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Removing Supportive Character Reference Statements from Defendant's File

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RCH999

Junior Member
New York, Suffolk County Civil Court

My question is regarding withdrawing statements made in a document for a past civil-lawsuit case. Can it be requested that a character reference letter that had been sent to a civil-court judge, in support of a civil lawsuit defendant, be permanently removed from the defendant's file, thus, preventing any future use of my positive support?

About a year ago, I had written such a letter for an acquaintance and they were granted leniency by the court, perhaps, due in part, to my letter.
Since then, I have come to see some obvious, and, serious character flaws in the person and was wondering if I could have my letter permanently removed from their court-case files/records, should they become, once again, a defendant in any future legal matter. I want to preemptively remove the document that presents them in a positive light should they attempt to use it in their favor, at a future date.

Also, can the withdrawal of my positive statements be done without making myself liable for defamation of character, if I do not say anything negative about the person, just that I would like the character reference letter, that I had written for this past case, to be permanently removed from their file?
 


Proserpina

Senior Member
New York, Suffolk County Civil Court

My question is regarding withdrawing statements made in a document for a past civil-lawsuit case. Can it be requested that a character reference letter that had been sent to a civil-court judge, in support of a civil lawsuit defendant, be permanently removed from the defendant's file, thus, preventing any future use of my positive support?

About a year ago, I had written such a letter for an acquaintance and they were granted leniency by the court, perhaps, due in part, to my letter.
Since then, I have come to see some obvious, and, serious character flaws in the person and was wondering if I could have my letter permanently removed from their court-case files/records, should they become, once again, a defendant in any future legal matter. I want to preemptively remove the document that presents them in a positive light should they attempt to use it in their favor, at a future date.

Also, can the withdrawal of my positive statements be done without making myself liable for defamation of character, if I do not say anything negative about the person, just that I would like the character reference letter, that I had written for this past case, to be permanently removed from their file?

There's a reason why I'm asking this, okay?

What was the nature of the case, what is/was your relationship with the person and what has changed?
 

RCH999

Junior Member
There's a reason why I'm asking this, okay?

What was the nature of the case, what is/was your relationship with the person and what has changed?

Thanks for the response Proserpina.


He (and his mother) were being sued by their landlord for non-payment of rent. They were in danger of being evicted. I wrote a letter to the judge saying that, for the number of years I had known them, they had been responsible and honest people and had simply fallen on hard times, due to the unstable economy. I petitioned the judge to give them the benefit of the doubt. The judge gave them more time to pay the amount due for back-rent and they were not evicted. I cannot be sure of the amount of influence, if any, my letter had had on the judge's decision. However, my intent had been to assist them as I had no reason, at that point, to doubt the feasibility of his story.

This person was a platonic friend and this platonic status has never changed, although I no longer consider him a friend based on his behavior after this aforementioned civil law case. I have recently found him to be untrustworthy concerning some belongings of mine that I entrusted to his care, while I am temporarily living in a state other than New York. As he is not giving me any straight answers concerning the whereabouts of my possessions there is an almost 100% possibility that he has carelessly lost them, or, allowed them to become damaged, or, that he hocked them. The possessions' personal value to me is immense, but, monetarily their worth is questionable.

Because of his continual evasive answers and behaviors surrounding my belongings, my opinion of him has changed and, therefore, I no longer believe that he is the responsible and honest person I had claimed he was in my letter of character reference to the court. He was also fully aware of the very high (emotional) regard I had for these possessions.

I would like to retract my statements regarding his character because I have since found out that they do not accurately reflect his character. I will not be pursuing a lawsuit against him for reparations for the loss of my possessions that I trusted him with, as their monetary worth is probably little; I merely would like to prevent him from ever using my letter of character reference to his advantage in the future, as my assessment of him was obviously inaccurate at the time the letter had been written.

People do not suddenly become irresponsible and dishonest overnight, and based on his recent behavior in the matter of my possessions, I believe that I had previously been misled by him, regarding his supposedly "victim" role in the non-payment of overdue rent. In other words, I now believe I had been duped and fooled into believing that his housing dilemma warranted my supportive action on his (and his mother's) behalf. My compassion for him and his mother was the impetus for writing the letter of character reference.

Unfortunately, once a person is suspected of lying about one area of their life, that person can easily then lose credibility in all areas of his life, including past deeds. I can only speculate, as I have no proof, but I now see that I should have never trusted his story about his housing problem because it is likely that he was lying about that. Again, I am concluding this based on his behavior regarding my cherished possessions.

Hope that this provides you with the information you are asking for. Any direction you can give me would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
Thanks for the response Proserpina.


He (and his mother) were being sued by their landlord for non-payment of rent. They were in danger of being evicted. I wrote a letter to the judge saying that, for the number of years I had known them, they had been responsible and honest people and had simply fallen on hard times, due to the unstable economy. I petitioned the judge to give them the benefit of the doubt. The judge gave them more time to pay the amount due for back-rent and they were not evicted. I cannot be sure of the amount of influence, if any, my letter had had on the judge's decision. However, my intent had been to assist them as I had no reason, at that point, to doubt the feasibility of his story.

This person was a platonic friend and this platonic status has never changed, although I no longer consider him a friend based on his behavior after this aforementioned civil law case. I have recently found him to be untrustworthy concerning some belongings of mine that I entrusted to his care, while I am temporarily living in a state other than New York. As he is not giving me any straight answers concerning the whereabouts of my possessions there is an almost 100% possibility that he has carelessly lost them, or, allowed them to become damaged, or, that he hocked them. The possessions' personal value to me is immense, but, monetarily their worth is questionable.

Because of his continual evasive answers and behaviors surrounding my belongings, my opinion of him has changed and, therefore, I no longer believe that he is the responsible and honest person I had claimed he was in my letter of character reference to the court. He was also fully aware of the very high (emotional) regard I had for these possessions.

I would like to retract my statements regarding his character because I have since found out that they do not accurately reflect his character. I will not be pursuing a lawsuit against him for reparations for the loss of my possessions that I trusted him with, as their monetary worth is probably little; I merely would like to prevent him from ever using my letter of character reference to his advantage in the future, as my assessment of him was obviously inaccurate at the time the letter had been written.

People do not suddenly become irresponsible and dishonest overnight, and based on his recent behavior in the matter of my possessions, I believe that I had previously been misled by him, regarding his supposedly "victim" role in the non-payment of overdue rent. In other words, I now believe I had been duped and fooled into believing that his housing dilemma warranted my supportive action on his (and his mother's) behalf. My compassion for him and his mother was the impetus for writing the letter of character reference.

Unfortunately, once a person is suspected of lying about one area of their life, that person can easily then lose credibility in all areas of his life, including past deeds. I can only speculate, as I have no proof, but I now see that I should have never trusted his story about his housing problem because it is likely that he was lying about that. Again, I am concluding this based on his behavior regarding my cherished possessions.

Hope that this provides you with the information you are asking for. Any direction you can give me would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Thank you for clarifying.

The affidavit will remain on file; his use of it will be minimized anyway (if has any effect at all).

In effect, what I'm saying is, you don't get a do-over. You do have every right to refuse contact with him in the future.
 

RCH999

Junior Member
Thank you for clarifying.

The affidavit will remain on file; his use of it will be minimized anyway (if has any effect at all).

In effect, what I'm saying is, you don't get a do-over. You do have every right to refuse contact with him in the future.
I understand, I just have to chalk it up to poor judgement on my part, and bite the bullet.

What is most disturbing is that I like to think that our words, written or spoken, can be relied upon to carry a certain amount of honor, and integrity, especially in a court of law. Now I feel as if I inadvertently might have been part of a ruse for him to get away with paying his rent on time. This doesn't make me legally culpable in any way, but, I may have been used as a naive participant in his scheme to dupe the court, and that makes me very angry.
My signature is on a document which might be, for all intents and purposes, filled with inaccuracies regarding this person's true nature and intent. It is for the purpose of protecting my honor and integrity that I wish the affidavit can be permanently removed, but I guess I am out of luck.

Thank you for your time and concern.
 

Kruniac

Member
New York, Suffolk County Civil Court

My question is regarding withdrawing statements made in a document for a past civil-lawsuit case. Can it be requested that a character reference letter that had been sent to a civil-court judge, in support of a civil lawsuit defendant, be permanently removed from the defendant's file, thus, preventing any future use of my positive support?

About a year ago, I had written such a letter for an acquaintance and they were granted leniency by the court, perhaps, due in part, to my letter.
Since then, I have come to see some obvious, and, serious character flaws in the person and was wondering if I could have my letter permanently removed from their court-case files/records, should they become, once again, a defendant in any future legal matter. I want to preemptively remove the document that presents them in a positive light should they attempt to use it in their favor, at a future date.

Also, can the withdrawal of my positive statements be done without making myself liable for defamation of character, if I do not say anything negative about the person, just that I would like the character reference letter, that I had written for this past case, to be permanently removed from their file?
Sounds like you got taken. It happens. It doesn't make you as much of a rube as you might think.

I'd let it go.
 

quincy

Senior Member
New York, Suffolk County Civil Court

... can the withdrawal of my positive statements be done without making myself liable for defamation of character, if I do not say anything negative about the person, just that I would like the character reference letter, that I had written for this past case, to be permanently removed from their file?
Withdrawing positive statements does not make for negative statements or defamation.

A character reference letter is used for a single case only. And it sounds like no harm came to the landlord, even if the court was influenced by your letter in any way (and there is no guarantee your letter had anything at all to do with the court's decision).

People should be very careful when approached about writing, or when writing, letters of character reference. If you are aware of anything negative about the person that could be used against them if you are questioned in court about the person, you are better off not submitting a reference. If your experiences have been only positive, you should stick only to the facts of these experiences and not generalize about the person as a whole. You cannot know, for example, if your positive experiences are unique to you alone, so only present what you know as a fact.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I know that, in some cases and under some special circumstances, it is possible to petition a court for redaction of personal identifying information, if the information when open for public review can cause serious harm. I do not know if it is possible in this case (I suspect not, but YAG would know better).

That said, I do not really see much reason to worry about having once provided a positive character reference for someone who, at the time, you thought deserving of credit but who no longer shows positive character.

As to 240.65, I am not surprised that removing documents from a court file without authorization is a crime, although I think I am a bit surprised to see that New York has specifically singled it out as a crime. Has document theft been a problem in New York, or is this more the case of a bored legislature? ;)
 

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