A Philadelphia woman who Webster police wrongfully accused of robbery with bodily injury says despite being freed from jail, she still feels locked down.
Julie Hudson has never been in trouble with the law. Her family says she has a Master’s degree, and she’s working on her Ph.D. but because of her erroneous criminal record she can’t get a job and fears she could soon be homeless.
After that huge mistake by Webster police, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office promised to help Julie quickly get the bogus charge removed but some six weeks later, she says it’s still on her record.
“This is a cross that I have to bear, and I can’t move forward with my life,” Julie said.
She says she still feels like she’s in shackles.
“The record hasn’t been expunged. It’s been hard on me, it’s been hard on my family. They’ve been helping me a lot financially, and I know that that’s a huge burden,” she said.
“Here it is a person with three degrees, and you got to call somebody so that you can buy groceries. That doesn’t make any sense,” said Charon, Julie’s sister.
After our first stories aired, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office promised to help expedite her expungement process.
“We were promised we would see that the paperwork has been filled out and would be sent. I later got an email stating that upon speaking with her [the clerk’s] supervisor it was [said] that more information needed to be investigated into the matter,” Charon said.
In the meantime, Julie was given paperwork that states the reason as insufficient evidence of defendant’s guilt.
“To me, it looks like they believe she committed the crime, they just couldn’t prove it,” Charon said.
Hudson says she was hired for two jobs but then lost them after her background showed the wrongful charge.
“I work closely with kids who’ve been incarcerated who have a history of drug use, sexual abuse… like you can’t have this kind of issue,” Julie said.
Unable to put this ordeal behind her, she’s hoping someone will help.
“I just wish that I could turn away from this situation as easily as they can,” Julie said.
KPRC 2 reached out to the official that’s supposed to be handling the expungement but have not heard back.
At last check, the real suspect in the case Hudson was accused of still hasn’t been found.
