tsudeauxnimh
New Member
I was hoping you might assess the following situation and provide some guidance.
My wife and I are very interested in adopting a child, but as we begin our journey, a regrettable episode from my adolescence is hanging over us like a dark cloud, and we simply don't know how to handle it appropriately.
At age 14 during the 1980s, I was arrested (initially as a juvenile offender) in NY district court -- the matter was immediately removed to family court, and in its final disposition, the court adjudicated me a juvenile delinquent (an "E-petition" JD of a "designated felony act"). I completed counseling and was eventually discharged from probation, and the whole matter was consequently sealed under CPL 725.15.
I've already obtained copies of my own official NYS OCA, NYS DCJS, and FBI records (both fingerprint- and biographical info-based) -- all come back clean and empty. The DCJS report, however, did include an addendum for my reference: it indicated that a "subsequent search of sealed records" did in fact yield the old arrest and removal to family court.
So now my questions are as follows:
1) Are any public or private adoption agencies I might apply to -- or the NYS OCFS itself -- able to discover any of the elements of my sealed record (the NY district court arrest, the removal to family court, and/or the juvenile delinquency adjudication) when they do their criminal history background searches? And if so, how? and which elements?
2) According to my research, people with sealed JD adjudications and no further criminal history are legally able to state that they were never accused, arrested, charged, adjudicated, convicted, etc. Is this advisable as my wife and I apply to adoption agencies?
Any expertise or advice you could provide would be most sincerely appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
My wife and I are very interested in adopting a child, but as we begin our journey, a regrettable episode from my adolescence is hanging over us like a dark cloud, and we simply don't know how to handle it appropriately.
At age 14 during the 1980s, I was arrested (initially as a juvenile offender) in NY district court -- the matter was immediately removed to family court, and in its final disposition, the court adjudicated me a juvenile delinquent (an "E-petition" JD of a "designated felony act"). I completed counseling and was eventually discharged from probation, and the whole matter was consequently sealed under CPL 725.15.
I've already obtained copies of my own official NYS OCA, NYS DCJS, and FBI records (both fingerprint- and biographical info-based) -- all come back clean and empty. The DCJS report, however, did include an addendum for my reference: it indicated that a "subsequent search of sealed records" did in fact yield the old arrest and removal to family court.
So now my questions are as follows:
1) Are any public or private adoption agencies I might apply to -- or the NYS OCFS itself -- able to discover any of the elements of my sealed record (the NY district court arrest, the removal to family court, and/or the juvenile delinquency adjudication) when they do their criminal history background searches? And if so, how? and which elements?
2) According to my research, people with sealed JD adjudications and no further criminal history are legally able to state that they were never accused, arrested, charged, adjudicated, convicted, etc. Is this advisable as my wife and I apply to adoption agencies?
Any expertise or advice you could provide would be most sincerely appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
