He was an infantryman. Kicked down doors in Iraq going room-to-room searching for insurgents.

Until the charges are formally dismissed, it's hard to imagine any employer will actually be willing to hire him. The DA's office is really making his life hard by refusing to just immediately stipulate that he's an innocent man.

I suspect you could probably convince smaller businesses to be ok on the background check, with disclosure. If I were hiring, I'd do it on his merits (Iraq vet makes up for the extra hassle with a background investigation, at least for me.)

(Also, fuck the DA. What is it with SoCal and horrible DAs?)

s/SoCal/USA/

It's not really a surprise; no decent person would voluntarily sign up to send pot-smokers to prison.

Are there any job boards for businesses that would consider hiring felons (or innocent folks waiting for record to clear)?

I had no luck finding legit sites with a quick Google search, but maybe others are aware of something?

If nothing exists, that sounds like an interesting development opportunity.

Bakeries are actually one of the business types that hires a large number of felons. You're separated from the cash, kept in a kitchen away from customers, and it doesn't pay the best.

But when finding other employment is hard, it's a pretty good option if you can work on the necessary skills.

Could he re-enlist? He's not technically a felon if he's exonerated.

It doesn't look like he's been exonerated. He's been released from prison on his own recognizance while the state evaluates evidence. He's in a kind of limbo.

If he's formally exonerated, double jeopardy will prevent the state from ever trying him again, so the state has an incentive to keep him in that state.

Has he expressed what kind of work he would like to do if he could?

We're trying to figure that out. This whole thing has been pretty overwhelming.

Ray mostly just wants to spend time with his kids, whose lives he has been missing from for so long.