Kel Okuji welcomes people to sign up with Workwell Partnership during an expungement clinic at Cavalry Missionary Baptist Church in Trenton on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022. Workwell provides programs for people transitioning from incarceration back to society.Alexandra Pais | For NJ Advance Media
Felix Pineda drove from Somerset to Trenton on Saturday with hopes of expunging a past marijuana conviction that he believes is holding him back.
Despite obtaining a college degree from Berkeley College last year, Pineda believes the marijuana offense that was tied to his second degree robbery arrest in 2013 is keeping potential employers from hiring him. He is currently a medical warehouse picker making $18 an hour.
“After they do a background check, I don’t hear back from them,” said the 29-year old who served a year and a half in prison for the robbery and has been drug free and sober since.
Pineda was among the three dozen men and women who waited at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on East State Street to get a chance to sit down one-on-one, free-of-charge with attorneys Searra Hazel and Michael Hoffman to discuss their criminal charges and if they’re eligible for an expungement.
The expungement clinic — the second this year in Trenton — was for anyone who needed assistance or had questions regarding their criminal record, according to organizer Shamira English. It included individuals with past marijuana charges.
Expungement clinics have been held throughout the state since the new cannabis law took effect on Feb. 21, 2021, after Gov. Phil Murphy signed it.
Many have taken place in areas designated “Impact Zones” by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission based on population, past criminal marijuana enterprises, law enforcement activity and rates of unemployment in public buildings and churches.
Under the cannabis law, 87 of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities (or about 15%) in 18 counties qualify as Impact Zones. Trenton is among them, as is Jersey City, Newark, Atlantic City and Camden. They are targeted by the CRC as areas most hurt by the nation’s War on Drugs.
Last year, the Trenton City Council amended its cannabis ordinance and opted to include the city’s downtown as a site for dispensary locations. The council also doubled the number allowed from five to 10 dispensaries within the city.
Expungement clinic at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora greets Dontae Thomas during an expungement clinic at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Trenton on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022.
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora’s Young Adult Advisory Committee, which coordinated with other groups to put on the expungement clinics in his city, was created in March 2022.
“There is a frustration with the paperwork and notifying all the different parties and so we really just want to hold out a hand to as many of our residents as possible,” said Gusciora, who made an appearance at the event and embraced Calvary’s Pastor Timothy L. Jordan.
Gusciora, who’s currently running for re-election for a second term, said one of the first things he did when he took over as mayor was to help more than five dozen residents transition from incarceration to the community by placing them in jobs.
Shamira English, a member of the Mayor’s Committee, said the mission is “to be the voice of city residents between the ages of 25 to 35.”
“We advise the mayor on what challenges we face as young adults. These challenges include, but are not limited to: lack of employment opportunities because of criminal records, the housing market, etc.,” English said prior to Saturday’s clinic.
The groups had its first expungement event in September, English said. It had such a large turnout they decided to hold another event Saturday.
“The expungement process can be very lengthy as well as costly, so we want to provide residents a head start in the process,” English sai
Like last month’s clinic, a temp agency and a few nonprofit organizations, including Workwell Partnership, were on hand to provide fliers and information to those re-entering the job force after incarceration.
Volunteers, including Dontae Thomas, came to provide encouragement. Thomas, 40, who had past drug convictions expunged, gave a pep talk to participants as they sat in the waiting room.
Thomas, who served 10 ½ years in prison for selling crack cocaine on the Trenton streets he called home, now owns his own fitness training business in Hamilton Township, called Team Chizel LLC.
Like the banners on the church’s walls, his message: Keep the faith.
“If I can make it, you can make it,” Thomas said. “Everyone’s makes mistakes. You can never give up. It’s a process. It takes time and you just got to wait it out.”
Pineda, the recent Berkeley College graduate who attended Saturday’s event in hopes of getting an expungement, patiently waited nearly three hours before attorney Hoffman broke the heartbreaking news to him.
A second degree robbery conviction is not eligible for expungement under the 1 ½-year-old New Jersey law, which would also make wiping the marijuana conviction that came with it impossible, said Hoffman.
Pineda said he was both high and drunk during the robbery in New Brunswick nine years ago when he was 20 years old.
Hoffman told Pineda it was too early to apply for an expungement and that he should try again in 2024, which is the five year mark since Pineda completed probation for the robbery arrest. He might be able to have his charge downgraded to make it eligible for expungement under the marijuana expungement law.
“Then, you can seek to have the second degree robbery moved down to aggravated assault as part of PCR (post conviction relief),” said Hoffman. “But this (case) is really pushing it on the weed charge.”
Hoffman said he could not file any legal paperwork on Pineda’s behalf on Saturday.
“I understand,” said a dejected Pineda before heading to his car to make the 50-minute commute home. “I will just need to keep trying.
“But it’s very disappointing.”
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H/T: www.nj.com
