In Re Marriage of McCoy

625 N.E.2d 883, 253 Ill. App. 3d 958, 192 Ill. Dec. 728, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1812
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 9, 1993
Docket4-93-0423
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 625 N.E.2d 883 (In Re Marriage of McCoy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Marriage of McCoy, 625 N.E.2d 883, 253 Ill. App. 3d 958, 192 Ill. Dec. 728, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1812 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE COOK

delivered the opinion of the court:

Respondent Robert Alan McCoy appeals a plenary order of protection entered in favor of petitioner Patricia C. McCoy, his former spouse. Respondent alleges (1) the trial court improperly included the parties’ minor children as protected persons within the order of protection; (2) the order was against the manifest weight of the evidence; and (3) the order was improper for failing to include sufficient findings, failing to balance the hardships, and requiring reference to other documents. We affirm.

Sometime prior to December 30, 1992, the parties received a dissolution of marriage, the court reserving the issues of custody and visitation of the two minor children born of the marriage. On December 30, 1992, the court awarded petitioner custody of the two children, then 10 and 11 years old. Respondent was allowed reasonable, unsupervised visitation upon his submission, and the court’s approval, of a plan for screening alcohol or illegal substance use prior to each scheduled visitation.

On April 2, 1992, petitioner filed her first petition for an emergency order of protection, which accompanied battery charges filed against respondent alleging he hit petitioner in the abdomen and shoved her against a car. An emergency order was entered ex parte which found petitioner to be an abused person and the two minors to be protected persons under the order, pursuant to the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 (Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 40, par. 2311— 1 et seq. (now 750 ILCS 60/101 et seq. (West 1992))). The order prohibited respondent from entering or remaining at petitioner’s place of employment or the children’s school and enjoined him from having any contact with petitioner. Respondent failed to appear at the April 10, 1992, hearing on the emergency order of protection, and the court extended its term until April 10, 1993. On October 23, 1992, respondent was convicted of the battery against petitioner.

On February 17, 1993, petitioner filed a second petition for an emergency order of protection alleging respondent (I) was putting pressure on the children to allow visitation contrary to court order, (2) had threatened to “do her in” at the Streator YMCA, (3) had come to her workplace and acted in a threatening manner, and (4) had attempted suicide on January 2,1993.

At the hearing held on February 19, 1993, respondent appeared without counsel and essentially stated that the allegations were lies and he needed time to obtain counsel. Petitioner put on evidence in support of the petition. The court entered an emergency order set to expire on March 3, 1993, containing essentially the same provisions as the previous order of protection entered April 10, 1992, but including a separate provision prohibiting respondent from contacting the minor children for the purpose of requesting visitation until such time as he complied with visitation orders entered in the divorce case.

Pursuant to respondent’s motion, the hearing for extending the emergency order of protection was continued until April 13, 1993. On April 12, 1993, respondent filed a motion to vacate the order of protection.

At the April 13 hearing (by which time the order of protection entered April 10, 1992, had expired by its terms), respondent’s brother testified to an incident occurring on December 30, 1992, the day the custody determination was rendered, at petitioner’s workplace. Upon receiving a copy of the custody order, respondent went to the courthouse to see the judge because he was angry with the judge’s decision and wanted the judge to explain why he ruled as he did. Upon learning the judge had already left, respondent went to the first floor of the courthouse, where petitioner was employed at the sheriff’s office. He stood outside petitioner’s office door and stared at her through the glass. Eventually, the sheriff and several officers arrived and asked respondent and his brother to leave. According to the brother’s testimony, respondent then raised his voice but his brother was not certain of what was said.

Respondent testified that when he went to the courthouse to see the judge he was very upset and wanted an explanation of the custody findings. He stated he knew that under the previous order of protection he was not allowed to go inside the sheriff’s office where petitioner was working, so he merely stood outside her door to see if she “had a smile on her face.” He admitted he had attempted to set up visitation with the children during phone calls to them and that in early January 1993 he signed himself into Brokaw Hospital for depression.

Respondent further testified that at the Streator YMCA swim meet in February he requested the children to ask petitioner if he could take them to lunch and then bring them home. At the end of the swim meet one of the children told respondent petitioner would not let them go. Respondent had the child ask again and overheard petitioner say “If your dad can’t talk to me, then it’s out of the question.” When respondent approached petitioner, she told him to talk to her attorney. Respondent cursed her and left the premises.

Petitioner testified that the children had asked several times if they could go to lunch with respondent following the swim meet but she had put them off. As she was leaving, respondent approached her asking why the children could not go with him. She told him they did not need to go anywhere with him by themselves and respondent said “I will do you in if it’s the last thing I do.” Petitioner took this as a threat to her life. Petitioner stated respondent also phoned the children on several occasions trying to set up visitation and the children would cry and yell at her when she would not allow it. When respondent came to the courthouse and stood outside the door to her office, he glared at her with his fists clenched at his side. Petitioner felt threatened and called the sheriff’s deputies; after they arrived, respondent began shouting at them and other people looked out of their offices to see what was going on and then locked their doors. She stated that when respondent becomes angry he can become volatile.

The trial court denied respondent’s motion to vacate and entered a plenary order of protection, due to expire on April 13, 1995, finding that the protracted length of the case produced evidence sufficient to establish respondent as a violent person whom petitioner had reason to fear. The court also found that the evidence established respondent attempted to circumvent the orders respecting custody and visitation of the children and it was proper under the circumstances to prevent respondent from contacting or hanging around the school while the children were present. A petition for respondent’s supervised visitation with the children was apparently heard and allowed on that same date and the plenary order of protection referred to it.

We note at the outset that our review is limited to the provisions of the plenary order of protection and the interlocutory emergency order which preceded it, the only orders encompassed by the notice of appeal. The scope of an appellate court’s jurisdiction extends only to those matters raised in the notice of appeal. (International Industrial Leasing, Ltd. v. H.J. Coleman & Co. (1977), 66 Ill. App.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
625 N.E.2d 883, 253 Ill. App. 3d 958, 192 Ill. Dec. 728, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1812, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-mccoy-illappct-1993.