Home – Practice Areas – Q and A - Adult Diversion Program
While in adult diversion program, if a criminal background is ran, does it show as a felony CHARGE or a CONVICTION?
I was charged with a theft related felony about a year ago and was accepted into the adult diversion program. I am currently seeking employment and was offered a job this afternoon pending a criminal background check. The diversion case is still open, but I’m wondering what will show on the background check?
Criminal Defense Answer
The short answer is, if you are in an adult diversion program, a check of your case would show that you have been CHARGED, but not CONVICTED. The very purpose of a diversion program is so that you don’t have a conviction in either the short term or the long term.
Although each county has nuances for their own specific diversion program, the basic concept is that for certain kinds of offenses, such as first-time shoplifting cases or low level drug offenses, a diversion program may allow you to earn your way to a clean record. Sometimes a case is put into a diversion program without any plea of guilty at all.
In some counties you may be required to plead guilty in order to enter their diversion program; however, the judge will then hold your conviction and not actually convict you, as long as you comply with the conditions of diversion. A central condition of all diversion programs is that you remain law abiding and have no same or similar offenses while you are in the program. In some diversion programs there is also a high degree of supervision with additional requirements such as you must attend school or get a job, that you remain chemical free or that you stay away from a certain person or address.
If you complete your diversion program without a conviction, you may be eligible to seek an expungement at a later point to seal the court record showing you were ever even charged with a criminal offense. Obviously, if you violate any of the conditions of diversion (e.g., you have a new criminal offense while in the program) you will face possible conviction for the original offense.
