TexasCHLforum.com

Hi,
I am new to this board. I was wanting to obtain a CHL, but I was arrested for DV in 2009. I was not convicted, but I am unsure where I stand.
My exwife accused me of domestic violence years ago, so "she could get me out of the house for the night" after a fight.
I was arrested that night after returning home. If iI would have known I would be divorced a year later, I would have just fought her in court, but I wanted to spare my children from that kind of life.

I was arrested in 2009 for Assault on a family member.
I was placed in a pretrial diversion program.
After 1 year, I went before the court and the charges were dismissed.
I was not convicted of Domestic Violence.

Do I qualify for a CHL, can anybody help out with an answer?

Thanks for your time.

Were the charges outright dismissed or were they adjudicated? If adjudicated, then you are probably not eligible.

From what you have told us I would say you are eligible. Don't forget to send documentation because, you MUST document all arrests.

The charges were outright dismissed.

I have read that if its differed adjudication, you do not qualify.

My case never went to trial, it was just dismissed after 1 year of not getting the same kind of charge, or any other charge.


I did submit the dismissal paperwork with my application also.

RPBrown wrote:Were the charges outright dismissed or were they adjudicated? If adjudicated, then you are probably not eligible.

He said "pre-trial diversion", which is different from deferred adjudication.

Pre-trial diversion imposes conditions, such as probation for a year, community service, etc., typically for a first offender. If the program conditions are met, at the end of the period the prosecutor withdraws the charges (thus "pre-trial"). The court does not make a ruling on this, the charges are withdrawn ("dropped") by the prosecutor.

ocramid wrote:Hi,
I am new to this board. I was wanting to obtain a CHL, but I was arrested for DV in 2009. I was not convicted, but I am unsure where I stand.
My exwife accused me of domestic violence years ago, so "she could get me out of the house for the night" after a fight.
I was arrested that night after returning home. If iI would have known I would be divorced a year later, I would have just fought her in court, but I wanted to spare my children from that kind of life.

I was arrested in 2009 for Assault on a family member.
I was placed in a pretrial diversion program.
After 1 year, I went before the court and the charges were dismissed.
I was not convicted of Domestic Violence.

Do I qualify for a CHL, can anybody help out with an answer?

Thanks for your time.

Hello,

Like you, I was wrongly charged for assault on a family member a couple years ago. Mine was even more outrageous as the arresting officer wrote in his report that I "fully admitted to hitting his family member." I never went through any pretrial diversion programs as I decided to pay the $$$ and fight the charges. (They wanted me to pay all kinds of fines, intensive violence intervention program, etc.) After a few hearings, the prosecutor agreed to dismiss all the charges if I took a 6 week counseling course, which I did on my own months prior. I got my dismissal paperwork and my lawyer said it was a straight dismissal, not deferred adjudication. Flash forward to December 2014, I went into a gun store, had my background checked and walked out with a M&P Shield in hand. My understanding is that I never would have been able to buy the gun if it truly was a conviction/deferred adjudication. I just applied for my CHL on January 7th and now am playing the waiting game!

On a side note, I decided to look up Texas Law on Deferred Adjudication(which counts as a conviction in Texas). From what I found, when you agree to deferred adjudication, you are agreeing to enter a guilty plea to the courts. From there, you are given the opportunity to do something (probation, community service, treatment, etc.) and avoid jail time. However, if you fail out of your "program" you will go back to court with your guilty plea and be sentenced under State Law.

TL;DR - Deferred Adjudication usually involves entering guilty plea then going to treatment to avoid jail time. If your case was dismissed like my case, then you should be good to go.

Thanks everyone for your help.

I know on my criminal record there is no arrest for that charge. However, it does show that I was on probation for the Family Violence charge. The information shows no start or finish date of the probation though. It's weird.

I was told by a lawyer, that the reason it shows just that, is because the probation departments run the pretrial diversion programs.

I do have the certified dismissal papers, and if I understand right, you have to be convicted of the offense.

I wasn't on differed adjudication, so we will see what happens.

I have applied, done my fingerprints, sent in my DD214, and now I just need to take a CHL to finish my application process.


I will let everyone know the outcome.

MoJo wrote:From what you have told us I would say you are eligible. Don't forget to send documentation because, you MUST document all arrests.

I also believe that you are good to go.

Ocramid - Welcome to the forum!

I was on deferred adjudication back in '98' for DM simple assault. I shouldn't have gone to jail as the cop gave my wife at the time the option of her going to her mothers or me going to jail. Well she was irritated at me so... She had a scratch and I mean a scratch on her face so I lost. I was hit twice in the face glasses broken but no visible marks... I completed my year of probation as the assistant DA even said I shouldn't have had to go through that but everyone got that package deal back then. It has not hindered me from getting my RN and recently my CHL. Just always be honest about it all!! God is good!!

The double standard really chaps my hide. A woman beats a man or rapes a man and the law just laughs it off. A man just defends himself or pushes away, not punching, a female attacker and he is guilty of assualt! Bull Stuff!

My advice to young men, "NEVER get married." 50% of marriages end in divorce within 2 years. The 5 and 10 year divorce rates are much higher. Subtract Asians from the equation and look at 10 year divorce rates and the divorce rate is about 70% or higher. Would you ever enter into a business where you have a 70% chance of losing all your money?! Asians and Indians who have arranged marriages have a 5% divorce rate. So, unless you're Asian or Indian and wanna get an arranged marriage, just don't mess with it.

Just keep it casual and dump them before it gets serous.

adaboy5 wrote:I was on deferred adjudication back in '98' for DM simple assault. I shouldn't have gone to jail as the cop gave my wife at the time the option of her going to her mothers or me going to jail. Well she was irritated at me so... She had a scratch and I mean a scratch on her face so I lost. I was hit twice in the face glasses broken but no visible marks... I completed my year of probation as the assistant DA even said I shouldn't have had to go through that but everyone got that package deal back then. It has not hindered me from getting my RN and recently my CHL. Just always be honest about it all!! God is good!!

drjoker wrote:My advice to young men, "NEVER get married." 50% of marriages end in divorce within 2 years. The 5 and 10 year divorce rates are much higher. Subtract Asians from the equation and look at 10 year divorce rates and the divorce rate is about 70% or higher. Would you ever enter into a business where you have a 70% chance of losing all your money?! Asians and Indians who have arranged marriages have a 5% divorce rate. So, unless you're Asian or Indian and wanna get an arranged marriage, just don't mess with it.

First, I agree with the double-standard issue.

Moving on to marriage, however, funny you'd mention those numbers. I was listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio yesterday and he had a guest author on for an interview, Shaunti Feldhahn, who wrote The Good News About Marriage: Debunking Discouraging Myths about Marriage and Divorce.

She makes the point that first, the so-called "50% divorce rate" was never actually a valid number, it was derived from estimates that were off the mark and easily debunked. She does so in the book. If a person gets married too young (16-22), the odds of divorce are much higher. But if you get married as adults who have completed their education or career training and successfully made a transition into the adult world (i.e., supporting him or herself), then roughly 70% of first marriages succeed (i.e., married for life). Even 2nd marriages succeed over 60% of the time.

If you are a married couple who attends church together on a weekly basis, those marriages have a 90% success rate.

Many people going into a marriage experience fear, based on the 50% divorce rate myth, and thus take actions to "protect themselves" "just in case", and the paradoxical result is the very actions they take to hold back in self protection instead of fully committing to the marriage help tear the marriage apart (for example, maintaining a second "secret" bank account as a backup plan). Her point is when people realize the numbers are actually far more favorable, it creates a sense of hope that directly helps with people more fully committing to their marriage -- which then also improves their success rates.

Her numbers are more consistent with my personal experience. I have six siblings. Of seven marriages, six of us are on our first marriage, all well over 20-25 years. I have about 40 first cousins, and am aware of the marriage status of 25 or so. Of those 25, there have been 4 divorces.

I know a lot of people at work on their first or second marriages.

Your observation of "So, unless you're Asian or Indian and wanna get an arranged marriage, just don't mess with it" also has a different downside. Married people live longer, healthier, and wealthier lives. That is pretty commonly acknowledged.

Oh, yeah, I forgot that third marriage success group. Let me rephrase then, "Unless you are wanting an Asian arranged marriage, Indian arranged marriage, or are extremely religious, then just don't mess with marriage."

How religious is extremely religious? Both partners are VIRGINS at the time of marriage and they weren't teenagers at the time of marriage. If you were so religious that your love of God outweighed your teenage hormones, then you would have a marriage that has a 90% success rate. I remembered reading that somewhere.

Jumping Frog wrote:
If you are a married couple who attends church together on a weekly basis, those marriages have a 90% success rate.

drjoker wrote:Oh, yeah, I forgot that third marriage success group. Let me rephrase then, "Unless you are wanting an Asian arranged marriage, Indian arranged marriage, or are extremely religious, then just don't mess with marriage."

How religious is extremely religious? Both partners are VIRGINS at the time of marriage and they weren't teenagers at the time of marriage. If you were so religious that your love of God outweighed your teenage hormones, then you would have a marriage that has a 90% success rate. I remembered reading that somewhere.

Jumping Frog wrote:
If you are a married couple who attends church together on a weekly basis, those marriages have a 90% success rate.

Wow.
First, I'm a Catholic. I'll be celebrating my 40th wedding anniversary this summer. U.S. Catholic divorce rates are around 20%. And that's across the socioeconomic and racial/ethnic spectrum. As far as church attendance, we're pretty regular and often enjoy finding out of the way parishes and attend when traveling.

Neither I nor my bride were without experience before our nuptials.

We do share a faith in God. We look first to God when facing difficulties in life and our marriage. We do come from a time when and were raised in families that, believe in the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage. When an oath/promise before God and man meant something.

Leaving all that aside, U.S. divorce statistics have never been as bad as you depict. Let's say that my marriage is long and happy and only ends in the death of one of us. Then, let's say that our neighbor "Norm" was married too young and divorced in his 20s. 50% divorce rate right? What happens to the divorce rate when Norm, a serial monogamist, who remarried, is again divorced in his 30s, and again in his 40s or 50s? You would need 3 more life long marriages to achieve that 50% divorce rate.
So, 4 couples with long happy marriages and Norm....

Alright, let's get back on topic of eligibility.