My question involves restraining orders in the State of: California
My friend has a disfunctional relationship with his wife, been going on for two years. I finally convinced him it is time for divorce. Wife has two adult children that she shares drugs with, they come and go. She is sometimes gone for weeks at a time. Her two adult children are pretty much homeless. Their pattern is that they all show up, start an argument with the husband and eventually when reaches the point of about to boil over they call the cops and try to get him arrested so that they can live there for two or three days. This happened last Friday night (4/12) to early Saturday morning. There was a verbal argument and he ended up breaking a lamp and then left and said "I'm done, I'm moving out". He left, they called the police. When the police arrived she swore that he choked her and tried to kill her, of course the son confirmed the story. He says he never touched her. The police must not have seen any evidnence of assualt because they did not get a warrant for his arrest or file charges for assualt. They did however get her a temprary protective order. It was 1:00 in the morning and they drove around with a spotlight but he was long gone. They tried his cell phone but he didn't answer.
The next day he had a friend call her and attempt to assess the situation before he tried to go home. She told the friend the he could not come back and that she had the TRO. He stayed away Saturday, Sunday and Monday but was never served with anything. On Monday evening he received a phone call from someone identifying himself as a Sheriff's deputy and telling him that there was a TRO and that he would arrest him if he went there. He told the officer that he needed his blood pressure meds and his tools so he could go to work. The cop said "Too Bad". He asked the officer if he could get a copy of it and the officer told him that he would have to go to the court and get it. The next day I drove him the 25 miles to the courthouse and we waited in line for 75 minutes and found out that the TRO copies that come from the Sheriff to the clerks office are not filed, they get stacked in boxes in the basement. We then went across the hall to the legal aid department and waited in line. We explained to them what we were after and they chuckled and told us the same thing. Then they asked "when did this happen" and they proceeded to explain that the emergency TRO that was issued would be good for 7 calendar days. Then they asked if she had ever assulted him and he said yes. Then they asked when was the last time and he said last Wednesday she struck me in the head with a broom. Then they reached in their drawer and pulled out TRO paperwork and helped him fill out the documents to get a TRO against her and also to take possession of the residence. She told him to write down that last few incidents of domestic violence committed agains him by her and come back the next morning and file it. He did so and the clerk told him that he was to call back the next day to see if the judge granted the TRO. The next day he called and it was approved and I took him there again to go and pick up the paperwork. We took it to the Sheriff's department civil division and filled out paperwork so that they would serve it. It was Thursday the 18th, the order was stamped by the clerk and dated the 18th.
On Friday mid-morning he was contacted via phone with one of the local patrol officers who told him that he was going to serve her along with an officer from the probation department as she was on probabation. They told him to meet at the fire station about two blocks away from the residence. He me them there and he was promptly arrested for a warrant from another county from about ten years ago. Oops, I warned him....
I was thinking that even though they picked him up and took him to jail, knowing that the other county would not come and get him and that they would just make him signa promise to appear, that the Sheriff's department was still obligated to serve that TRO and remove her from the premisis. Here is what happened:
Sometime during the day Friday someone told her that it was coming, that she had better go down and get her own order signed by a judge. Somehow, I'm thinking with a little inside help, she was able to get an order keeping him out signed by a judge and stamped by the cleark with the date of 4/19. They served him with that order at about 5:30 PM and then about 30 minutes I saw them go to the residence and heard on the scanner that they were serving papers. They spoke with her for a few minutes and then left. They did not remove her, I believe that they conspired to make sure that he was served and that proof of service was entered into the computer before serving her.
My question is three-part, one, is there something in the law that makes one order invalid vs. the other, does it matter which one was filed first or served first? 2nd question, how does he keep his wife and the drug addict son from selling everyting to purchase drugs? 3rd question, is he completely screwed? He doesn't even want to move back in there, he just wants his work tools so he can get back to work....
Sorry for the long story, don't know how much is pertinent.

