How to Get Court Issued No Contact Order Revoked

#1 06-09-2008, 05:43 PM

I need to know the process for getting this No Contact Order the court issued revoked. I am the "victim" of a domestic violence incident where my husband was the "perpetrator". He was charged with Criminal Confinement, Strangulation, Intimidation, and Domestic Battery. I am baffled as to how they came up with these charges. Domestic Battery is the only charge I can understand. My husband is 46 years old with no prior arrests for anything. He is retired from the Air Force and is a decent man. This incident was totally out of character for him and was brought about by a toxic accidental mixture of pain medication, anti-depressants, and alcohol. I need this order revoked as soon as possible, so that my husband and I can go about seeking counseling and maintaining our home (bills, maintenance, etc.)

aardvarc · #2 06-09-2008, 06:13 PM

Under Indian's domestic violence protocols, when police respond to a domestic disturbance and an offender is jailed, the police issue a temporary no-contact order. The temporary order is in effect from the day the offender is released from jail, for a period of ten days.

Beyond the immediate/emergency temp order from police, no-contact orders are requested by the prosecutor criminal cases and issued at the discretion of the presiding judge. The no-contact order may be issued as a condition of bail, bond, or ROR release. The no-contact order remains in effect until the case is disposed of (whether by dropped charges, plea, or conviction) or until the end of sentence (if it is a condition of sentence or probation). Based on the serious and numberous offenses being charged here, the prosecutor's office isn't likely to be keen on dropping it, but you can certainly ask.

Upon any plea or conviction, counseling is likely to be ordered for him, either in the form of batterer's intervention courses, anger management, substance abuse, or some combination of these. But if there is ANY level of violence occurring, even once, all professionals in the field agree that his counseling needs to happen separate and apart from any counseling for you. Should you feel that you wish counseling for yourself, seek assistance from your local domestic violence program - some of them have really helpful group or individual options available - and not all of the topics deal specifically with violence in relationships, but with many of the peripheral issues such as you cite as contributing factors. Counseling for you two as a couple can (and should) come later - after he has had some work on identifying and addressing his own issues that led to the incident and environment in question.

Having a bread winner suddenly out of the picture can be harrowing, traumatic, and financially burdensome. This is a common dynamic in situations like these, and various forms of assistance may be available to you. Again, consult with your local domestic violence program (there are often programs that can offer assistance, but only via a certified advocate's application on your behalf). You can find assistance in your area at

http://www.aardvarc.org/dv/states/inddv.shtml

#3 06-09-2008, 06:28 PM

I have already phoned twice, e-mailed twice and faxed 2 letters to the prosecutor's office. As of today, no response. Is there any way to force them to speak with me, the chrages were brought about by a rookie officer in training and the statemet he made to the court is not factual.

aardvarc · #4 06-10-2008, 02:05 AM

That the original charge for arrest was brought by a rookie officer isn't going to be relevent to having the NCO dropped, because the officer only brings the charge of ARREST - the prosecution is the one who actually determines what a defendant is charged with in COURT (they quite often will differ) and it's the prosecution who requested the order.

Keep in mind that some 85% of domestic violence victims try to get charges or NCOs dropped for various reasons, the biggest one being financial dependency. The charge of domestic battery in Indiana means that there was domestic violence that resulted in injury. The state's interest is going to focus on their duty to protect your physical person (i.e. LIFE) - so if they feel the incident in question warranted the list of charges brought, the chances that they will even CONSIDER dropping either is slim. I suspect this is what they are trying to tell you with silence. You can always march down to their office since it'll be harder to ignore you, but be prepared to re-hear the above.

Keep in mind too that there is the possibility that conviction on one or more of these charges COULD result in him being out of the picture (incarcerated) for a substantial time (he's looking at a Class A misdemeanor and 3 Class D felonies): Domestic battery: Class D felony, Intimidation: Class A misdemeanor, Strangulation: Class D felony, Criminal confinement: Class D felony.

A Class A misdemeanor can result in incarceration of up to one year, and for each felony up to 3 years (1 1/2 years being the advisory sentence for a first offense - probably served concurrently). Since you really have little chance of the order getting dropped (though again, you can certainly escalate attempts to do so by going down there), concentrate on the possibilities of the big picture, and as advised, seek assistance from your local resources - they help folks deal with this type of situation every day.