Government Records

Once, back in my Parole days, there was a piddling criminal who had committed a piddling offense. He was sentenced to a year in the pen, and had served about six months, then came out on parole. He did his parole successfully and was released. We'll call him Ben. The State of Louisiana, in its wisdom and common practice, gave Ben a First Offender Pardon. A Go-Forth-And-Sin-No-More document that allowed him to get on with his life.

As is also the practice, his case-file was put in a room that contained thousands of closed files and we went on with our work. Ben wasn't on our radar any more. While he had his pardon, it didn't increase his IQ any. Ben wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree.

Once a year, Ben showed up at the office, and asked to talk with me. After several years, when I heard Ben was in the lobby, I'd go to the closed files and pull his records. He wanted another copy of his pardon. I'd make him a copy and he'd be gone for another year. This went on for eight or ten years.

One morning, Ben showed up at the office with a document in his hands. Ben had been a law-abiding citizen for many years and had a court order, an expungement order, that ordered me to destroy all records pertaining to Ben. I invited him into the records room, pulled his file and let him watch while I ran his file through a shredder. Ben was thrilled. I kept a copy of the expungement order and let Ben go whistling off into his life. I dropped the expungement order in a file we kept for that purpose.

Next year, Ben showed up in the office again. "Mr. D. I need a copy of my pardon."

"Can't do it, Ben, those records have been destroyed. You brought me an order and I destoyed them in your presence. Remember?"

A look of grief crossed Ben's face. "But I need a copy of that pardon for a job application."

"Ben" I explained it once again. "You remember last year when you brought me the Court Order that the judge signed, ordering me to destroy your records? You remember standing beside me when I dropped your file into the shredder? You want a copy of the expungement order? I still have that, but otherwise, I did just what you wanted me to do."

Ben dropped his head. "Oh, hell!"

Sometimes, having records in a file room is a good thing.