Legal Question in Family Law in California

First of all, lawyers don't really call things legal or illegal. That is a lay term. Lawyers analyze things in terms of issues, liability, and defenses. The issue is whether you have a defense to criminal charges and how this happened.

The reason it happened is because of mismanagement of a system known as the Domestic Violence Restraining Order System (DVROS). This system is set forth in Family Code section 6380. Under this system, restraining orders are delivered to law enforcement for entrance into the DVROS database, maintained by the California Department of Justice, via the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS). A few years ago the practice was changed, to allow court personnel to enter the restraining order information directly into the system.

The system was created to allow law enforcement to ensure that restraining orders were being enforced. Courts are not open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Law enforcement responding to a call is supposed to be able to use the system to verify whether a protective order is in place, and the terms of the order, at any hour of the day, without having to wait to obtain the actual court orders. "The data contained in the Domestic Violence Restraining Order System shall be deemed to be original, self-authenticating, documentary evidence of the court orders." (Fam. Code, sect. 6381, subd. (c).)

Unfortunately, there is no oversight to the system. The Department of Justice refuses to let either restrained parties or protected parties to have copies of the data entered into the DVROS, which would allow for verification or correction. Law enforcement officers are trained that the information is accurate, and operate under that assumption. The courts do not have any control over the database. So the system is able to be used for harassment. In your situation, you probably did not have a copy of the dismissal with you, and the termination of the restraining order was not in the DVROS, but rather data relating to the original order.

As I pointed out in my previous response to your previous question, however, you do have a defense to the charges.