Price Changing 17 years ago

17 years ago I was a 21yo homeless drunk who changed the price tag on a tent, paid the new price and was busted upon exit with the old price and an Elmer's glue stick. This took place in California. I was arrested with some type of felony spent an hour or two in the lockup, was given an OR release and told the charges would be dropped to a misdemeanor.

I left the state about 6 months later, never receiving any notification of a court date at the PO Box I had. That same year I sobered up, got married have teen age children now and a successful career, have been active in local politics and served actively in my church. I have never had even as much as a traffic ticket since. Life is good. I have had a few cops I know run an NCIC lookup to see if there are any wants or warrants - nothing comes back.

I now need to get a passport and am worried that due to the more extensive DOJ lookup on the passport that some type of failure-to-appear may show up or an arrest warrant for the original charge might show up.

Since this was 17 years ago, how should I proceed? Do I contact the courts to see if there is something outstanding still open/pending? Do I not worry about it? Do I have an attorney in the state work out the details? Do I contact the original store? I mean if this is still pending at this point I might force a trial and have them produce the witness that saw me, since I said nothing to the LP guys or the cops other than name and SS# the prosecutor might be willing to drop it since so much time has passed and its doubtful the LP guy still works there. Or if the PA is willing to work out a deal, just pay a fine and then have it expunged later.

Kids - think about what you do when younger - it WILL impact your children, spouse, future employers eventually. Its always been in the back of my mind - not knowing if the charges were dropped.

Thoughts, opinions how to proceed at this late stage?

You can try checking with a law enforcement agency or the courts where the incident occurred, to see what (if anything) shows up in their records. If you find something, you would likely benefit from having a lawyer in that county help you clear it up.