California. A family member has been getting death threats from her ex husband of over twenty years. Many years ago he was served a restraining order of which he violated it and was arrested more than once for it. No conviction I believe. He is still leaving her voice mails and txt messages saying she’s gonna be killed and she won’t even know who it may be that will do it as he stated he could just hire a person to do it. My question is, it’s quite obvious this is not going to stop. It’s also obvious that he has no regard for restraining orders or the law - so does something physical actually need to happen before the law steps in?
Have the threats been reported to law enforcement? If not, why not?
Is the restraining order still valid? While the orders can generally be issued for up to 10 years, 3 years is the standard time span. Unless she has gone back to have it renewed numerous times over the past 20 years, it is very likely no longer be valid.
How far away does the ex-husband live? Does he live in CA also? Or, does he live out of state?
I am curious as to why there are no convictions if there has been numerous arrests. My first thought is the most common: The victim ceased to cooperate with the police or the prosecutors. Otherwise, it may have come down to a "he said, she said" situation. However, if he actually left voice messages then it should be much easier to convict this time.
Depending on the full details, this offense is most likely a misdemeanor, albeit a serious one if it involves the violation of a DV TRO. It is definitely worth investigating, and if there is still a valid TRO and a recording of the messages clearly in his voice and/or from his phone, he could be prosecuted without too much difficulty.
The advantage of a restraining order is that it gives law enforcement and prosecutors tools to use against the perpetrator. Without a TRO, leaving threatening voicemails or texts would generally be a low grade misdemeanor on par with a series of crank phone calls about your refrigerator running down the street or having Prince Albert in a can.
