Restraining order has no teeth...

[jupiterdraft]

I have a friend going through a divorce that has a standing order of protection against her soon to be ex-husband. This order spells out the no contact rules and also provides for a means by which to handle their two children, both of which she has been granted custody (pending the divorce) and providing for the father's visitation and both are under the age of six.

This order very clearly states that the father gets supervised visitation, by a adult member of his family, for a given number of days per week. Recently, he was caught (photographically) on two separate occasions violating this order by separating the children - taking one somewhere and leaving the other with the "supervisory" adult.

My friend contacted the Sheriffs office which then assigned a detective who proceeded to determine than both the father and the supervisory family member had violated the order. Said detective filed for warrants which were summarily denied by the State Attorney's office with no explanation.

My friend has also filed an emergency motion with the court regarding this and the judge refuses to hear it for over 2 months - a lot of good emergency motions do.

It seems that the court has no interest in actually enforcing these orders.

This is not the first instance of trouble with this order - each time he does something "wrong" and she acts according to the law, he walks away wearing his big "F--k you, I'm untouchable grin" and she wastes time and money trying to get some justice from it all.

rant over

[ick]

Dating a woman with kids is complicated. I wish you all the best jupiter.

[poikilotrm]

The lack of efficacy of restraining orders is well known:

Well she finally got the nerve to file for divorce
She let the law take it from there
But Earl walked right through that restraining order
And put her in intensive care

Even in the event that there is easily demonstrable harm to the child being committed, the courts and cops will most likely do nothing. I have witnessed this personally time and time again.

What the law does is frustrating, stupid, venal, and cruel. The only real option for the victims is to go off the res. If you do, you better have an airtight alibi.