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Grandfather blocked from chaperoning field trips due to pot charges
Maryland may have legalized marijuana but some are still dealing with those consequences, including a grandfather who is not allowed to chaperone his grandchildren's field trips.
BETHESDA - One Maryland grandfather with a decades-old pot charge can't chaperone his grandkids’ field trips.
North Beach police pulled Jerry Mister over in 1993 and found half an ounce of marijuana in his car. He was charged with a DUI and possession with intent to distribute — a felony at the time.
As of July 1 last year, it's legal to possess three times that amount in Maryland, but Mister is still dealing with the consequences.
"It is keeping me from doing things, such as chaperoning my daughter when she was in school, and now possibly my grandkids," said Mister to FOX 5 DC.
Mister has three grandchildren: Joshua is six, J.C. is five, and Jonathan is 15 months. He's a welder and teaches his older grandsons how to work on cars. He wants to be there for them in school too – chaperoning field trips and working events.
But he can't.
"Because of the felony charge that is on my record, the public school systems won't allow me to chaperone any of the field trips or events because of the record that I have," said Mister.
Maryland criminal defense attorney Kush Arora says he sees this all the time – collateral consequences from decades-old drug charges under dated criminal laws.
"This is something that we're fighting every day. I file motions, I feel like, on an endless basis trying to get judges to reclassify these matters right because people are still suffering the collateral consequences of having a felony on their record, when the law doesn't recognize the case as a felony anymore," said Arora.
Arora says those consequences include access to housing, jobs, the right to vote and getting some kinds of loans. For Mister, he used to weld pipes at Fort Belvoir and Fort Meade, but now he says he is not allowed on base. Arora had a client in Frederick recently who lost a job opportunity because he had to check the felony box based on an old drug charge. When Arora and his client appealed to a judge – they were denied outright without a hearing.
"It definitely holds me back from getting more jobs, more opportunities," said Mister.
Arora says judges feel like their hands are tied – that they don't have the authority from lawmakers to retroactively expunge drug charges. He says there have not been many test cases because the law just took effect last July.
Mister doesn't want to be a test case – he just has one goal.
"I want to be a part of their life and be a part of them wanting to go to school and get an education to better themselves, and anytime I could be there to encourage them, that's what I'm looking for," said Mister.
You can apply to have your record expunged in Maryland, but Mister's lawyer told him that because a DUI was also part of the charge, he's out of luck and his only option is to ask the governor for a pardon.