My question involves restraining orders in the State of: Minnesota

My wife has a child with her ex husband. The "ex" has been harassing my wife through text messages, e-mails, phone calls and also when the exchange takes place after the door to the vehicle is shut. For the past 5 years, I have told the "ex" that he is not welcomed on my property which is why their divorce decree states that my wife bring the child out to him and place the child into the vehicle (and vice versa when she picks her up to bring her home). This past week, my wife had to take their child out of school for one day due to unforeseen circumstances that were out of our control and the "ex" became very angry.

A little explanation of the arrangement:Wife has custody during the school year with father having eowknd visitations, ex has custody during the summer with wife having eowknd visitations. Ex refuses to maintain scheduled doctor and dentist appts in the summer and says "what I do with her on my time is none of your business". The child is not allowed to participate in any kind of extra curricular sports due to the ex treating the child as property and demanding time with her on his days instead of allowing a few hours on Sat mornings for the child to be actively involved. Pick up time is set in the decree.

After learning about the day off of school, the ex started accusing me of smoking marijuana, told my wife to tell me to "shut the f up" and also used more colorful language. My wife has told the ex numerous times that she will not tolerate this kind of conversation with him and that she only needs to discuss the well-being of their child with him. He yells at my wife for not answering the phone when their child is at school and will leave nasty voice mails stating that she is "court ordered" to answer when he calls. (The court order only has the typical "reasonable phone access to the child") This has been going on for years now and my wife has not taken any legal action due to her not wanting their child in the middle of it. She DOES refuse to answer the phone when the child is not present because of the harassment and stress that it places on her.

At the most recent scheduled exchange, I opened my door to find the ex standing in the doorway of my garage. I told him to wait in the car and that my wife would bring their child to him. He screamed at me and said "I'm here to pick up my child, I can be here if I want!". I told my wife to keep their child in the house because of this nasty encounter. I told the ex that he is not allowed on my property and this time told him to go stand by his car. He proceeded to yell and got within an inch or two from my face. My step-son (NOT a mutual child of theirs) was present at this time and went in the house to inform my wife of what was going on. As he continued to scream and cause a scene, I pushed him out of my face and he started throwing punches. He yelled again that he can be on my property if he wants because his child was in the house. He said he was going to call the cops. I had my cell phone on me so I dialed 9-1-1. As soon as I hit the 'send' button, the ex knocked the phone out of my hand (the 9-1-1 dispatchers listening to the entire confrontation) and threw me up against the side of my house. The ex (being a wrestler in high school) used some wrestling moves to grab my legs and pick me up and slammed me on the concrete. While we were "fighting" the police arrived and we were both scolded for the encounter. (understandable)

Even though the divorce decree states what is to happen during exchanges, the police wouldn't do anything because it was a "civil matter". The police suggested that I file an OFP or something similar.

Of course the ex called the police later and fabricated the whole incident and stated that he was "called into the garage to see something" by my wifes 13 yr old (the two of them do not have a very good past relationship (13 yr old was abused by ex) so I believe when the 13 yr old tells me that he didn't ask the ex to come up to the house)

And finally....my question

Is it an OFP I want or a restraining order? Do I have the right to file on behalf of my children and wife? Is this clearly a violation? Is there more than just a harassment/restraining/ofp that needs to and can happen?



Please forgive me if I jumped around in this post as I had to close my browser a few times due to my slow computer
Feel free to ask for additional information because I am almost certain it's lacking details.