Checking for charAt string

programming flash
1

Anybody see an issue with the code block below?!?!?!
AS2 , and I have double checked the names. I am feeding in xml text to a button then trying to check to see if the button has ‘’ as first character then delete the '’ from the string…

box4.onRollOver = function():Void {
 this.gotoAndStop("over");
 alert4._visible = false;
};
box4.onRollOut = function():Void {
 this.gotoAndStop("hold");
 alert4._visible = true;
};
if (A1D4.A1D4text.htmlText.charAt(1) == "*"){
  A1D4.A1D4text.htmlText = A1D4.A1D4text.htmlText.substr(2, A1D4.A1D4text.htmlText.length);
  box4.onRelease = function():Void {
  stopAllSounds();
  gotoAndStop("right1");
  }
 }else{
  box4.onRelease = function():Void {
  stopAllSounds();
  gotoAndStop("wrong1");
  }
}