know a guy that overcame a pretty raw deal.

I

I was at work several years ago and one of my customers and I were having a cuppa cawfee together. He was griping about how his son can't find decent employment because of a felony conviction.

I asked for details and found out that it was a case of the son being stopped and cocaine being found in the car. When that happens the police often presume the driver is responsible unless someone fesses up.

Of course, the true owner of the coke kept quiet and let my customer's son take the hit. Bam! Felony conviction.

"If that's the way things went down, you might be able to get that expunged or even pardoned," I said. "Have your son talk to a lawyer."

"Can someone really make that go away?" he asked.

"I don't know about an expungement, but a pardon makes it go away pretty much completely," I answered. "He'd better have a clean record otherwise, though. Governors don't like being made fools of."

"I'll look into that," he said. "He's clean. Not even a speeding ticket."

A couple of years later I pulled up to the same place of business and met a new guy in charge of the operation. I introduced myself and we started filling out the paperwork required to transact business.

While we were filling out the paperwork he looked up and said that he owed me big time. I looked confused. I had never seen this man in my life.

"You spoke with my father a while back and told him that I might be able to get my criminal record expunged," he said. "Dad told me about it and I hired a lawyer and we did better than getting it expunged. I got a pardon. That's why I was able to pass the background check and get a job here."

It was then I remembered the conversation I had with his dad.

Seems there were three other guys in the car when he got stopped and two of them were pretty solid citizens. They wrote statements regarding the events that took place the night of the arrest. Between that and his clean record the governor of his home state looked into it and based on what he found, issued this guy a full pardon.

I have to admit that this guy has to be given credit for taking the iniative and getting off of his ass and chasing down what he heard, though. Most people would have discounted it and just shined it on and stayed in a lousy situation.






To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY