Bail, protection orders and safety planning

Brooks hands each student a single sheet of paper. On it is a list of forty-three messages, with times, sent to Megan Hollis from a social media account she did not recognize between six in the evening on Saturday, March 28, 2026 and two the next morning. The first says, 'Can we just talk.' The fourteenth says, 'You're doing this to Ava, not me.' The thirty-first says, 'I know you're not at your sister's.' The last says, 'I'm not going away.' 'He had been ordered not to contact her in any way,' Brooks says. 'He knew it. He did it anyway, from an account he made that afternoon. What does that tell you?' Marco DiSanto answers: that the order was not enough on its own, and that he was getting worse.

Arrest is not the end of the police role in an intimate partner violence case. In many ways the most dangerous period for the victim begins when the accused is released. This lesson covers the legal tools that restrict an abuser's contact with the victim while the case is before the courts and afterward, the officer's role in enforcing them, and the safety planning that helps victims stay safe in ways no court order can guarantee.

Release, bond and the first appearance

After an arrest for domestic violence, Ohio law generally requires the accused to be brought before a judge or magistrate for a bail decision rather than being released under a standard bond schedule, and directs the court to consider factors such as the accused's history of violence, threats, access to weapons, any protection order violations and the victim's fear. Ohio's constitution allows courts to set bail and conditions that protect the victim and the community, and the court can order conditions such as no contact with the victim, staying away from the victim's home and workplace, not possessing weapons, and electronic monitoring. The prosecutor or the victim may also ask the court at the first appearance for a temporary protection order under Revised Code 2919.26, which is described below.

The officer's role at this stage is to give the prosecutor and the court the information they need. That means a complete synopsis of the incident, the history of earlier calls and orders, the risk assessment, the victim's concerns, the presence of firearms and whether they have been seized, and specific recommendations for conditions. Vague requests, such as 'no contact,' are less useful than specific ones, such as 'no contact directly or indirectly, including through social media, third parties or the child; not to attend within 200 meters of the victim's residence, her workplace at 14 Harbor Road and the child's school; no weapons; reside with the surety at a named address.' The victim should be asked what conditions would make her feel safe and whether there are places she needs to be protected, and she should be told the outcome promptly.

Kerr was arraigned in Port Ardent Municipal Court on Monday, February 23, on a felony complaint. The prosecutor filed the incident report and the lethality screen and asked for a high bond with strict conditions. At Megan's request, made through the victim advocate, the court issued a temporary protection order under 2919.26 that ordered Kerr to have no contact with her and to stay away from her home, workplace and Ava's school. The court set bond with conditions that he live with his brother, Wes, in Millbrook, forty minutes away, not possess weapons, and wear a GPS monitor with exclusion zones around Megan's home and workplace, a condition some Ohio courts use in domestic violence cases. The victim advocate told Megan the result within the hour.

Protection orders

Ohio has several kinds of protection orders. A temporary protection order under Revised Code 2919.26 is issued in a criminal case, at or after the first appearance, on the motion of the victim, the prosecutor or the officer, and lasts until the criminal case ends. A civil protection order under 3113.31 is issued by a domestic relations or common pleas court on a petition by the victim, without a criminal case. The court can issue an ex parte order the same day, followed by a full hearing within a short period, usually seven or ten court days, and a full order can last up to five years and be renewed. Civil protection orders cover family or household members and people in dating relationships. Civil stalking protection orders under 2903.214 protect people who are not family or household members. Violating any of these orders is an offense under 2919.27, and the federal Violence Against Women Act requires every state to enforce valid protection orders from other states as if they were their own.

Some American jurisdictions have explored disclosure schemes modeled on Clare's Law in England, under which police can tell a person at risk about a partner's history of violence, but Ohio does not have one. Victims in Ohio can search public court records and can register with the statewide VINE system to be notified when an offender is released from custody.

Enforcing orders

Orders only protect victims if they are enforced promptly and consistently. When a victim reports a breach, officers should treat it as a serious offense: document it fully, gather the evidence, such as messages, call logs, video and witness statements, and arrest where grounds exist. A breach is often the first sign that the abuser is escalating. Officers should verify the order's terms and status, which are entered in state systems and the National Crime Information Center, and should not assume a breach is minor because it involved 'only' messages or a drive-by. Officers must also never tell a victim that she has breached the order herself by contacting the accused. The order binds the accused, not the victim, and a victim cannot consent to a breach. Victims who contact the abuser often do so for reasons connected to safety, children or coercion, and treating them as wrongdoers drives them away from help.

When Megan showed Detective Sergeant Mendes the forty-three messages on Sunday morning, March 29, Mendes sent the platform a preservation request, obtained a court order for the account's subscriber information, and arrested Kerr in Millbrook that afternoon for violating the temporary protection order. The GPS records showed he had not entered the exclusion zones, which is why the breach had taken the form of messages rather than visits. The court revoked his bond and ordered him held, and he remained in custody until his guilty plea. Brooks notes that the GPS condition and the no-contact condition did what they were designed to do in one sense: they kept him physically away. But they could not stop a determined abuser from finding another way to reach her. 'That is why the order is never the whole safety plan.'

Safety planning

A safety plan is a personalized plan that helps a victim reduce risk, whether they are staying in the relationship, preparing to leave, or have already left. Safety planning is usually done with a shelter worker, victim services worker or advocate, but officers should know the basics so they can start the conversation and make the referral. A good plan is the victim's plan: it is built around the victim's own knowledge of the abuser and their own priorities, not a checklist imposed by someone else.

Common elements of safety planning while still living with the abuser include identifying the safest places in the home during an incident, away from rooms with weapons and with a way out; deciding how to get out and where to go; arranging a code word with a trusted neighbor, friend or the children to signal that help is needed; teaching children how and when to call for help and where to go; and keeping a phone charged and accessible. Preparing to leave might include gathering important documents, such as identification, health cards, birth certificates, immigration papers, bank information and court orders, along with money, medications, keys and a few items of importance to the children, and keeping them somewhere safe or with someone trusted. After leaving, a plan might include changing locks and routines, telling a workplace and the children's school about the situation and any orders, planning safe routes, and keeping copies of orders on hand.

Technology safety is now an essential part of any plan. Abusers commonly monitor partners through phones, shared accounts, location-sharing apps, cloud backups, smart home devices, vehicle tracking and hidden trackers. Victims may need help checking their devices and accounts, changing passwords from a safe device, turning off location sharing and reviewing who has access to their accounts. Brooks warns that suddenly cutting off an abuser's monitoring can itself escalate risk, because the abuser notices and reacts, so changes should be planned with an advocate. Megan's advocate helped her find the location-sharing app Tyler had installed and plan when to remove it.

Officers contribute to safety in practical ways. They can make sure the victim knows the exact terms of any order and what to do if it is breached; give a direct number for the investigating officer or unit; flag the address in dispatch records so that calls are treated as urgent; tell the victim promptly when the accused is released; and make referrals to shelters and victim services every time. In Ohio, victims of crime may be eligible for help through the Ohio Attorney General's crime victims compensation program, and local advocates can help with emergency needs. Megan stayed with her sister for two weeks, then moved with Ava into Juniper Place, Port Ardent's shelter for women and children, for six weeks while she arranged a new apartment with a security system.

# Checking a proposed exclusion zone: is each protected place at least 200 m from where the accused must live?
import math
def dist_m(a, b):  # positions on a city grid, in m (illustrative coordinates)
    return math.hypot(a[0] - b[0], a[1] - b[1])
protected = {"home": (1200, 800), "workplace": (2650, 1900), "school": (900, 1500)}
proposed_residences = {"brother in Millbrook": (31000, 12000), "friend on Elm St": (1300, 900)}
for res, p in proposed_residences.items():
    close = [name for name, q in protected.items() if dist_m(p, q) < 200]
    print(res, "->", "conflicts with " + ", ".join(close) if close else "no conflict")

brother in Millbrook -> no conflict
friend on Elm St -> conflicts with home

The example is simple, but it reflects a real problem. Conditions that let an accused live a few blocks from the victim, or that ignore the child's school or the victim's workplace, can be technically sound and practically useless. Desjardins tells the class that the officer who knows the geography of the victim's life is often the only person in the courtroom who can point this out.