How can I request for the judge to reconsider amending TRO on my ex from 100 to 50 yards?

biboswel

New Member
Jurisdiction
California
I currently have a Temporary Restraining & Do Not Contact Order against my ex for harassment and mostly mental/emotional abuse, with some minor physical abuse. This morning we had the court hearing in which I had put a large effort into compiling and organizing a binder of evidence to show the judge the ongoing harassment and stalking tactics by my ex which included pages of hundreds of missed back to back phone calls, blocked text messages, emails, and even screenshots of surveillance footage of my ex outside of my bedroom window on multiple occasions. There were probably close to 50 pages of this spanning over the past couple of years. The last full year of which, I have made an asserted effort to not engage in any way, and only 4 occasions where my ex's strategies were able to trigger a response from me, and 2 of those instances being solely to notify my ex that I intended to acquire a restraining order against him. Though my ex showed up to the court hearing, he did not however make any effort to file or serve me with a response, came prepared only with a statement and one small email chain between him and another ex of his who I am now friends with where my ex was also able to trigger him into an emotional response where he mentioned I had showed him the file of evidence I was building on Tyler which also contained documents showing old communication between me and my ex in which he sent me sexually explicit content. Obviously, this then gave my ex something to run with for more false accusations, threats, and scare tactics, and that exchange was the only form of documentation my ex attempted to present against me. In the end though I presented quite a chunk of evidence against my ex I walked away feeling like maybe the judge would have preferred a larger bulk of that to have reflected the harassment and stalking specific to this past year, vs showing how is has been consistent over the span of a few years. Learning lesson for me I guess as I've never been to court before. I also walked away feeling a bit disappointed because though the just did say, "he felt that there was the potential for concerns of harassment" my situation somehow felt a bit minimized regardless of the fact that I have images of my ex outside my bedroom window, 600 blocked text messages with no response from me, accusations by my ex accusing me of sexually explicit cyber crimes though he had nothing to support that brigade of attacks on me because it was fabricated based and solely based on the argument he had in regards to the file of evidence I had on him. I guess it was a bit frustrating because despite everything the scale felt far too balanced in the end from the judges perspective, and almost as if I had contributed to the overall situation with my own harassment tactics that were strictly supports by my ex's fabricated stories during the hearing. No evidence to support his statements, no witnesses, nada. Though I may sound as though I'm overly upset, I really am not, because I feel as though the judge was most likely doing his job to be neutral and unbiased, as well as trying to play on the side of caution in regards to the consequences of a permanent restraining order. I can fully rationalize and understand that, and I am in no way discrediting the judge. Now... After ALL THAT has been said, onto my ACTUAL question. The final judgement was that the TRO would remain in place until May to give me ex the opportunity to show he will stop contacting me. Additionally, the judge updated the TRO from 100 yards down to 50 yards because my ex stated that the Rite Aid on the opposite side of my block is where he gets his prescriptions filled. This is where I have cause for concern because I believe my ex is attempting to manipulate the restraining order to legally get closer to me and my home. The reasons I feel this way are because in all the years I spent with my ex he specifically REFUSED to change his pharmacy to this Rite Aid location and always has his prescriptions filled through Vons, Walgreens, or CVS, which technically are all actually located closer to him anyway. Additionally, the other ex of his from the "evidence file argument" had been dating my ex up until about 3 months ago giving him a more current observation, in which he also states that my ex NEVER got his prescriptions filled at this Rite Aid location and has only ever seen him have them filled at the same locations I have mentioned above. I visit this Rite Aid literally 2-3 times a day because I've ALWAYS had my prescriptions filled there, I regularly go to by snacks, and just go to walk though out of boredom, but without exaggeration I am in this store 2-3 times every single day and my ex knows it's a habit of mine. In all the years living here and all the times going to that store I've only encountered my ex once, in which he came out with he later texted my that he needed an ingredient for dinner (not prescriptions). I'm a bit worried that I am now going to start having frequent run ins with my ex at or around this store as he sees it as an opportunity to get around the restraining order. Additionally, he knows that I take my dog to the dog park that sits on the opposite side of the road as that Rite Aid meaning he could stand at Rite Aid and stalk me all he wanted without breaking the temporary restraining order. Obviously, I can't prove that he doesn't get his prescriptions filled at this location, but I have always been able to read him like a book and know him well enough that I could place a bet if they pulled a history of the last 90 days he would not have had so much as one prescription filled there. So I'm now sort of left feeling like he successfully got around the restraining order and what's the point now...? Neither of us are being represented by an attorney on the matter, so now that the hearing is over until May, I'm wondering if I have an option to somehow bring this concern to the judge's attention before the next hearing in hopes that he would reconsider and re-establish the 100 yards? Again, it's not necessarily a situation where I feel I need to go file an appeal to a higher court or something to challenge the judges ruling, but more that maybe the potential consequences and circumstances weren't entirely clear to the judge at the time in which he amended the TRO. Again, perhaps I should have tried to speak a little harder on that matter, but was afraid to overstep somehow and manage to upset the judge. Is there a way I can legally bring my concerns to the judge's attention?
 
It's called a Motion for Reconsideration. You can probably find samples on the internet. Your court website might even have forms.
 
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