Cooper v. Cooper

OPINION

MATTHEWS, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

In these consolidated cases we review a denial of a petition for a domestic violence protective order, and, in the separate divorce case, a grant of a mutual restraining order. We afSrm the former and reverse the latter.

The main question presented is whether a person subject to a domestic violence order prohibiting him from being in the presence of or contacting a protected person commits the crime of violating a protective order by simply being in the same public place as the protected person. Our answer is “no.” The crime requires a violation of…