Mark Byron was angry about a domestic relations court protective order that ordered him to stay away from his wife and affected his custody of his son. So he vented on his personal Facebook page, stating:
". . . if you are an evil, vindictive woman who wants to ruin your husbands life and take your son’s father away from him completely – all you need to do is say that you're scared of your husband or domestic partner...”
When his wife learned of it, her lawyers filed a motion to have him held in contempt for violating the protective order that prevented Byron from doing anything to cause his wife “to suffer physical and/or mental abuse, harassment, annoyance, or bodily injury.”
How protective is an order of protection? The short answer is: It depends. "A personal protection order is merely a piece of paper," I explain to my clients. To be really safe, you need to take extra precautions.
Thanks to Paula Aylward, Michigan family law attorney, for calling to my attention a New York Times article: Case Revives Debate Over Protection Orders, published online on 2/26/2010. Alan Feuer writes:
While experts on domestic violence say orders of protection can clearly forestall harm — they point out that 87 percent of the victims of family-related killings last year in New York City did not have one — a piece of paper, even one bearing the imprimatur of a court, is certainly no guarantee of safety. This is especially true if the paper in question is delayed, ignored or never served.
Patrick Cavanaugh [“Cavanaugh”] and Melanie Smith [“Smith”] met when both were graduate students at the University of Rochester. After graduating in 2005, they moved to different states, but continued to maintain contact.
In 2007, Cavanaugh sought a personal protection order (PPO) against Smith. His petition alleged:
she was sending threatening emails
she appeared unexpectedly at Cavanaugh’s football camp
she had made statements to Cavanaugh’s employer and others in the community regarding Cavanaugh’s personal relationship with his wife and Smith’s belief that Cavanaugh was immoral and dishonest.
Following a hearing, the trial court granted Cavanaugh’s request for a PPO that prohibits Smith from stalking Cavanaugh and from “writing or communicating slanderous statements with Cavanaugh’s employer, community, & associates.”
