Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Restraining Order

I am a close friend to one of my male coworkers. He is married and having an affair with another woman. Someone has been providing his wife with letters and pictures of him together with this other woman. His wife had harassment restraining order filed agains me because she thinks that I am the one ''stalking'' her and leaving this information on her car. In her restaing order she accused me of stalking, threating her with abusive behavior, etc. At the time I was served with the papers I didn't do anything about it because I never ever see this woman and didn't think it was worth $245.00 for the court appearace since it's a one in a million chance I would ever run into her. The restaing order will expire this October. My questions are: How can a county just hand out restraining orders against just anyone without any kind of an investigation....no contact made what so ever to find out my side of the situation? And, does this restraining order stay in my ''record'' for the rest of my life? How do I go about getting it removed from the Dakota County and whatever other county records it would appear under?


Asked on 3/03/05, 2:43 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Maya Sullivan Law Office of Maya C. Sullivan, LLC

Re: Restraining Order

Most restraining orders remain in effect for 2 years. When a party makes an application for a restraining order or harassment order and obtains a hearing date, they may win by default if the other side fails to attend. The Court can issue this default order because you were given notice of the hearing, but you did not attend. You mentioned that you received the notice, but did not attend.

I am not aware of a way to remove this from your record. It sounds like she obtained this in a civil court in Dakota County. Criminal matters (and housing matters) can be expunged in certain circumstances, but this does not appear to be one of those circumstances. Also, if it was filed in Dakota County, it is only applicable in Dakota County.

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Answered on 3/03/05, 3:37 pm
Thomas C. Gallagher Gallagher Criminal Defense

Re: Restraining Order

The county does not hand out retraining orders. The court (not the county) can grant a person's petition for a harassment restraining order, after notice and opportunity for a hearing to the respondent. It sounds like you lost by default, by not showing up to contest it. You might be able to get a court to remove it from your court record, though it would likely be challenging and require hiring a lawyer to litigate that request for you.

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Answered on 3/03/05, 5:13 pm


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