I am not the original poster. This is a repost.

Originally posted by u/whtshpnin 6 years ago in r/legaladvice.

some light editing for readability

I'm a foreign student at an American Uni. I've been served a restraining order. I've never interacted with the person I'm supposed to stay away from. [Dec 17 2015]

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/3x8syq/im_a_foreign_student_at_an_american_uni_ive_been/

So I'm freaking out right now.

I'm an Indian national studying here in the Us(California). I was just served a restraining order by a campus police official. I'm supposed to not contact/call or interact in any way with a specific woman. When I was handed this order I didn't recognise the name of the person who had asked for it. The campus police officer didn't believe me and essentially threw me out of the office with a few warnings.

I got back home and googled her name, the face is semi-familiar so I asked some of my friends and they say that she comes to one of the classes I take (approx 70 students), they think she may just be auditing that class. I have never spoken to her or interacted with her in any way whatsoever. I am 100% sure of that.

My questions are as follows-

1. Is there any chance that this may be a clerical mistake. I have a fairly unique name and one of 4 Indian students in that class. Is there a chance there is some confusion?
2. Is asking someone else to get in contact with her to find out what is going on a violation of this order?
3. The campus police officer said that If I violate it I will be expelled, lose my scholarship and face possible jail time. Is this possible?
4. What exactly does this no contact thing mean? Do I have to keep some sort of physical distance from her at all times? Like I cant be in her eyesight or something? We are currently on break but I'm around campus to use the library and study, what if she's also there? Can we be in the same building?
5. How do I go about challenging this? The campus legal aid office seems to be half-staffed but I have an appointment for tomorrow, should I prepare myself in some way for that meeting? I can't really afford a lawyer. Should I contact my embassy?

I can't afford to lose my scholarship and get expelled and I most certainly can't go to jail. What should I be doing? How long should an appeal to get this done with take?

EDIT- So this is the form I've been given. Some of the information about me is missing (height & weight), eye color is wrong. In section 6, 1,2,3 and 4 have been selected.

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Update: I'm a foreign student at an American Uni. I've been served a restraining order. I've never interacted with the person I'm supposed to stay away from. [Jan 14 2016]

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/40xyzj/update_im_a_foreign_student_at_an_american_uni/

I just thought you folks would appreciate an update to this post. This is a California university.

TL;DR: I hired a lawyer, she investigated. Young lady who filed for the TRO withdrew the application, I didn't even need to go to the court.

The whole story-

It's a little long and a little complicated so I'll lead with a few facts. I'm 27, I moved here in September for my masters. I'm also taking an undergrad course at the suggestion of my advisor to shore up my fundamentals before I get deeper into my grad program. I lived in a 3bhk with two other guys (lets call them Nick and Aiden), I found this accommodation on the university FB. They're both seniors in an undergrad course.

The young lady (lets call her Angie) who filed the TRO is Nicks' ex-girlfriend, they broke up before I came to this country so I had no awareness of this. It seems like Nick had been having a hard time getting over this relationship and November onwards he had gone off the deep end. He had been stalking Angie and had been harassing some of her friends. He ended up crossing the line in December, talked his way into her house when she wasn't there and stole some of her stuff claiming they were gifts from him. Aiden also contributed to this harassment by driving Nick around (Aiden is the only one the house with a car) as well trying to get Angie to talk to Nick a few too many times.

My knowledge of this whole drama was absolutely nil, my relations with the 2 guys is restricted to house stuff. There's not much in common between two 21 year old American seniors and a 27 year old Indian grad student. We were acquaintances who were happy to stay that way. Unfortunately for me, Angie was not aware of this dynamic.

The day after Nick stole her stuff, Angie went to the police, following their advice she filed a TRO against Nick, Aiden, another one of their friends and me. I was included in that sordid list for a few reasons-

• I was their housemate, and it was reasonable to suspect that I knew about this whole drama.
• A couple of people claimed to have seen me in their company often. Other than the grocery store, and a bar on my first weekend here, I have never hung out with these guys in any way. But the telephone game that started during the whole drama blew up my role to false proportions.
• Among his various harassing messages, Nick would always know where Angie was and who she was with. How much of that he knew through his own stalking and how much he knew through other people is unknown. I was suspected of being one of those other people. Angie seems to have suspected that I was taking that class we shared to keep an eye on her for Nick, me a grad student being in an undergrad class was the basis of that suspicion.

All of these reasons were enough for Angie to include me in that list, the judge and university official didn't give a damn about me and granted the TRO.

As I mentioned in my first post, I went to the legal aid office. They couldn't help me since this was a student v student issue but they put me in touch with with an outside lawyer. This lady had a lot of experience with restraining orders wrt to students and after meeting me and doing some preliminary investigations agreed to take on my case. She talked to everyone involved including Nick, Aiden and Angie through her Lawyer. Nick and Aiden told her about my non-involvement, my advisor and a few of my professors also helped out.

Once the whole story came out, Angie applied to withdraw the TRO filed against me. All of this was done by last week, thank god.

My life has been fairly up in the air since this whole clusterfuck. Its cost me a lot of money, lawyer fees and moving into a new place is fairly expensive. I had to borrow some of this money from my parents who have been losing their mind from halfway around the world. Also when the TRO was filed the University had to inform my scholarship granters, and they started a review of my scholarship. My lawyer has updated them of the details including statements from Angie and my advisor, but the review is a long process and will take its own time so I'm still a little worried. Also I won't be taking the follow up undergrad course I was planning on, there are multiple reasons for that but this issue has contributed a little bit.

I admit I was a little annoyed with Angie though I fully understood the reasons. Thankfully she had the good grace of apologising to me publicly on her FB and the class bulletin board. I'm very thankful to her for that since I was a little worried about the social repercussions.

As for Nick and Aiden they will be having a hard time, both have been expelled from the university. Nick is also charged with grand theft (dumbfuck stole all her electronics and some really expensive sneakers). Fortunately they're both out of my lives.

I'd like to thank you guys for the personalised advice. Your explanations and advice certainly helped in calming me down and stopped me from losing my mind.

Relevant Comments:

• Deleted comment presumably suggests suing Angie. OOP: I understand your argument and I understand that it's well meaning but I just don't want to get involved any further. Angie filed the TRO because she felt threatened and Nick gave her enough reasons for that. I certainly don't agree with her assigning any blame to me but I can also see why she did so, even If IMO she jumped the gun. But the main reason I don't want to sue her is that she did all that she could to rectify her mistake. As I said, I didn't seek any apology she gave it on her own. It was a thorough apology admitting her mistake and I honestly can't ask for more. Getting involved in a murky legal battle is not something I wish to do, all I want to do is settle my scholarship issue and get to studying.

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Reminder: I am not the original poster. This is a repost.

Originally posted by u/whtshpnin 6 years ago in r/legaladvice.