Q: I’ve been raising my eight-year-old old niece since she was three. On April 15, 2015, I was charged with retail theft and had the record expunged in November of 2016. My niece’s paternal grandmonster was granted visitation rights in June of 2016. Prior to filing the grandmother posted on FB that “I’m a malicious little b**ch” for having FB remove pictures. In a comment to the post she states, “better than going to jail for hitting the b**ch over the head with a bat.” At the first custody hearing she was told to remove all pics by hearing officer, but the day prior to the March 16th hearing she made another profile picture and we showed the master. When leaving the hearing she called me a “f’ n “C” and to watch my back.” Also in March 16th, she called the soccer organization I coach for and told them of my charges. On June 16th, she made a fake FB profile of me. On September 16th, she told me she was going to beat my ass at a child’s birthday party. On December 16th, she called my salon and spoke bad of me and messaged the soccer coach under a fake name. On Jan 17th, she messaged the soccer organization of a copy of my charges she had from June 16th. They were expunged and told my niece she is going to live with them and not see me again. On February 17th, she messaged the soccer organization again. On Mar 16th, I was told about messages from the child. (Pittsburgh, PA)
A: This is an unfortunate situation and this behavior is why I significantly reduced my family law practice. As far as someone distributing an expunged record, I do not know how someone can distribute an expunged record if the record has been expunged. If the record is expunged the state police criminal history should show nothing. If what you are saying is that she forwarded copies of your charges to another person, I do not believe you have a lawsuit as normally arrest records are court documents and therefore public information, for all to see. If what you mean is that somehow the expungement petition and related paperwork from the lawyer handling it, were sent to a third party, this is probably not a good law suit either. This happened to one of my clients who stupidly kept his sexual assault expungement papers he received from me in the visor of his truck and his new girlfriend found them. By the way, there are a lot of number 15, 16 and 17’s in your question.