My name is Shawn and I have a unique situation so I’ve been told. A little over 2 years ago I was involved in a domestic altercation in which I had no choice but to defend myself. However I was arrested. I was offered a diversion at 1st and due to my financial situation I simply could not afford to keep traveling back and forth to court while missing school. I agreed to take the diversion, & 3 weeks later I came back to court and was denied the diversion due to a charge in Virginia, this was a charge that should not have been on my record. Later I found out that it was a court martial I chose to request while I was in the military and won. I tried to fight this case with a public defender and proceeded to take it to a grand jury. After about 2-3 more court dates I simply ran financially devastated in fear that I would not be able to make it to the next court date, (which would result in even further troubles) my lawyer had not spoken to me but only 2 very brief times in between several months, then shows me that the charges have went from 1 to 3 (2 counts of aggravated assault and 1 domestic) totaling for 30 years 11 months and 29 days in jail. This scared me beyond belief. After 4 hours of waiting, finally my lawyer comes back with a plea of attempted aggravated assault and 2 years probation. I didn’t know that taking that plea would devastate me even more now that I have graduated from school with my Associates in Limited-Scope X-Ray with a 3.75 GPA. After 20 plus years of searching I feel I have finally found my calling. Through my externship I’ve taken almost 5,000 x-rays and simply love taking care of people. I’m retired military and struggling. I have several companies who want to hire me but due to my criminal background I have not been able to be hired. Since this incident I have not been in any trouble or showed any signs of a repeated offender. I have spoken with several lawyers and been told either ridiculous fees such as $5,000 to take the case, or nothing can simply be done, or don’t give up there’s always another way. I do not know who else to talk to or what else to do. I am a single father of a 6 year old boy struggling to make ends meet. In the past 20 days I have applied to over 74 jobs and been to 9 interviews and the only thing keeping me is having a felony on my record. I’m running out of options and ideas as debt keeps piling up. I just let my car go up for repossession because of not being able to afford it. I’m begging whoever can help me please; I will be forever in your debt. I also have recommendation letters from doctors from my Extern site. If they had positions available they would hire me.

User story by Shawn in Tennessee

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