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How do I get a bogus PFA off my record and can I sue for slander because it can affect my employment career?
Optional Information: Pennsylvania Already Tried: I have never had any charges of any kind against me ever (sans traffic/parking violations). The PFA filed against me was a retaliation for a domestic assault and harassment charge I filed against the violent domestic assaultant, my EX boyfriend, in which he caused me medically-documented (through CAT scan, X-ray, and MRI) physical harm. I have a concussion and post concussion syndrome and so was not as quick and sharp in handling the initial legal matters as I would have been normally. I am not finding the local legal practice to be especialy brain-injury friendly. PFA has not yet been to the hearing. It is as yet an initial, temporary PFA and as already quickly viewed by two local attorneys, it is agreed that there is not really anything even charged in the allegation to make a legitimate PFA order, just a collection of vague fabricated assumptions that some kind of harm may have been intended for some time in the future. Since there are cross PFAs filed, I would like to avoid having a judge just order them both to be extended without considering the lack of necessary content and lack of truth in the allegations against me. I am curently working in an educational institution environment and have been curently working on a couple of degrees for possible future career employment in or having to do with,the educational field. A PFA on my record can harm my ability to work in or receive work in my field. Especially since I am completely innocent of even the bogus vague assumptions implied in the malicious PFA allegations against me, I want to insure my clean background is not unjustly contaminated by them. At the same time because I believe the assaultant to be dangerous and likely to strike again, I very much want the hearing to extend the PFA order on the violent criminal assaultant for the maximum three years, along with probation and manditory counceling--no offer of ARD.
Can you explain a little more about what led up to the charge and what happened to the charge in court?
What led up to the bogus PFA charge:
(Firstly, thank you for responding to my question and requesting more information to clarify the circumstaces for you.)
I was domestically assaulted on a recent Wednesday.
He came home from an early morning part time work shift in a bad mood. I made a comment and he surprised me with a sudden attack. He had never physically assaulted me before.
He is a large man, 6'4'', 250 lbs. He body slammed me repeatedly many times over into the refrigerator and then into the wall, causing primarily the back of my head to suffer repeated impact-I'm estimating maybe 35 times or so all together.
I suffer closed head trauma, brain injury, whiplash-type neck injury, concussion, post-concussion syndrome, PTS syndrome, torn rotor cuff in the shoulder from this man's physical attack. Already had fibromyalgia and a couple other conditions which are exacerbated.
He is coldly unremorseful.
Because of the brain trauma and swelling following the assault I had been mentally "loopy" and extremely fatigued as well as in a lot of pain. I was pretty out of it. But I knew enough to know I was hurt and should get medical assessment, but also knew I would have difficulty driving to take care of business.
The next day, Thursday, I tried to get medical attention by walking to a local med-care pavilion but they had changed to a private practice and did not take walk-ins, also tried to see a local internal specialist, but had to wait for an appointment, and internist's medical office referred me to the hospital emergency room.
Friday morning I did attempt driving and received medical assessment from two separate sources which includes CAT scan, MRI and XRay, and includes outpatient hospital services. The injuries and the cause have been documented by 4 medically related practices, the state police, and the various victim help agencies/orgs.
Following the medical assessments I reported the assault to the state police and pressed charges. I was mentally fuzzy and misunderstood that I could also still file a PFA against him. I thought that it could only be either/or with the assault charges and the PFA. So I did not file a PFA for a week after his arrest, until after the victim advocates set me straight on my legal options. Of course the PFA against him is solid as it is already established that he hurt me through the assault charge.
As I have found out in increments since that time, this was not his first assault on a woman. And not his second either. And he somehow has his certain savvy about these kinds of legal procedures and criminal goings on. He has past expongements, archived convictions in other counties, and current conections with other criminals. I'm finding out more and more all the time.
He saw an opportunity to fabricate a PFA claim against me and did so. Even though a rather poor one, incredibly it still served the purpose of harassing me at a critical life threatening time, putting me in further physical jeopardy in my early injured condition-an act that I consider to be a continuation of the original assault. Because he has one of two of his public notary offices within the same small town located adjunct to his house where we resided together for a year and a half, he was able to use having a business in the house and the vague rumor of a gun allegedly purchased by me, (I have never owned a gun), to have me evicted from the house, basically into the street, when my ability to function was severely compromised. I had a clean record,--the only legal trouble I have seen in my past is related to parking tickets and speeding tickets. Nothing else.
The PFA has been reviewed by a couple of different local attorneys on my behalf, and the consensus is that it really shouldn't be a PFA because there's nothing there. Not only is it an assault on me because both he and I know that it is made up of a bunch of fabrications that I am completely innocent of, but even though he went to the trouble to do all of that fabricating, even then he doesn't make any claim that I ever really did anything to anyone, or even really claim any actual solid threat to do anything to anyone in the undetermined future. Everything is his speculation about what he thinks might occur.
As I have mentioned before, I work in an educational environment and the impact of having a PFA on my record could have devastating effects to my current job as well as to my future career for which I have been training by continuuing my education for two years now.
I believe his jeopardizing my present job and my future may be intentional.
Hello.If the PFA is dismissed, you have the right to petition the court to expunge it from your record. It has to be dismissed before you can file for Expungement, however.As to the lawsuit, if the PFA is dismissed, you may have grounds to file a lawsuit for malicious prosecution, meaning proceedings were brought against you without a legitimate basis. I'd suggest you consult a local civil attorney about whether it would be worth your while to pursue such a lawsuit.
JD, Thank you for your answer.
A couple further questions please : Do the grounds for malicious prosecution vary from state to state?, and how strong of a case do you estimate I have to file a lawsuit for malicious prosecution?. What criteria determines whether it is worth pursuing?
A malicious prosecution case in Pennsylvania requires the plantiff to prove a plaintiff must prove that the defendant (1) instituted the proceedings, (2) without probable cause, (3) with actual malice, and (4) that the proceedings terminated in favor of the plaintiff. Actual malice means that the defendant knew that the proceedings were unfounded. If the case terminates in your favor, I imagine you have a relatively strong case.The criteria that a lawyer would consider in determining whether a case is worth pursuing generally includes the time the lawsuit will take, the likelihood of recovery and how much, and how strong the evidence is supporting the plaintiff's case.