might consider talking to an attorney about the possibility of getting his record expunged.

Thank you, I mentioned this to him.

If he's applying for law enforcement or corrections, they're likely to discover the issue during his background investigation, even if expunged. The problem is that with law enforcement in particular, a person needs "clean hands" when in a position where they're going to be put on the stand as the state's witness in a criminal case. Anyone with a background that includes things related to false statements, or failure to follow a court's order is going to be the wet dream of any defense attorney that the officer might encounter. It doesn't take much to create doubt of credibility in the minds of some jurors, and exposing something like this to impeach an officer can spell easy "wins" for the defense team (regardless of HOW they find out about it, and "expunged" does NOT mean that ALL records of an event disappear from every possible source). If he thinks this contempt issue is what is costing him positions, and he's adamant about seeking law enforcement employment, then he really should be talking with the department about the issue before he goes through the massive amounts of paperwork required to apply for those positions. Some departments will care more than others. Some have SO many applicants that they can afford to trash any application that doesn't smell like roses. But bringing it up before applying may at least allow him to concentrate on agencies that might give him a chance or be willing to listen to his explanation of the WHOLE situation, rather than just seeing a certian box checked on the application and trashing it.

There are some awesome officers who teach at Clackamas Community College (I took many of their Crime Analysis courses online) - if it's convenient, he might pop by, get to know a couple of the officers who teach, and get their insight into possibilities for the local agency. Don't know if he's still there, but Kurt Nelson was one of the ones who sticks out in my mind.

If he is getting called for interviews, has been given reason to believe that he is a top candidate, and then is not getting the job, then *maybe* this is a factor.

If he is not getting called for interviews, then I GUARANTEE you this has nothing to do with it.

I don't care what the position or the industry is, NO ONE has the time, energy or resources (and that includes financial resources) to run background checks on candidates before they are interviewed. While the economy is improving, we are still in an era where there are far more people applying for jobs than there are jobs available. It's simply not possible to check out each one before you interview them. The background check is the LAST thing that's done before hire, not the first.

So far he has applied to a corrections job, a few security(these are the ones that have been immediately denied) and two police departments. I will tell him about talking to the departments first. And also about the police at clackamas cc. Thanks so much guys

The following link is to a list of automatic disqualifiers for peace officer and security positions in Oregon. If you do not find the specific violation listed, there is a number on the chart you can call for clarification.

http://www.oregon.gov/dpsst/PS/docs/psdisquals.pdf

Yes, please don't understand me.

He can still be disqualified from a position after he interviews for it, and on the basis of the misdemeanor. What I'm saying is that any disqualifications that occur before he has been called in for an interview, are going to be for a different reason.

Unless he truthfully answered the question "have you been convicted..." on the application. In which case it's possible his application as trashed out of hand.

Good point, Ron.

That's what I was referring to about the checking of certain boxes on the application. If they're desperate for people, they might allow an applicant the benefit of the doubt and/or process them through to the background and question them to see the specifics behind the check. I've worked with several awesome long term law enforcement folks who did things like participate in sit-ins in the 60's and things like that - they checked the box, but the explanation of the incidents quelled concerns and they ended up being model employees, advanced to supervisors, etc. But if they've got dozens (or hundreds) of applications with no naughty boxes checked, yep, I can see potentially problematic ones going right into the shredder.

If this was a civil contempt proceeding, even if it was classified as such by the court, it should not appear on your husband's record as a criminal conviction. I suggest that your husband have the court records reviewed by a lawyer who handles expungement matters, as if in fact this should not be abstracted as a misdemeanor it should be possible to clear it up with a motion to the court.