Character and fitness Forum

[nobackground]

I was arrested for possession of mdma, it was a foolish dumb thing I did in college. I had only used it one time and took half of a pill, while the other half was in my trunk. I wasnt doing anything wrong when arrested, but when I got pulled over for running a stop sign (which I actually did not even run but whatever) they asked to search my car. I allowed them to. I didnt know I had the rest of the pill in the car. It's not that big of a deal, I have learned alot from it.

But around this same time my friend asked me to borrow $2,000 to pay his rent. I loaned it to him, my best friend at the time. We agreed on repayment within two weeks, but I was blocked two days after and he would not speak to me. Several months go by and I keep calling him about it- but by this point he hates me and would text me "I hope you die" and "I'm going to ruin your life and embarrass you so nasty." Well, he did. He filed an injunction for protection against me (restraining order) without even paying me back. He filed a title ix complaint with my university, which I was not held responsible for. The case just never reached any resolution and was left pending, which I assume they decided not to pursue this. Which is what I am going to say in my application. He also filed a police report against me, he filed many police reports actually trying to get me in trouble and avoid repayment... Then he finally paid me back and filed another restraining order, despite me having no care to talk to this person again. Both restraining orders were denied by the judge and she thought he was ridiculous. Finally, I was arrested for aggravated stalking like 6 months later due to a police report he filed months before. I was never contacted by a police officer and the charges were based off of his word without me being privy to any charges. The police officer mishandled the complaint. The case was ultimately dismissed after 25,000 attorneys fees.

All of these proceedings ended in my favor, they all contained ALOT of falsified evidence. This person really wanted to see me burn. But I was confident in the truth, and I easily showed the courts that there was no way I did anything I was being accused of. My whole life, I have never been in any kind of trouble and i'm someone who always follows the rules, i'm a good kid. This was really hard for me. But when evaluating all these proceedings on my application, I just look like i'm lying about everything and all these charges and cases put together do not look good at all. Do I even have a chance? Should I keep trying?? I dont want to allow this guy to have ruined my future like he threatened to do, but i'm struggling to figure this out and present myself in the best way possible. What can I do to approach this in the most professional way possible? How do law schools and the bar look at false accusations? It just seems wrong to even have to put any of this on my application when I truly did not do anything wrong. At the time, I really tried to remove myself from the situation entirely and stayed away from "harassing" this guy for the money,especially after the way he treated me. But over time, it just enabled him to aggressively weaponize litigation and accuse me even worse. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[Rule23andMe]

Seems like it'll be ok but worth seeing a C&F attorney. Can surely help you craft the narrative which you'll need for both law school and bar apps so worth the price for the guidance and peace of mind.

[nixy]

Answer the questions that are asked - some applications may not ask about arrests and will only want convictions, for instance. Anything you do have to include, explain what you’ve explained here, except as dispassionately as possible. It’s not clear from your post if you got convicted of anything (you say you got arrested for having mdma, did you get convicted?), but trying a party drug in college and not foreseeing your friend’s obsessive turn are not really C&F problems, barring other details you haven’t provided (like if you have other substance abuse issues and the MDMA is part of a pattern, that’s more of an issue than an isolated incident).

Probably prudent to suggest you consult a C&F attorney (or possibly an admissions consultant, but before you pay a consultant anything ask them very specifically about whether they can assist you with C&F issues), though, just because you can give them more details than you can give us here. I think the biggest issue will be figuring out how to talk about the title ix complaint, because calling it pending or unresolved doesn’t sound great, and you can’t assume anything about it just because you didn’t hear from them. I would get a statement from your school that the complaint was filed and they determined it didn’t merit opening an investigation, or whatever closest to that you can get.

But I think lawyers (and therefore law schools) are pretty aware of how the legal system can get weaponized against someone, and not having any convictions (or at least related to the former friend) will help. Not that people who do have convictions are doomed, but if none of the legal proceedings went against you, that does a lot to corroborate your account. If the judge who denied the restraining orders made any written findings about how baseless the applications were, that could be helpful.

It may feel unfair to have to include this information but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. You do, and you need to not sound defensive or self-pitying about it - you’re just providing the information they require, nothing more and nothing less.

[msft]

every time I loaned money to anyone, it ended badly

[nobackground]

Thank you so much, your comment is extremely helpful and I really appreciate it. Thankfully no conviction since I completed pre trial diversion for the drug charge. I'll probably reach put to a C&F atty, thank you.