Attorney Marc A. Scaringi Wins Dismissal of Petition for Protection From Abuse

It is very difficult to win a dismissal of a Petition for Protection From Abuse. Representing the defendant in these cases feels like it is you against the entire judicial system. Legally speaking, the plaintiff must prove her case for abuse by a preponderance of evidence. Practically, speaking the defendant is considered to be guilty until he proves himself innocent by an overwhelming amount of evidence. In any event, I recently achieved the dismissal of a Petition for Protection From Abuse and the vacation of the Temporary Order after a five-day hearing! The PFA case was intermixed with the divorce case. But, nonetheless, we had multiple witnesses on both sides over several days testifying in the PFA matter.

My client is going through a contested divorce. My client and his Wife run a business together, which adds to the difficulty, stress and aggravation of the divorce. One day, one of my client’s business credit cards was declined. So, my client called the credit card company and learned that all three of his business credit cards had been maxed out and that his business was very late in paying the credit card bills. His Wife handled the accounts payable for the business. So, my client was angry and frustrated at his Wife when he was on the phone with his credit card company. My client uttered something about his Wife that could be perceived as a threat to the employee for the credit card company during the phone call. The phone call was recorded. The credit card company reported the threat to the state police. The state police contacted my client’s Wife and informed her of the threat.

The Wife filed a Petition for Protection From Abuse and obtained a Temporary Protection From Abuse Order. That threat was the main basis set forth in the Petition. However, the Petition, like many, contained vague grounds of past abuse as well. Over several days of hearings, multiple witnesses testified for each side. The Wife testified to vague acts of alleged abuse that allegedly started at the beginning of their 30-year marriage and lasted up until separation. The Wife had a high school friend testify and attempt to corroborate these vague acts of abuse from 30 years ago that allegedly occurred at parties where several couples were partying and drinking. Her testimony and the Wife’s testimony on the prior acts of abuse not believable.

What won the case for us is a recent video of the couple that we introduced into evidence that showed the Husband calmly seated in the parties’ joint business office while the Wife stood over him, berated him, pointed her finger accusingly at him and repeated this conduct several times walking away from my client and then walking right back to him and standing over him, while my client sat there and did nothing in response. The Judge, based upon that video and other evidence that we presented, concluded correctly that the Wife is the aggressor and that the Husband’s possible threat uttered over the phone to the credit card employee did not place the Wife in reasonable fear of imminent serious bodily injury, nor did the Husband knowingly engage in a course of conduct or repeatedly commit acts toward his Wife that placed her in reasonable fear of bodily injury. Also, the Judge stated the Wife was evasive during my cross examination of her regarding the video. It was clear as day in the video that the Wife was the aggressor, but she denied it and provided evasive answers to my questions about the video. Lesson learned for witnesses: tell the truth and do not be evasive.