originally posted 12/12/2012
For me personally, it’s 4 more years left to go to before I can legally petition to get of the registry with a CA Certificate of Rehabilitation. You have to wait 10 years from the time your probation or parole ends. You hear different versions on needing to reside in CA before applying, 3-5 years before the 10 year period is over, on the various attorney websites in CA. I wonder how I’m going to get around THAT one? The law states unless you have an extenuating circumstance'. I'd always hoped that I'd be employed abroad before then and could plead that I was the primary support of my wife and couldn’t relocate to CA and leave her. I'd hate to come back and live jobless and homeless under a bridge or a park bench somewhere just so some politician could get votes.
It's funny the timing…4 more years to go, and just yesterday there was news about CA planning to put former SO's who had finally gotten off the registry legally BACK on. I don't know today. It seems like for every two steps forward we take as a movement, we have to take one backward. Alex told me once a lot can happen in 4-5 years, both good and bad, so let's see what happens while we're trying to bring about change.
To me, the only good thing about living here in the Philippines is NOT having to register and put up with all the restrictions imposed on you as a SO. My wife Weng doesn’t understand the laws (who of us does?), or my involvement with RSOL or CA RSOL now; she just wants to see us together and happy. I can't really depend on her for any help or advice regarding this; she's a foreign national and has no real understanding of how it really is for us (RSO's) in the US.
As of tomorrow, you can say it will only be 3 years, 364 days left, as the laws stand now. I know that those years will go by pretty quickly. I'm over the halfway mark by a bit, and now I need to be lining up for the final approach so to speak. Things now will start to move fairly quickly. I need to begin looking around for an attorney, someone who's good, who knows what they're doing. Some one with experience in this sort of thing and who's already got some wins under his belt. I'll have to get together whatever paperwork I need. Oh, and the money too! I've seen figures of everywhere from $3,000-10,000 USD being thrown around for the price of legally getting off the registry with a felony (even though mine wasn't sex offense related). I want/need to 'minimize' the conviction and results too, if possible, i. e., changing the felony conviction to a misdemeanor, an expungement, getting off state and Federal databases, everything and anything that's possible.
If RSOL CA can help to implement a tiered system in CA, there's some hope. One, that my case will be risk based and not offense, and that it will be considered a Level One, as I understand. This hopefully will be a automatic removal at 10 years, without having to come up with the legal fees for an attorney like at present. </div>
Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself it's almost over and I can begin to see light at the other end of the tunnel. If it works, I'll be trying to rebuild my life at 52! Haha, a little challenging maybe?