Goodwill helped Elizabethtown woman expunge a felony charge and now she has a business to help others

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Hundreds of Kentuckians have had the chance to start new this year without a criminal record thanks to Goodwill.

Goodwill Industries of Kentucky helps men and women erase an unlimited amount of misdemeanors and up to one felony, as long as, it's not a sex crime or an offense involving a child.

"The life that I was leading, wasn't working for me," Amanda Adkins, a Kentucky native, said.

Adkins said she used to be a drug addict.

"My decision making skills very much lacked," Adkins said.

At age 18, she was in a bad car wreck. Doctors put her on Percocet to ease the pain and then Oxycontin, but it wasn't enough.

"I'm broken from head to toe. I have metal in my body and I deal with arthritis and chronic pain," Adkins said. "By the age of 23, I had a morphine pump implanted in my lower back."

Adkins said she slowly became addicted to street drugs and that lasted about nine years.

"I was actually incarcerated in Orange County Jail in California and I was without my whole family," Adkins said. "I got put in a van and drove all the way across the country and shackles and handcuffs. When I came back into society, I was actually a convicted felon."

She turned to God and Goodwill for a second chance.

"My sobriety date is February 6, 2015, because that's the day that my dad died," Adkins said. "Whenever you use the resources that are around you can change your own habits."

In 2022, she met Miranda Montgomery, an employee at Goodwill who helped get her drug-related, felony charge expunged.

"I just have justice involved family members. So I know it's important to remove criminal records from someone's background, because they are barriers to employment, education and housing," Montgomery, the Goodwill Industries of Kentucky Expungement Director, said.

Expungement erases criminal charges from court records and seals that record from the public. In the last decade Kentucky's expanded what offenses qualify. Click here for a list of what can be expunged under Kentucky State law.

Montgomery's three person team has already helped nearly 1,500 people through the process this year. Last year, they helped more than 5,000 people.

"We're learning new habits. We're learning how to create new things going to have successful members of society," Adkins said.

With old mistakes off her record, Adkins opened Vitality Massage in Radcliff. She hopes it helps other people find alternative ways to deal with pain.

"I know that it changed my life," Adkins said.

According to Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, the nonprofit helps people by asking the court to expunge the felony that is most relevant to the job they are seeking.

Then, the applicant must get a $40 certificate of eligibility form from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Once the applicant receives the certificate in the mail, they have 30 days to fill it out, with or without Goodwill's help, before it expires.

Finally, the applicant will need to take or mail the forms to the district court in the appropriate county. The judge may approve the the expungement or call the case for a hearing. If a court day is set, the applicant must appear and answer the judges questions.

Montgomery said, right now, it costs $300 to get a felony charge expunged and $100 for a misdemeanor. If the applicant cannot afford to pay the fee, they can ask the court to waive the fee by filing a special motion.

The next Louisville Goodwill expungement clinic is happening at the Parkhill Community Center on August 8 from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. You must register online by August 1st. Walk-ins on the day of the clinic will not be admitted. The clinic is capped at 50 people. To register, click here.

If you have any questions or need help filling out this form, please contact the expungement team at 1-877-309-0262 or email us at expungement@goodwillky.org.

Adkins also took advantage of Goodwill's Cars to Work Program, a nonprofit program that offers secured auto loans to employed applicants with no or low credit scores.

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