I was caught in 1997 in Effingham, Illinois with 1 gram (dust in the bottom of a bag) of marijuana and a one hitter pipe (paraphernalia). Effingham (at the time) was a dry county. I live in another state and I paid an attorney to be there on the court date in order to take care of this problem. He told me that it was no problem that I was not there, he would take care of it. On the day I was to appear in court, he called me and said that he was unable to make it to court for me and he would send me the money back, which he did 6 weeks later. I never went back and found out what happened and have avoided it ever since. Now I am trying to get a government job and they have pulled out the record of this stupid mistake. They are asking whether it was felony or misdemeanor being as though it came back still a charge and not settled. What can I do to take care of this? FYI, I am a resident alien that has lived in America for almost 20 years and am uneasy about the possibility of this affecting my residence.