Interviewer: Domestic violence I guess there’s probably two situations. There’s one where there’s no restraining order in place, you have a couple that’s living in the house and there’s an event. And the other one is when there is a restraining order in place. Is that a clear division of the two scenarios in which domestic violence occurs?
Acacia Law: Yes. What happens is that when there is a dispute between siblings, relatives, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends those are the types of charges that fit within this, what I call IJP or interference of judicial Proceedings.
The reason being is that in some cases the court may order in a domestic violence case one of the spouses not live at the residence any more. Once that becomes an order, that is a judge’s order. So if the person goes into that residence in violation of the restraining order, then they are guilty and they are going to be charged not only with the underlying crime, but actually going into the structure. Now they’ll be held in contempt of court. So it makes quite a mess.
Interviewer: One thing that you said that caught my attention is you said domestic violence is not just between husband and wife, but between brother and sister, aunt and uncle. What is the limits and what are all the scenarios that domestic violence can happen in the first place and between who?
Acacia Law: Almost any time there’s a dispute between two individuals who are either related somehow or who are married or who are living together in some sort of romantic relationship, the statute kicks in. Domestic violence usually takes the form of two major things; one is assault the other is criminal damage.
And what happens is that with the assault cases there is either a physical or serious verbal confrontation between the spouses. By that occurring the crime is then put within the format of a domestic violence case.
The next thing that you have to look at is what it is that is, in fact, in place for release conditions. And as we were saying before, in domestic violence cases usually one or both spouses, by order of court, have a restraining order restricting contact with the other person altogether.
