Wells Fargo fires employee for '72 shoplifting conviction

[Camerus]

Christ, the woman only shoplifted 40 years ago.  If she can't, without lying, get a job that pays more than $10/hr because of that, I don't blame her for fudging the truth 5 years ago.  It is the possibility of getting your life together after a fuck-up or two (i.e. the proverbial second chance) that has always made America great.

[Barrister]

If the conviction was from 40 years ago then she had, what - 35 years in which to get a pardon?

[Valmy]

If the conviction was from 40 years ago then she had, what - 35 years in which to get a pardon?

Can something like that be removed from one's record?

[jimmy olsen]

If the conviction was from 40 years ago then she had, what - 35 years in which to get a pardon?

How is that in any way possible for a normal person?

[Valmy]

Christ, the woman only shoplifted 40 years ago.  If she can't, without lying, get a job that pays more than $10/hr because of that, I don't blame her for fudging the truth 5 years ago.  It is the possibility of getting your life together after a fuck-up or two (i.e. the proverbial second chance) that has always made America great.

Yeah this whole scarlett letter for life stuff for felonies is really over the top.  But it may just be she cannot work at a financial institution.  There are other places to earn more than $10/hour.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Christ, the woman only shoplifted 40 years ago.  If she can't, without lying, get a job that pays more than $10/hr because of that, I don't blame her for fudging the truth 5 years ago.  It is the possibility of getting your life together after a fuck-up or two (i.e. the proverbial second chance) that has always made America great.

I think the issue is that they are bound by federal law to not hire someone who has prior convictions of theft.  She could probably get a job at any number of places, but not a bank.

[grumbler]

Christ, the woman only shoplifted 40 years ago.  If she can't, without lying, get a job that pays more than $10/hr because of that, I don't blame her for fudging the truth 5 years ago.  It is the possibility of getting your life together after a fuck-up or two (i.e. the proverbial second chance) that has always made America great.

Yeah this whole scarlett letter for life stuff for felonies is really over the top.  But it may just be she cannot work at a financial institution.  There are other places to earn more than $10/hour.

I find your reasonableness in the face of absurd posturing troubling.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm curious as to how it got on the radar in the first place.

Yeah, lying on an application is an instant termination, but today's background verification services are principally phone- and internet-based, and to be honest, bullshit from the early 70s very rarely gets transferred into modern storage media unless it had lead to serious jail time.

Hell, we can't always get traffic citation history prior to 1990 anymore.

An arrest record from 1972?  Somebody had to go digging through the archives, log books and microfiche in the county courthouse sub-basement for that one.  It's all paper and triplicate, typed Barney Miller-style.  You would really have to look for that stuff;  even the FBI fingerprint database doesn't go that far back.

Unless it popped in the process for a new position she was looking at, and went through another round of background interviews, and tipped her own hand.

[CountDeMoney]

"I think I should get it back because it's something I did 40 years ago," Quesada says.

"I paid for it. I've changed my life."

Lawyers charge a nominal fee to request public records to be expunged.  Ironically, probably for about as much of the value you shoplifted.

[11B4V]

Christ, the woman only shoplifted 40 years ago.  If she can't, without lying, get a job that pays more than $10/hr because of that, I don't blame her for fudging the truth 5 years ago.  It is the possibility of getting your life together after a fuck-up or two (i.e. the proverbial second chance) that has always made America great.

Havent read other responses. Did she conceal it during the hiring process? *shrugs*

[11B4V]

40 years ago she shoplifted; five years ago, she lied on the application when she said she hadn't been convicted of that crime.

I don't see the problem.

There it is.

[Camerus]

I guess this is another cultural gulf with Americans.  Fuck up in one really minor incident 40 years ago, expect to pay for it for the rest of your life = reasonable

[Barrister]

If the conviction was from 40 years ago then she had, what - 35 years in which to get a pardon?

How is that in any way possible for a normal person?

Again I'm not an expert on US criminal law, but up here it's pretty trivial (perhaps too trivial) to obtain a pardon after you have gone several years without a new conviction.



I had a guy in court yesterday.  65 years old.  Had a steady criminal record going back to the early 60s.  It was funny to look at because the punishments they were handing out in the 60s were dramatically different then what you get now.  I also like it when they have convictions for RAPE on their record.  I was once doing a conteted bail application - lady goes on the stand to say dirtbag come live with her - I asked her if she knew he was a convicted RAPIST - she did not and was visibly shaken by the mere word.   

[Barrister]

I guess this is another cultural gulf with Americans.  Fuck up in one really minor incident 40 years ago, except to pay for it for the rest of your life = reasonable

It would be the same here - lying on your application form is grounds for termination.

[Camerus]

I guess this is another cultural gulf with Americans.  Fuck up in one really minor incident 40 years ago, except to pay for it for the rest of your life = reasonable

It would be the same here - lying on your application form is grounds for termination.

Yeah, except would the same need to lie in the first place exist - i.e. no forgiving of past minor sins?