A Case of Expungement

 

            Several years back I had been in jail due to an anger control problem.  I had a problem with 

getting angry and then laying my hands on people.  My crime of not keeping my hands to myself did 

do me some time in jail even though it was chalked up as a misdemeanor.  I had some mental health

problems to go along with it and was ordered to seek therapy.

           One of the things that came out in therapy was that I had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic 

Stress Disorder (PTSD).  In my case PTSD did not stem from war, but rather being sexually assaulted

twice, once at sixteen by a fifteen-year-old male, and the other time at twenty-one by a twenty-one year 

old.  Also was the fact that I was institutionalized for ten months in my youth.  Earlier in my youth I 

had a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) which could have added to the anger.

             I still to this day am seeking therapy, and I feel therapy is a lifelong process.  I have a 

psychiatrist which I see on occasion for medication.  With the underlying problem of anger, I will 

always need medication.  As well I will always need therapy of some sort. 

              Today I went to the City Market building to go to the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic 

to be expunged.  They found three cases where I had been found guilty of battery.  They want to finger 

print me and do a statewide search.  If all turns out okay, I'll be expunged and set free to go to work.

                As it is I cannot work with an arrest record laying over my head.  But there is some work 

places out there that do not check out your arrest record.  I'll go for any job I can get.  Expungement of

my record is a need though.       

Paul D. Eccles