Is Cute a Crime?

Here we go. The Caledonia-Record carries the story today of Eric who was convicted in early August of violating a protective order some 31 times. He faces life in prison as a habitual offender. Slight problem that perplexes me. Was he served with the protective order in its final form that listed the plaintiff/victim as the protected party?? Maybe not. Problems there are with the return of service apparently not showing that the final, corrected protective order was actually served. The Sheriff's officers apparently didn't look at the order they eventually served and could not testify tht it was actually the final order they delivered to Mr. Eric.  It likely was, BUT as a prosecutor ya gotta prove it was properly served. That's usually an issue put before the judge as defendant's attorney (orally at trial) did only to have the judge reject defendant's objection to proper service having been proved.  Now there's a formal written motion before the court. 

Mr. Eric isn't the nicest of fellows living in our community, but he's entitled to have a proper and complete protective order served on him before it can be said that he violated it. Maybe he saw that the plaintiff/victim's name was not checked off on the original protective order he got and acted a bit too cute for his own good contacting the victim. Still, cute isn't a criminal offense and the state does have an obligation to dot its "i"s and "t"s. Stay tuned. Even if he dodges this bullet, there's still his upcoming murder trial........

Note: Actually posted September 3rd.