Criminal Records, Expungement Info on Sealing/Expungment

[sandy32]

I was arrested on July of 2007 for theft by shoplifting. I was release on bail. For almost two years I never received a court date. Then Apr 29, 2009 I was pulled over and the police said he pulled me over for my tag light being out. Now he didn't get me for seat belt or for speeding. The trip part about that my tag light was not even out and he still gave me a ticket for it. When he ran my name that's when I found out that I missed my court date. Unfortunately I didn't know I had one. So I had a warrant for failure to appear. The court date was originally for Apr 15th, 2009. I had to sit in jail until I received a another court date. I went to court on May 6, 2009. I plead guilty. I received a misdemeanor for theft by shoplifting. I was fine and put on probation. The judge asked did I have a record and the lady (I guess she was the DA/Prosecutor) and she replied and said no. So with that I'm not sure why I wasn't categorized as a first offenders. I plead guilty in order to get out of jail. I was in there for 7 days and I had already miss the first day of class. My public defender informed me if I did not plea guilty and take my case to trial, it will be no telling when I would go to court. So that mean I would have had to sit in jail (didn't want to do that). I did some calling around to find out about getting my record expunged. One lady told me because I plead guilty I could not. Someone else told me that if I was a first offender than I could. Also someone else informed me that to get my record expunged that should have been requested when I was in court. Had I known that I would have requested it. So I'm really confused on what rights I have. I was told by my probation officer that I would have to complete my probation before I could get my record expunged. So I would like to know what to do and how to go about getting my record expunged. Also what is the difference between having your record seal or expunged. The reason why I would like to have my record seal or expunge is for employment purposes. Yes I know I'm not a felon, but when employers look at what I was convicted of misdemeanor or not its still hard to find a descent job. I am currently a college student. I will be graduating with my associates in December and will be pursing my BA after that. I would hate not to be able to get that career position that I want because of my back ground. And until I graduate, I'm still going to need to work.