A Tacoma man lost his state job as a network technician for the state Department of Information Services just a few months after being hired when his background check revealed an arrest in 1996 for drug possession, even though the charge was dismissed. Washington state law permits a person to request the courts to remove “non-conviction data” for prior arrests or dismissed charges two years after a case is resolved, but the man did not know of this and began the process too late to save his job.

Read the full story at: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/07/03/1250824/charge-was-dismissed-but-arrest.html