Charges of Violation of a 209A Restraining Order and Criminal Harassment do Not Issue After Contentious Clerk Magistrate Hearing

Our client is an extremely well educated mother of three children. She and her ex-husband have been battling in the Probate Court for several years now. At every stage of the Probate Court process our client has enjoyed great success.  Her ex-husband cannot accept defeat. In as much as he has been unable to prevail in the Probate Court he started strategically applying for restraining orders and applying for criminal complaints.  After successfully obtaining a restraining order he  met with local police and detailed several violations alleged to have been committed by our client. An overly aggressive and unusually invested police officer assisted him and brought an application for a complaint against our client charging a violation of a 209a restraining order under G.L. c. 209A section 7 and criminal harassment under G.L. c. 265 section 43A. The man had an excellent lawyer appear on his behalf at the clerk magistrate hearing. Our office successfully argued that the factual basis for the issuance of a criminal complaint was non-existent. The clerk magistrate agreed with us and he did not find probable cause. The complaints did not issue. 

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