Hello,ocramid wrote:Hi,
I am new to this board. I was wanting to obtain a CHL, but I was arrested for DV in 2009. I was not convicted, but I am unsure where I stand.
My exwife accused me of domestic violence years ago, so "she could get me out of the house for the night" after a fight.
I was arrested that night after returning home. If iI would have known I would be divorced a year later, I would have just fought her in court, but I wanted to spare my children from that kind of life.
I was arrested in 2009 for Assault on a family member.
I was placed in a pretrial diversion program.
After 1 year, I went before the court and the charges were dismissed.
I was not convicted of Domestic Violence.
Do I qualify for a CHL, can anybody help out with an answer?
Thanks for your time.
Like you, I was wrongly charged for assault on a family member a couple years ago. Mine was even more outrageous as the arresting officer wrote in his report that I "fully admitted to hitting his family member." I never went through any pretrial diversion programs as I decided to pay the $$$ and fight the charges. (They wanted me to pay all kinds of fines, intensive violence intervention program, etc.) After a few hearings, the prosecutor agreed to dismiss all the charges if I took a 6 week counseling course, which I did on my own months prior. I got my dismissal paperwork and my lawyer said it was a straight dismissal, not deferred adjudication. Flash forward to December 2014, I went into a gun store, had my background checked and walked out with a M&P Shield in hand. My understanding is that I never would have been able to buy the gun if it truly was a conviction/deferred adjudication. I just applied for my CHL on January 7th and now am playing the waiting game!
On a side note, I decided to look up Texas Law on Deferred Adjudication(which counts as a conviction in Texas). From what I found, when you agree to deferred adjudication, you are agreeing to enter a guilty plea to the courts. From there, you are given the opportunity to do something (probation, community service, treatment, etc.) and avoid jail time. However, if you fail out of your "program" you will go back to court with your guilty plea and be sentenced under State Law.
TL;DR - Deferred Adjudication usually involves entering guilty plea then going to treatment to avoid jail time. If your case was dismissed like my case, then you should be good to go.