Dismissal of an Order of Protection in Arizona: by Jake Amaru, Criminla Defense Attorney in Tucson

This video is about getting a Court to lift an order of protection in Arizona. HIGHLIGHTS 0:00 Introduction 0:13 What is an order of protection (OOP) 0:33 What's needed to get an OOP 0:40 What's needed to defeat an OOP 1:00 Orders of protection: Implications 1:10 Violating an OOP = domestic violence 1:30 A real-life case 1:40 The "relationship test" 2:35 The "true threat" doctrine 2:58 Resolution of the case 3:28 How to contact me AUTHOR Jake Amaru, Criminal Defense Attorney in Tucson (https://defenselawtucson.com) SUMMARY A review of how easily one can get subjected to an Order Of Protection (OOP) and potentially fonds himself/herself in deep trouble with the law. In Arizona, three violations of an OOP and it becomes a felony case. With a real-life case by way of example on what to do to get an OOP lifted by a Court. TRANSCRIPT I'm here today to talk to you about Orders of Protection (OOP), and how to defend yourself against a situation if someone files an order of protection against you. Orders of Protection are really easy to get. It's an ex-parte hearing, which means that it's just that person and the judge, and the judges tend to grant them, because they're just trying to give the person the benefit of the doubt and make sure that they don't make a mistake. So they're easy to get and they’re a lot harder to get rid of. In order to get an Order of Protection, the person needs to prove that at least one act of domestic violence occurred. And the way to defeat an Order of Protection, is by a "preponderance of the evidence", meaning if you were to flip a coin 100 times, it would come up 51 in your favor. The burden of proof to prove an act of domestic violence occurred is low. It's the same as "probable cause" for the police to arrest you. In some circumstances, an Order of Protection implicates your gun rights, meaning your Brady rights, so you could be ordered to turn in your firearms. A violation of an Order of Protection is considered to be an act of domestic violence. Three convictions for domestic violence can be charged as a felony. So it can get really serious really fast if you have an Order of Protection against you and you are violating it. Real-life case: Dismissal of an Order of Protection I want to talk to you about a case I had, which is a good example of why you should challenge one. This was involved two roommates. So they were both students at the U of A. And the reason why it was an order of protection was because of the fact that they were roommates, which meant that they fit into a certain test of what's called "the relationship test" -- the person has to either be a family member or a roommate or a loved one. So it's not necessarily someone like a boyfriend or girlfriend that you're dating. If it fits into the relationship test, they can get an Order of Protection. In this case, it was roommates who, both had gotten interested in the same girl. And she had chosen my client and the other boy got very jealous and the two of them started texting back and forth. And he ended up filing an Order of Protection against my client. In those communications, there was a lot of things that were kind of things that you would expect for 20-year-old guys to be saying, and we challenged him on the basis that there was not a real reason for him to be threatened. And it's called the true threat doctrine, which means that a threat has to be real. By way of example, if you are in a bad mood and you're arguing with your wife and you say “I feel like cutting your head off, I'm so annoyed with you.” That's not a true threat. That's just you sort of venting. So the judge dismissed that order of protection, allowed my client to go back to his housing, and it was also really important because of the fact that they were both students on the same campus. Had he say, walked into a bar and had a chance encounter with him, that could have been construed as a violation. And so there was 100 reasons for him to have that Order of Protection removed, because the chances of him violating it were very high given the proximity in which they had to each other. As a criminal defense attorney, I believe Orders of protection and restraining orders have a perfectly good use in our system, but they have to be justified by the circumstances. If you find yourself with an undeserved Order of Protection, it could become really important for you to have the issue reviewed by a competent criminal defense attorney. I would kindly advise you to consider having it reviewed before the trials of life make things more complicated. If you want to contact me at my office in Tucson, please call 520-465-6968. I am a trial lawyer, and I plead cases in Tucson metro area and Southern Arizona, including Bisbee, Nogales, Casa Grande and Sierra Vista.