Assigning new variable to object, causes different json encodings

I am not even sure how to explain this properly so i will just give you the code differences.

Bascially I am making AJAX call to a controller, and in the controller, I am saving a new item to database then returing that new object.

Here is the controller.

class NotesController extends ControllerBase
{
    public function addNoteAction()
    {
        if($this->request->isPost()){
            $data = $this->request->getPost();
            if ($data['note'] != ''){
                $noteUser = $this->auth->getIdentity();

                $note = new Notes();
                $note->assign(array(
                    'recruitId' => $data['id'],
                    'userId'    => $noteUser['id'],
                    'note'      => $data['note']
                ));

                if(!$note->save()){
                    echo json_encode(false);
                } else {
                    $note->name = $note->user->name;
                    echo json_encode($note);
                }    
            }
        }
    }
}

Note Model (the important bits)

 public function initialize()
    {
        $this->belongsTo('recruitId', 'Join\Models\Recruits', 'id', array(
            'alias' => 'recruit'
        ));
        $this->belongsTo('userId', 'Join\Models\Users', 'id', array(
            'alias' => 'user'
        ));
    }

    public function beforeValidationOnCreate(){  
        $this->noteDate = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");
    }

The response to this as is results in the following JSON returning to the browser:

{
    "id": "225",
    "userId": "2",
    "recruitId": "2",
    "note": "asdfasdfadsf",
    "noteDate": "2015-09-17 13:19:31",
    "user": {
        "id": "2",
        "name": "Chrsitian allred",
        "email": "xxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "phone": "xxxxxxxxxx",
        "password": "xxxxxxx",
        "active": "1",
        "banned": "0"
    },
    "name": "Chrsitian allred"
}

Obviously i am not crazy about having my encrypted password sent back to the brwoser.

What is really odd, is when i remove the php $note->name = $note->user->name

the result is this:

{
    "id": "225",
    "userId": "2",
    "recruitId": "2",
    "note": "asdfasdfadsf",
    "noteDate": "2015-09-17 13:19:31",
}

Why is the user Ojbect getting attached to the Note object only after I attach a custom variable?