Our client, in 2011, was dating a woman who had been awarded the title of Ms. Peru a few years earlier. She was beautiful and in the United States attending law school.
Our client wanted to marry her and start a family with her, but subtle doubts started creeping in. She would often answer cell phone calls from other men and speak to them, in front of our client, in an affectionate tone, as if she was their girlfriend. Our client did not understand this, but was willing to attribute this to cultural differences.
However, his suspicions became harder and harder to disregard and finally confronted her about dating other men while she was dating him. She candidly admitted this, asking our client, “What? You have a problem with that?” Our client was dumbfounded, unable to respond. The woman went on to explain that she had cheated on our client with several other men over the last few months, telling our client “You’re so stupid!”
Our client then decided to break up with this woman, as her unapologetic, sarcastic manner was more than he could handle.
The woman was shocked that anyone would break up with her. She considered herself too pretty to have another person tell her she was undesirable. In the past, she was always the one who did the breaking up. That another person would do this to her was insulting.
She decided to “get even” with our client by filing a restraining order against him to create a public record that would scar him as a stalker and violent person, although our client was neither. However, her plan went beyond what our office had seen before in this context of an emotional breakup co-opting the legal system for an ulterior purpose.
In this case, the former beauty queen filed for restraining orders against our client in two different counties and falsified a proof of service of the order for each petition for a restraining order.
Rancho Cucamonga Courthouse
She first filed the petition in Pomona Superior Court (Los Angeles County) and then filed a second one, alleging the same thing, in Rancho Cucamonga (Riverside County). In both courts, the judges granted the restraining orders (without our client ever being served, so he had no knowledge of any hearing) by default when our client did not come to court for the hearings.
The woman then decided to file police reports in each county, claiming our client violated the civil restraining orders by stalking her at her home and sending her lots of texts and emails. The stalking was also false, but our client had sent her texts telling her she was untruthful and not very loyal. This was where the girlfriend’s plan unraveled.
In Rancho Cucamonga, the client was charged with violation of a restraining order, a misdemeanor, but the case was resolved for an infraction for disturbing the peace (Penal Code § 415) after Greg explained to the District Attorney there the girlfriend’s scheme and how the court should not enable her mischief.
While any conviction against our client seemed unfair, it was true that our client had sent the woman many text messages and e-mails telling her she was trash and that he did not want to be associated with her anymore. His e-mails and text messages were numerous and stated he was angry at her dishonesty with him.
While the conviction for an infraction was not insignificant, we later had the infraction expunged in 2021 under Penal Code § 1203.4(a).
In the Pomona court case, a criminal action for violation of a restraining order was filed against our client in 2012. When the arraignment date came, our client did not appear and a bench warrant was issued. Several years later, in 2016, our client was notified of the bench warrant by an employer and the client hired Greg Hill & Associates to investigate this.
Greg appeared and received the discovery, the allegations against our client were the exact same as in the Rancho Cucamonga case. Making matters worse, the girlfriend had claimed service of the restraining order on our client in his California home on a weekend when our client was in Las Vegas and had receipts from hotels there to prove it.
Greg then appeared in the Pomona courthouse and explained the duplicative nature of the restraining orders and the girlfriend’s fabricated service, showing the judge how our client was in Las Vegas at the time of the purported service. The Pomona judge dismissed the criminal case, even apologizing to our client for our legal system being used against him as it had been so manipulated by this woman.
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