I read somewhere that George W was sentenced to 1 year of community service for an undisclosed offence. Could this be? Does anyone have any insight as to what happened and when?
On a related note from the same article, his wife killed a person in an auto accident. Could this be also? Was the offence expunged? (Is that even a word? What does it mean?)
In his controversial Bush biography “Fortunate Son” J.H. Hatfield claimed that Bush worked at a Houston inner city youth program called Project P.U.L.L. for several months in 1972 and alleged that it was part of a deal to expunge a cocaine arrest from Bush’s record. His evidence is less than solid, which is not to say I don’t believe it.
How does one go about expunging an arrest with community service? Considering that Bush was in Alabama in 1972, I wonder why he would either be arrested or do community service in Texas. The reference is probably to Bush’s work for Project PULL in 1973. This is almost certainly not part of any community service relating to any convictions - the county in which Houston is located had no formal community service program in 1973.
The OP might be based on a distortion of Bush’s 1976 misdemeanor DUI conviction, but he paid a fine rather than doing community service.
No offense was expunged, since she was never charged with or convicted of anything, nor found civilly responsible.
Regards,
Shodan
An expungment (also called expunction) is the sealing, deletion or destruction of records of arrest or charge. If you are arrested but never charged, or charged but never tried, or tried but accquitted, you may be entitled to get the records expunged. How thourough the expungement is depends on the jurisdiction; in some the records are still available to some law enforcement personnel.
Salon states that Bush has stated that he worked at Project P.U.L.L. in 1972. Other sources say 1973. According to Hatfield, what sparked his interest in the drug allegations was another Salon story claiming that the community service was at a different center. Wikipedia says his Project P.U.L.L. time was in either 1972 or 1973. Complicating matters, the first Salon article linked above states that the records from the time Bush would’ve been there are lost.
I’m somewhat mystified at the notion that a “formal community service program” would have been necessary in order for the alleged deal to have gone through.
Bush evidently did some community service here in Harris County in the early 70’s. Perhaps just out of the goodness of his heart.
But I wonder why no grateful members of the community have ever spoken out–it might improve his image as a feckless would-be playboy back in the day.
Does Salon state where and when Bush gave them the 1972 date? It appears from the linked article, that they are repeating what they were told by somebody who was trying to sell a book.
Your Salon article mentions other problems with the allegations made by this Hatfield person, who alleged that
However, Salon points out that
Some did, including one of the founders of the program and one of the assistant directors.
Regards,
Shodan
*The SOB got away with it because of connections *aspects of the story are troubling.
Still, Bush has all but admitted that prior to age 26 he used illegal drugs:
“I’ve told the people of this country that, over 20 years ago, I made some mistakes when I was younger. I’ve learned from those mistakes,” Bush said. Again, as has been the case throughout his campaign, Bush refused to be more specific(link).
There were other such statements. You don’t need to work for W to say “OK that doesn’t mean Cocaine” & you would be right. Still, to find out that Bush was a low level Coke user at this point in his life doesn’t scream hypocrite or liar (YMMV) …
Again, I get that the thread is about the cover up and not the crime - I’m just saying.