How to Enforce a Civil Restraining Order for Defamation

**needssomehelp** · 08-04-2011, 10:33 PM

My question involves defamation in the state of: Florida and California.

The good ol long story short is someone I knew when I lived in Florida began harassing me very severely once I had moved to California. This man is a convicted felon and has a rap sheet a mile long with fraud and theft charges between 3 states (CA is not one of them.) He has a history of destroying anyone who finds out about his past, and unfortunately I am one of them. Do I think he could physically hurt me? Possibly. Let's put it this way: the harassment began 3 years after I had last seen or spoke to him, and has been going on for a year now.

This man was not a domestic person to me, just a friend. I filed for a civil restraining order in California and was granted a 4 year permanent full restraining order. This man made a site on blogger.com to slander me (my full name is in the URL) and the Judge wrote in the added orders area "must remove all blogs and sites about 'me'". This was in September 2010, the order is good until September 2014.

I contacted Google right away and they hmmmed and hawed all they could. The final answer was (after I had scanned everything) "Well see it doesn't say this EXACT site. Go in and make it say this exact site and we'll remove it." Unfortunately due to other problems at the time I was unable to.

I contacted my local police in December and was given a detective. He could not have cared less. He never got back to me unless I contacted him, and when he did it would be to tell me he had nothing new. Finally by May 2011 he was tied up with the other people in this horrific case (you can read my old posts and get a good jist, in short this problem encompasses about 4 people harassing me and trying to destroy my life) and told me he wasn't going to do anything. Yes I have this in emails (including him saying he spoke with those people, despite them having nothing to do with this.)

I mean quite simply this guy admitted to owning the site in his court filed papers, he posted his driver's license in one post made long after the order (watermarked and what not but only he would have access to it) and I have hit counters showing his IP doing these things. To the detective he just said 'Oh no I don't run that site' and they bought it despite all this (even if he'd given it to someone else that would violate the restraining order, it ordered him from day 1 to kill it, not give it away.)

I called the Florida police from where he's located (they had been very helpful to me through the process) and they told me they had to hear from California, as it is a California order, or they couldn't do anything (as in they couldn't investigate it or do something to him for not removing it.)

I've had this order for almost one year now and the site is still up, slandering me and my business to no end (in the past few weeks he's labeled me an alcoholic with a dirty vagina, a felon on the run armed and dangerous, and that I have a variety of mental disorders). What can I do? I have found on a whole my local police department was absolutely useless, they could barely understand computers (when they interviewed me it was with a pad and paper, but that was for another thing...this case he never interviewed me.)

If it makes a difference I am in another state now that is neither California nor Florida. Should I pursue something here? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

**Mr. Knowitall** · 08-08-2011, 11:27 AM

"Somebody said bad things about me on the Internet" is not the sort of complaint that the police are going to pursue, nor is it the type of threat that justifies a personal protection order.

If you want to get some form of civil injunction against this person for defaming you, hire a lawyer and seek such an order. I expect that it will be an expensive exercise in frustration, trying to obtain and enforce an order across state lines. It's extremely difficult to obtain orders restricting speech, as people have a First Amendment right to speak. It's also often very difficult to prove who made any particular statement online.

Further, it would appear that this person has already prevailed in a lawsuit contending that you defamed him.

**cdwjava** · 08-08-2011, 11:50 AM

Ditto what Mr. Knowitall said about the police. They are not likely to address this at all. If they do address it, it will simply be to make a couple of phone calls.

The issue here is enforcement of a CA order in FL. First is the issue of service. Was there good service? Second is the issue of jurisdiction. Does the court in CA have the jurisdiction to address this? Third is the practical issue. CAis not going to seek extradition from FL on a low grade misdemeanor. It ain't gonna happen.

The police also tend not to have the resources to even deal with local CHO issues much less deal with them across state lines.

I suspect you may have to heed the words of Mr. Knowitall and seek an attorney to assist you in this matter. Though, given your other thread, even that may be for nought.

**needssomehelp** · 08-17-2011, 03:29 AM

Thank you.

Actually this specific person has never sued me or won anything against me, as I said I have a group problem. I have this restraining order against him, and that is the only legalities between the two of us.

But you are both right in enforcement. And no hiring a lawyer will never happen, if I can't afford one to save me from fraudulent insane claims by a rich lunatic I sure can't for THIS lunatic...I wish I could though.