Wrongly charged, a Baltimore man gets his record cleared

Pro bono attorney Sara Gross (left) and HPRP executive director Antonia Fasanelli

A 48-year-old unemployed man in East Baltimore is no longer walking around with a “fugitive from justice” tag—and now has a much better chance of finding a job, thanks to Sara Gross, his HPRP pro bono lawyer.

Sara was successful in having her client’s criminal record expunged of a fugitive warrant that had been dismissed. At a hearing on very short notice because of last week’s snowstorm, Sara argued that Case Search treats the warrant like a charge, because that is how it shows up in  public searches—“meaning that is how it appears to employers and landlords,”  Sara said. “It is also duplicative, since it essentially gives the client two hits on his record–one in the original state of Georgia and one in Maryland, for one charge.”

To make matters even worse, the client claimed that the warrant had been dismissed because it was not even for him—it was for a different person with the same name! “Thanks to Sarah, this client will no longer carry around a ‘fugitive from justice’ tag for a case that did not even involve him!” said Emily Ford, HPRP’s pro bono coordinator..