Woman's 1963 arrest record is expunged after no one could find documentation
A Maryland woman who lost a job opportunity because of a reported arrest in 1963 had the record expunged after no one could find the original documents.
Barbara Ann Finn, 74, spent more than a year trying to clear her name, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. She reports she was never formally charged after she was taken into custody in 1963 when a friend was shoplifting at a Philadelphia clothes store.
She says the incident never caused any problems in her past job as a county employee and while acting as a foster parent. But the record turned up in a background check when she applied last year for a part-time job as a cafeteria worker. According to the story, Finn was “in the odd position of trying to get a record expunged that authorities couldn’t locate.”
The city prosecutor’s office in Philadelphia agreed to expunge the record on Monday, the story says.
Finn was featured in an earlier Wall Street Journal story about the impact of the FBI’s master database of arrest records that are kept even when there is no prosecution.
A new report being released on Tuesday calls for new laws to automatically seal minor convictions if the offender isn’t re-arrested within 10 years.
