10/1/2007

Ms. Carson, who has Cerebral Palsy, came into LAFLA’s Santa Monica Courthouse Domestic Violence Clinic to seek a restraining order against her boyfriend. When she declined to spend the night with him, the boyfriend shoved her, kicked her in the back, and threatened her. He made harassing and threatening calls to Ms. Carson, and even broke into her MySpace page and forged outgoing email death threats to himself. He then reported the death threats to the police.

After LAFLA staff helped Ms. Carson receive a temporary restraining order, pro bono attorney Melissa Goetz of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP offered to represent Ms. Carson in the hearing for a permanent order. She met with the client to prep her for the hearing and arranged for the boyfriend to be served. Once served, the boyfriend became more threatening. When the boyfriend’s attorney raised the issue of threatening emails sent from Ms. Carson’s MySpace page, Melissa discovered that the boyfriend had a forgery conviction.

Melissa successfully negotiated with the boyfriend’s attorney for a five-year restraining order, the maximum available under state law, sparing Ms. Carson from the stress of a formal hearing. The boyfriend was ordered to stay away and refrain from making any attempts to contact Ms. Carson. Melissa also negotiated for the boyfriend to reimburse Ms. Carson in full for almost $300 in cell phone charges.

Melissa was able to provide the police with copies of emails sent by the boyfriend on Ms. Carson’s MySpace account after the death threats. When confronted with this evidence, the boyfriend told police that he wanted to drop the case. The police informed him that it doesn’t work that way, and referred the case to the City Attorney for prosecution.

Ms. Carson was thrilled with the result, and thrilled that she won’t have to defend herself in a felony case. Congratulations to Melissa for the great job!