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Will my military convictions show on a FBI check for background for employment?
Anonymous6 views3 answers
I was convicted within the past 6 months at a special court martial, the punishment was reduction in rate and 30 days confinement. After that I finished my contract and separated from the military with a general discharge. I had two backgrounds done from two separate employers, one I passed on the job offer and I took the other. Both backgrounds came back clean, but I have another job offer that requires a FBI level background...can I expect a record to show up?
And should I be disclosing my convictions if they only ask if I've ever been convicted of felonys?
You should expect your past misconduct to show up in the FBI-level background search, not necessarily the conviction. The background search will show an "indexing" and titling which is based off probable cause determination. Ordinarily a special court-martial conviction itself doesn't show up itself. Expect to explain how it was handled.
To answer your second question about felony reporting, it depends. States set the bar between felony and misdemeanor at the amount of time you were facing. Most states set that bar at in excess of 1 year confinement which would make a special court-martial conviction at the misdemeanor level but there are a few states that set the bar at one year or more, and a special court-martial would qualify. Expect a job that has a more thorough background check to ask if you have prior military service and if so, they will want to see your DD214, which will show you were separated for misconduct. As anyone will tell you, be forthcoming on questionnaires and answer all questions truthfully.
Convictions normally show up. In order to do so, they have to be run properly into the crime database. It's hard to say whether it was. There are also issues that pertain to what question was actually asked. For example: have you ever been convicted of a crime? The answer to that would be yes. However, if the question was have you ever been convicted of a felony ? The answer that question could be more complicated. The answer to that question would depend, perhaps, on the crime of what you were convicted. Regardless, and FBI background check will probably report your court-martial convection.
