Should I wait until Orientation to disclose an arrest? Forum

[steveorckel]

I was charged with Assault and Battery in 2007. There was a fight at a party that I was at on the night of Friday, 1/27/07. On Monday morning (1/30/07), an individual who had been injured in the fight filed a criminal complaint against me with the local Sheriff's office. It was purely a case of mistaken identities. The person he had been involved in the fight with was about my height and looked a little bit like me, I guess.

That day, 1/30, I spoke with a Sheriff's Deputy on the phone and had him meet me outside of my house where I signed a piece of paper and agreed to attend a preliminary hearing the next day. After the hearing, I spoke with the prosecutor who had the complainant contact
me, and we cleared up the mistake. The case ended in a Nolle Prosequi, and the complainant eventually identified his actual assailant and they worked out their issues through the University's mediator.

Because I was not convicted of anything and I was never hand-cuffed nor taken into custody by the police, I foolishly never considered that it may appear on my criminal record. I just started a new job and discovered that the incident appears on my criminal history report.

I'm starting law school in the fall, so I looked back at my application and saw that the criminal history question requires me to disclose all arrests and convicions. Obviously, I will now have to disclose the arrest to the school.

Is there any advantage to waiting until Orientation when the school asks us to submit any addendums to our applications, or should I just go ahead and come forward with it now? I am leaning towards the latter, mostly because I want to get this uncertainty off of my conscience as soon as possible. But I was accepted ED to the school and have long since withdrawn all of my other applications, so if my offer were rescinded it would be pretty devastating and would involve retaking and acquiring new LORs (both are from 2009).

Has anyone ever heard of a school rescinding an offer for this type of situation? Any advice and/or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

[PARTY]

Waitingto to disclose is a terribleidea idea. If they are going to drop you now, they'll sure as hell drop you at orientation because it'll be obvious you're attempting to game the system.

Either go in and meet them, or carefully explain everything including your mistake in a letter.

Don't let this snowball into a no lawyering for you situation.

[ScrabbleChamp]

I was charged with Assault and Battery in 2007. There was a fight at a party that I was at on the night of Friday, 1/27/07. On Monday morning (1/30/07), an individual who had been injured in the fight filed a criminal complaint against me with the local Sheriff's office. It was purely a case of mistaken identities. The person he had been involved in the fight with was about my height and looked a little bit like me, I guess.

That day, 1/30, I spoke with a Sheriff's Deputy on the phone and had him meet me outside of my house where I signed a piece of paper and agreed to attend a preliminary hearing the next day. After the hearing, I spoke with the prosecutor who had the complainant contact
me, and we cleared up the mistake. The case ended in a Nolle Prosequi, and the complainant eventually identified his actual assailant and they worked out their issues through the University's mediator.

Because I was not convicted of anything and I was never hand-cuffed nor taken into custody by the police, I foolishly never considered that it may appear on my criminal record. I just started a new job and discovered that the incident appears on my criminal history report.

I'm starting law school in the fall, so I looked back at my application and saw that the criminal history question requires me to disclose all arrests and convicions. Obviously, I will now have to disclose the arrest to the school.

Is there any advantage to waiting until Orientation when the school asks us to submit any addendums to our applications, or should I just go ahead and come forward with it now? I am leaning towards the latter, mostly because I want to get this uncertainty off of my conscience as soon as possible. But I was accepted ED to the school and have long since withdrawn all of my other applications, so if my offer were rescinded it would be pretty devastating and would involve retaking and acquiring new LORs (both are from 2009).

Has anyone ever heard of a school rescinding an offer for this type of situation? Any advice and/or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

If I were you, I'd disclose ASAP. If you wait until school starts and disclose at that time, you may be asked when/how you found out, and it would probably look pretty bad if the school finds out you've known for several months and never notified them.

Your situation is such that I don't think it will affect anything with regard to your admission, so why not disclose now? Why wait until school starts and risk forgetting or, worse, look like you are trying to hide it as long as possible?

[ToTransferOrNot]

I was charged with Assault and Battery in 2007. There was a fight at a party that I was at on the night of Friday, 1/27/07. On Monday morning (1/30/07), an individual who had been injured in the fight filed a criminal complaint against me with the local Sheriff's office. It was purely a case of mistaken identities. The person he had been involved in the fight with was about my height and looked a little bit like me, I guess.

That day, 1/30, I spoke with a Sheriff's Deputy on the phone and had him meet me outside of my house where I signed a piece of paper and agreed to attend a preliminary hearing the next day. After the hearing, I spoke with the prosecutor who had the complainant contact
me, and we cleared up the mistake. The case ended in a Nolle Prosequi, and the complainant eventually identified his actual assailant and they worked out their issues through the University's mediator.

Because I was not convicted of anything and I was never hand-cuffed nor taken into custody by the police, I foolishly never considered that it may appear on my criminal record. I just started a new job and discovered that the incident appears on my criminal history report.

I'm starting law school in the fall, so I looked back at my application and saw that the criminal history question requires me to disclose all arrests and convicions. Obviously, I will now have to disclose the arrest to the school.

Is there any advantage to waiting until Orientation when the school asks us to submit any addendums to our applications, or should I just go ahead and come forward with it now? I am leaning towards the latter, mostly because I want to get this uncertainty off of my conscience as soon as possible. But I was accepted ED to the school and have long since withdrawn all of my other applications, so if my offer were rescinded it would be pretty devastating and would involve retaking and acquiring new LORs (both are from 2009).

Has anyone ever heard of a school rescinding an offer for this type of situation? Any advice and/or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

If they would rescind your acceptance over this, they would still rescind your acceptance if you wait. And waiting will look worse for C&F purposes. Best to get it over with.

[Randomnumbers]

I was charged with Assault and Battery in 2007. There was a fight at a party that I was at on the night of Friday, 1/27/07. On Monday morning (1/30/07), an individual who had been injured in the fight filed a criminal complaint against me with the local Sheriff's office. It was purely a case of mistaken identities. The person he had been involved in the fight with was about my height and looked a little bit like me, I guess.

That day, 1/30, I spoke with a Sheriff's Deputy on the phone and had him meet me outside of my house where I signed a piece of paper and agreed to attend a preliminary hearing the next day. After the hearing, I spoke with the prosecutor who had the complainant contact
me, and we cleared up the mistake. The case ended in a Nolle Prosequi, and the complainant eventually identified his actual assailant and they worked out their issues through the University's mediator.

Because I was not convicted of anything and I was never hand-cuffed nor taken into custody by the police, I foolishly never considered that it may appear on my criminal record. I just started a new job and discovered that the incident appears on my criminal history report.

I'm starting law school in the fall, so I looked back at my application and saw that the criminal history question requires me to disclose all arrests and convicions. Obviously, I will now have to disclose the arrest to the school.

Is there any advantage to waiting until Orientation when the school asks us to submit any addendums to our applications, or should I just go ahead and come forward with it now? I am leaning towards the latter, mostly because I want to get this uncertainty off of my conscience as soon as possible. But I was accepted ED to the school and have long since withdrawn all of my other applications, so if my offer were rescinded it would be pretty devastating and would involve retaking and acquiring new LORs (both are from 2009).

Has anyone ever heard of a school rescinding an offer for this type of situation? Any advice and/or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

You seem to be suggesting that they would actually be more lenient if you waited? There is absolutely no advantage to you from waiting to disclose, and far more serious negatives. If they are going to rescind it now, they are *definitely* going to rescind it at orientation. [Spoilers: they don't care about it. There is a slim possibility of them caring about you not disclosing as soon as you realized it. Don't be an idiot and disclose now.]

[splitbrain]

Disclose now.

[steveorckel]

Thanks for you help guys. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I went ahead and left a voicemail for the Admissions Director over my lunch break.

[PARTY]

Thanks for you help guys. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I went ahead and left a voicemail for the Admissions Director over my lunch break.

A voicemail? What'd you say?

[woeisme]

Wait, so were you actually arrested? If not, it's unclear that you really had to disclose this.

Anyway, I'm fairly confident that this won't impact your acceptance. Just get it off your chest.

[CanadianWolf]

Doesn't appear that you were arrested. Were formal charges filed? Disclose, then get it expunged.

[dingbat]

Not that I think that it would come to this, but in a worst case scenario if your offer being rescinded you might still be able to get into one of the other schools that accepted you
That and you won't have to pay the second deposit before getting the boot
(devil's advocate)

[chipcope]

Hey guys, thanks again for all of the advice. Now that I'm fairly reassured that this is not going to turn into a "no lawyering for you" situation, I don't mind using my actual profile. Yes, I succeeded in freaking myself out about this enough that I made a fake name to ask the question on TLS. Steve Orckel is my Skyrim character and is equally well respected among the Nords for both his valor in combat and his easy charm in conversation.

The Admissions Director called me back about an hour ago and basically just affirmed what all of you good people have been saying. Like woeisme, he actually was not even sure that it was necessary for me to disclose the incident. Although I was officially arrested and I do believe that formal charges were filed, I got the sense from our conversation that, in my case at least, it came down to: no conviction=no problem. I sent him a very informal addendum, and he is going to add it to my application.

Thanks again for your comments, and although I now realize that all of my stress and anxiety were for naught, I am still tremendously relieved.

[PARTY]

What the hell kind of a skyrim character name is steve orckel?

Also: i'm glad shit worked out for you.

[jetsetter12]

you're worth a lot of money to them...don't think you have no leverage....tell them whatever you want whenever you want. they want you

[BVest]

www.top-law-schools.com.org