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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    3

    Default Harassment and PPO's

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: Virginia
    My exboyfriend owes me money that he has verbally agreed to pay me. After being unemployed since last October, he got a job in June and says he is financially trying to catch up. I keep an eye on him by viewing his website for a business he started and by scant information on Facebook in order to see if I can tell whether or not he is being honest about his financial situation. I also watch the website and his facebook business page because he agreed to take down photos that I took that he had posted there. Last month I sent him a paypal invoice for the money owed and requested the photos removed. During this time, I have been watching what little I can see. Once I discovered the photos removed, I stopped looking at his site. I also recently sent him another reminder of payment. This time I decided to send an envelope with the the thought that it would be a physical reminder to pay and save him a stamp. It was nondescript, addressed to him and with only a post-it note inside with the amount. I mailed it to where he works so he wouldn't just throw it in a pile with the mail he gets at his house. He is now threatening me with a restraining order and accusing me of harassment. Additionally he claims that because I look at his business website, I am stalking him. I also have a couple of facebook pages. I have him blocked on one and he has me blocked on my other one. Before he blocked my other one, he could see me venting. My venting consisted of remarks vaguely related to him, but no names are ever mentioned and I have never posted to his website and I can't post on his Facebook nor would I if I could. He has also accused me of sending things to his house. I sent a pair of weight training straps back to him that were his with no note.
    So that is the extent of my contact....no posts, but viewing his site and sending his one invoice and later an empty envelope.
    Does he have grounds to file orders on me for harassment, or would the judge think it frivolous? I am no threat to him at 5 feet tall, and I have never contacted his family.

    I found these online:
    § 18.2-60. Threats of death or bodily injury to a person or member of his family; threats to commit serious bodily harm to persons on school property; penalty.
    A. 1. Any person who knowingly communicates, in a writing, including an electronically transmitted communication producing a visual or electronic message, a threat to kill or do bodily injury to a person, regarding that person or any member of his family, and the threat places such person in reasonable apprehension of death or bodily injury to himself or his family member, is guilty of a Class 6 felony. However, any person who violates this subsection with the intent to commit an act of terrorism as defined in § 18.2-46.4 is guilty of a Class 5 felony.
    2. Any person who communicates a threat, in a writing, including an electronically transmitted communication producing a visual or electronic message, to kill or do bodily harm, (i) on the grounds or premises of any elementary, middle or secondary school property, (ii) at any elementary, middle or secondary school-sponsored event or (iii) on a school bus to any person or persons, regardless of whether the person who is the object of the threat actually receives the threat, and the threat would place the person who is the object of the threat in reasonable apprehension of death or bodily harm, is guilty of a Class 6 felony.
    B. Any person who orally makes a threat to any employee of any elementary, middle or secondary school, while on a school bus, on school property or at a school-sponsored activity, to kill or to do bodily injury to such person, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
    A prosecution pursuant to this section may be either in the county, city or town in which the communication was made or received.
    (Code 1950, § 18.1-257; 1960, c. 358; 1973, c. 118; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1994, c. 265; 1998, cc. 687, 788; 2001, cc. 644, 653; 2002, cc. 588, 623.)

    If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
    (2000, c. 849.)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Re: Harassment and PPO's

    If you're worried that your conduct might result in criminal charges, stop engaging in the conduct.

    Should you continue to cause him problems, I have no reason to believe that any request he makes for assistance from the police or from the courts will be the same as yours; I would expect that his description of your conduct would be significantly more inflammatory. I am not in a position to tell you what a court may or may not due in relation to factual allegations that have not yet even been made.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    3

    Default Re: Harassment and PPO's

    Well, outside of sending him and envelope, I had no need and have no future need for contact.
    I was more curious about what is considered stalking. I have been looking at but not posting to his website. He claims he can use lists of IP address log ins against me to prove harassment, but what is harassing about looking at a page that is open to the public? He also claims he can use print outs of a couple vague (nameless), nonthreatening comments I made on my Facebook page against me as harassment.Is what I have described inflammatory in nature?? I have never made email, text or phone threats. If he embellished anything he used as "evidence", wouldn't he have to prove it?

    Additionally, if you are served an order and not found guilty, does it still go on your record?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Re: Harassment and PPO's

    Virginia's stalking laws are summarized in this brochure.

    Orders of protection and criminal prosecutions are separate issues: A court may issue an order of protection even if there is no prosecution; a criminal prosecution can be initiated even if there is no order of protection.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    3

    Default Re: Harassment and PPO's

    OK...so that 'stalker info" doesn't describe me. LOL
    How do you protect yourself from someone threatening a wrongful Protective Order?? Can anyone just file it against you and have it on your record??

  6. #6

    Default Re: Harassment and PPO's

    Yes, anyone can ask for it. Whether it'll be granted depends on the strength of their evidence and is up to the particular judge in question. Judges do understand that people who can't pay their debts file such cases, and most won't have any issue with reasonable contact to collect a debt - and your attempts haven't been over the top, so realistically, unless there's more to the story, I don't see a judge finding your behavior to constitute "harassment" - but be aware that stranger things HAVE happened and neither you nor we can predict what version of events HE might give the court or how convincing his side of the story will be. Since you've already been put on notice that he doesn't want contact, the better way to collect a debt owed to you is to file a civil case against him and sue him for the amounts you claim he owes. Once you get a judgement against him, you get to act within the collection laws for your state to pursue payment. Until you HAVE such a judgement, continuing to pursue him could end up being more problematic than is practical.

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