Being Stingy With The Tissue

Just got off the phone with a friend of mine who has some interesting news. The gist is his daughter was abused by her meth addicted husband. The husband has warrants out for him in another state as well as a restraining order issued in another state prohibiting contact with his wife or daughter. She & her baby moved back in with my friend & he asked me for advice over the weekend because he's worried (with good reason) that his soon-to-be-former son-in-law will do something stupid. In addition to all the effective things (i.e. setting up a plan for home defense, firearms training, etc..) I told them to get another restraining order since Colorado might not view an out of state restraining order as favorably as an in state one. I explained that it was not for any alleged deterent qualities that restraining orders have but as an added layer of legal defense should repelling the punk by force be necessary. So she went down yesterday to get one.

They told her to come back next week!

Apperently some clerk said that a new judge will be in next week & this one probably wouldn't grant a restraining order. There was some tale relayed about a lady who walked into the court all bandaged & bruised after getting beat up by her boyfriend 10 days ago. The judge said that if she really needed a restraining order she'd have been in there 9 days ago & refused to give her one.

So my friends will wait until next week & then try to get a restraining order. In the meantime they've taken practical measures that will actually keep them physically safe. But since the cops & courts usually advise going through the proper legal channels I find it odd that a judge is being stingy with the tissues.

Posted by Publicola at January 9, 2007 04:06 PM | TrackBack