Deferred Prosecution/Expunged Record Question
 

I have a question regarding airline pilot jobs and the background check process.

I have a son who has been flying for a while now. He has been flight instructing for a few years now and has decided to make the move up to the airlines. There's one problem though...several years ago he made a not so bright choice and got in trouble with the wrong crowd. This choice led to him being charged with 2 felonies and 3 misdemeanors. After several court dates and a lot of money spent, he was granted deferred prosecution. The terms of this were simple: complete a short probation period and community service and the case would be dismissed. After dismissal, we had the option of having the charges and arrest record expunged, which we did. On his record is no evidence of the crime or arrests, and he was not convicted on any charge. We were under the impression that this would allow him to continue his dream of being an airline pilot one day.

His attorney, one who has been in the industry for a while now and even worked for the DA's office (which helped him get into this program), was pretty clear about applying for jobs and said that our state has pretty strict views on not having to disclose expunged charges after a deferred prosecution program - stating that he does not have to admit to the arrest or charges when asked on an application or in an interview whatsoever.

However, he refuses to apply to any airline after hearing that they do an FBI background check, afraid that he will get hired and then be fired midway through training even though he legally did not lie to an airline. I don't know how to answer any of his questions, I was under the impression that once expunged it is gone from his record (the whole reason we did this!) so I offered to come on here and ask for him.

So once again:
-My son was charged with 2 felonies and 3 misd.
-Was granted deferred prosecution.
-Was NOT convicted
-Completed deferred prosecution program
-Records expunged, arrests and charges not on background check.

So will he have any trouble getting on with an airline? If it does somehow show up on his background check that he has expunged charges, will an airline terminate him because of that? Even if they don't ask for arrests or charges?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I guess it could be a moral versus legal answer.
If the question is HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ARRESTED - then the answer is TRUTHFULLY YES - even if things have been expunged. Sounds like an excellent question for a labor / contract attorney in your home state or in the state with which the hiring airline runs its' operations.
He is right about the airlines finding out something and possibly firing halfway through training and now having that type of dismissal on his records.
There are NUMEROUS threads on APC which over your questions in detail.
It seems to be quite the common occurrence.

USMCFLYR