Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

I am a little confused. A little background: I had my ex-boyfriend arrested a little over a month ago for aggravated harrassment (he left me voicemails threatening my current boyfriend). He also had a pot charge and a felony extradition violation charge because he jumped bail in Colorado (he was arrested there for harrassing another ex-girlfriend). He plead guilty to the pot charge and my harrassment charge last week, and the cases were settled & I received a permenant order of protection. He is still in jail awaiting a court date for the extradition charge. Last night, he messaged me on Facebook and then IM'd me on AIM. I am not sure how he had access to a computer in jail, but I know he is still in custody because the DA gave me a website, vinelink, to check his status. The nature of the messages were not mean or threatening in any way; he stated that he is very suicidal and begged me to talk to him because he needed someone to talk to. I did not respond to either the facebook message or the IM's.

Now, I have two questions about all of this. The first is, am I required to report this attempt to make contact, given that I have an order of protection? I do not feel an immediate need to, because he is still in jail & may be sent back to Colorado to serve the warrants there, and even if he doesn't, the felony charge may get him 1-4 years, but I do not want it to seem as though I am not taking my order of protection seriously. I am worried that if he somehow gets released and tries to contact me, the police will wonder why I did not report last night's contact & will not take me seriously. I don't really want to get him in more trouble, though. since he is still locked up, I am not fearful of him at the moment, and I'm also not sure what reporting it could do since he is already in jail.

The second question/concern I have is that I am a bit worried about him. He has a history of severe mental illness & has tried to kill himself in the past. I do not have any desire to talk to him myself, because I do not want him in my life at all. He has not tried to harm me or my boyfriend yet, but I am afraid that if I allow contact to continue, his behavior will eventually escalate because he is so unstable, which is why I ended contact & sought the order of protection to begin with. But, I still do not want him to harm himself or anything - I wouldn't wish something like that on anybody. Would he even be able to do so in jail? I would assume you are monitored fairly well in jail, but I know very little about it, because I've never been to jail, or even visited anybody in it. If it is possible for him to harm himself while there, is there any way I could report his message to me to somebody in order to put him on some type of suicide watch?


Asked on 10/04/10, 1:32 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
S. MICHAEL MUSA-OBREGON NY Musa-Obregon & Associates

TO ANSWER YOUR FIRST QUESTION, YOU ARE NOT LEGALLY REQUIRED TO REPORT HIS ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT YOU - ALTHOUGH THE PROSECUTOR WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE TO KNOW. IF YOU DID TELL THE PROSECUTOR, SHE WOULD TAKE INTO ACCOUNT YOUR DESIRE NOT TO ADD ANY ADDITIONAL CRIMINAL CHARGES. IT WOULD NOT MEAN, IN OTHER WORDS, AN AUTOMATIC RE-ARREST.

ON YOUR SECOND QUERY, IF SOMEONE WANTS TO COMMIT SUICIDE IN JAIL, THERE IS NO REAL WAY IT CAN BE TOTALLY PREVENTED, EVEN THOUGH JAILS TAKE MEASURES AGAINST IT. YOU COULD ALWAYS TELL THE PROSECUTOR WHO CAN ASK THE JUDGE TO PUT HIM ON SUICIDE WATCH.

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Answered on 10/09/10, 6:35 am
peter bark bark & karpf

You are not required to report him and it will have no bearing on any future complaints that you did not report every violation. However, by not reporting him, he may take it as an invitation to contact you after he is released.

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Answered on 10/09/10, 6:04 pm


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