Rew ex rel. T.C.B. v. Bergstrom

845 N.W.2d 764, 2014 WL 1696179, 2014 Minn. LEXIS 201
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedApril 30, 2014
DocketNo. A10-2145
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 845 N.W.2d 764 (Rew ex rel. T.C.B. v. Bergstrom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rew ex rel. T.C.B. v. Bergstrom, 845 N.W.2d 764, 2014 WL 1696179, 2014 Minn. LEXIS 201 (Mich. 2014).

Opinions

OPINION

STRAS, Justice.

At issue in this case is the legality of a district court’s extension for up to 50 years of an order for protection (“OFP”) in favor of a victim of domestic abuse and her minor children. Over the objections of appellant James Allen Bergstrom, the district court granted an extension of an existing OFP to respondent Vanessa Yolanda Rew, Bergstrom’s ex-wife, prohibiting contact between Bergstrom and Rew or their minor children. Bergstrom raises a variety of statutory and constitutional challenges to the OFP. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand to the district court for findings regarding whether prohibiting Bergstrom from having any contact with his two minor children is necessary to serve a significant state interest.1

I.

Bergstrom and Rew had been married for 14 years when they dissolved their marriage in 2008. In 2002, 2007, and 2008, following hearings that both Rew and Bergstrom attended, Rew obtained a series of 1-year OFPs against Bergstrom. Each OFP also contained provisions that protected the couple’s minor children, T.C.B. and D.S.B. Bergstrom consented to the issuance of each of the three OFPs. In fact, the OFPs stated that Bergstrom understood that they would be “enforced as if there was an admission or finding of domestic abuse.”

The OFPs issued in 2002, 2007, and 2008 provided several forms of relief to Rew and the minor children. First, the OFPs, alone or together with the marital-dissolution decree, provided custody of the children to Rew. Second, the OFPs prohibited [772]*772Bergstrom from contacting Rew and placed substantial limits on Bergstrom’s parenting time. Third, the OFPs created a buffer zone in and around Rew’s home that Bergstrom could not enter. The 2002 OFP prohibited Bergstrom from entering Rew’s home, and the 2007 and 2008 OFPs prohibited Bergstrom from coming within 120 yards of Rew’s home.

The 2008 OFP imposed further restrictions on Bergstrom that were not part of the earlier OFPs. Specifically, it prohibited Bergstrom from coming within 120 yards of either the children’s school or a second residence where the children ostensibly received childcare. It also proscribed any contact between Bergstrom and “the two minor children, whether in person, with or through other persons, by telephone, letter, electronic means, or in any other way.” For Bergstrom to regain contact with his minor children through parenting time, the OFP established two conditions: (1) that Bergstrom and the children separately participate in therapy for at least 6 months or “until such time as the therapist deems such therapy no longer necessary”; and (2) that Bergstrom seek and receive court approval for modification of the OFP’s parenting-time provisions. In 2009, the district court extended the duration of the 2008 OFP for 1 additional year and reduced Bergstrom’s therapy obligation from 6 months to 3 months.

The district court has also convicted Bergstrom of three OFP violations. In 2002, Bergstrom pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor OFP violation that resulted in probation. In 2007, Bergstrom pleaded guilty to a felony charge of knowingly violating an OFP within 10 years of the first of two or more previous qualified domestic-violence-related convictions, Minn.Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 14(a), (d)(1) (2012). The court again placed Bergstrom on probation. At the same time, the court dismissed two other charges brought in the same criminal complaint: a gross-misdemeanor charge of harassment and stalking and a misdemeanor charge of unlawful use of license plates.

In 2008, Bergstrom again pleaded guilty to a felony charge of knowingly violating an OFP within 10 years of the first of two prior qualified domestic-violence-related convictions — the same crime to which he pleaded guilty in 2007. The 2008 conviction arose from evidence that Bergstrom had unlawfully accessed Rew’s email account on multiple occasions. The court sentenced Bergstrom to 5 years’ imprisonment but stayed execution of the sentence in favor of probation. When Bergstrom violated the terms of his probation in February 2009, the district court revoked the stay and executed Bergstrom’s prison sentence. Bergstrom served approximately 8 months in prison. In April 2010, the State charged Bergstrom with felony harassment and another felony OFP violation, but the prosecutor dismissed the charges in June 2010.

In July 2010, approximately 1 month before the extended expiration date of the 2008 OFP, Rew filed an application under Minn.Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 6a (2012), to extend the terms of the 2008 OFP for up to 50 years. Subdivision 6a(a) establishes the criteria for either an extension of an existing OFP or a new OFP after an existing one has expired. The provision states that a court may

extend the terms of an existing [OFP] or, if an [OFP] is no longer in effect, grant a new order upon a showing that:
(1) the respondent has violated a prior or existing order for protection;
(2) the petitioner is reasonably in fear of physical harm from the respondent;
[773]*773(3) the respondent has engaged in the act of stalking within the meaning of section 609.749, subdivision 2; or
(4) the respondent is incarcerated and about to be released, or has recently been released from incarceration.

Minn.Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 6a(a). To extend an OFP for up to 50 years, subdivision 6a(b) requires a court to further find that: “(1) the respondent has violated a prior or existing order for protection on two or more occasions; or (2) the petitioner has had two or more orders for protection in effect against the same respondent.”

In Rew’s 2010 application to extend the terms of the 2008 OFP for up to 50 years, Rew alleged facts in support of the four criteria in subdivision 6a(a) and the two criteria in subdivision 6a(b). Rew supported the application with an affidavit describing Bergstrom’s history of domestic violence, including the behavior underlying the charges against Bergstrom that were dismissed in 2007 and 2010, and Berg-strom’s three prior convictions of violation of an OFP.

The district court held an evidentiary hearing on Rew’s application. Both Berg-strom and Rew attended the hearing and were represented by counsel. Rew did not testify or call any witnesses. Instead, she established the existence of the 2002, 2007, and 2008 OFPs by placing certified copies of the OFPs into evidence. She also established the existence of Bergstrom’s three prior convictions of violation of an OFP by placing into evidence the Register of Actions from the Minnesota State Court Information System for each conviction. The court took judicial notice of Berg-strom’s incarceration in state prison from March 2009 through October 2009 for the violation of an OFP. After reviewing Rew’s evidence, the district court found that Rew’s application was based solely on evidence that Bergstrom had violated prior OFPs and had been recently released from incarceration, Minn.Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 6a(a)(l), (4), not on evidence that Rew feared physical harm, see Minn.Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 6a(a)(2), or that Berg-strom had engaged in stalking, see Minn. Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 6a(a)(3).

Bergstrom did not admit to any of the allegations in Rew’s application for an extended OFP.

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Bluebook (online)
845 N.W.2d 764, 2014 WL 1696179, 2014 Minn. LEXIS 201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rew-ex-rel-tcb-v-bergstrom-minn-2014.