State v. Harrison
State v. Harrison
Opinion of the Court
*767Defendant was found in contempt of court, ORS 33.015, for violating a restraining order under the Family Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA), ORS 107.700 to 107.135. Defendant now appeals the resulting judgment, assigning error to the denial of her motion for judgment of acquittal on Count 2, arguing that the evidence was legally insufficient to prove that she willfully attempted to contact the petitioner through a third party.
Because defendant argues that there was insufficient evidence to find her in contempt, "we state the facts in the light most favorable to the state." State v. Keller ,
The petitioner was riding the bus to work. When defendant boarded the bus and saw the petitioner, she motioned for the bus driver to speak with her outside of the bus. Defendant and the bus driver talked outside for about one minute. When their conversation ended, the bus driver approached the petitioner, "[a]t the request of [defendant]," and told him that "[defendant] wants you to get off the bus." The petitioner responded, "I'm already on the bus. I'm on my way to work." The bus driver returned to defendant and said, "Well, I can't really make [the petitioner] leave." Defendant remained outside, and the bus driver sat back down and drove off with the petitioner on the bus.
*768The petitioner contacted the police to report a violation of the FAPA order, and the state charged defendant with two counts of contempt of court. As relevant here, Count 2 alleged that defendant "willfully disobey[ed] an order of the Jackson County Circuit Court by *** attempting third party contact with [the petitioner]." At the contempt hearing, defendant acknowledged that her "actions *** indicate knowledge that if she sees the protected party she's not supposed to have contact with him" or "contact through a third party." Defendant argued, however, that the court could not find her in contempt for willfully attempting third party contact with the petitioner because defendant was "not sending a message to [the petitioner], [she was] sending a message to the bus driver not trying to get [the petitioner] a message, trying to get him off the bus so that she [could] get on." The trial court found defendant in contempt on Count 2 for attempting third party contact.
On appeal, defendant reprises her argument that "[t]he trial court erred in failing to enter a judgment of acquittal on Count 2" because "[t]he state failed to present evidence that defendant intended the bus driver to contact [the] petitioner for her and, thus, it failed to meet its burden of proving that defendant 'willfully' violated the restraining order."
"We review the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal to determine whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense proved beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Trivitt ,
*769to include "[d]isobedience of, resistance to or obstruction of the court's authority, process, orders, or judgments" when "done willfully." We have stated that, "[t]o prove contempt, the state *515must establish the existence of a valid court order, the defendant's knowledge of that order, and the defendant's willful noncompliance with that order." State v. Beleke ,
Our first task, as framed by the parties' arguments, is to interpret the term "contact." We address defendant's argument that her conduct did not violate the terms of the restraining order by examining the text, context, and legislative history of the FAPA provision at issue. Trivitt ,
We begin with the text of the FAPA provision at issue, ORS 107.718(1)(i), which provides, in relevant part, that "the respondent have no contact with the petitioner in person." As noted, the FAPA order in this case prohibited defendant from "[c]ontacting, or attempting to contact, [the] petitioner in person directly or through third parties." Here, both parties argue, and we agree, that the plain meaning of the verb "contact" is communication between people. See Webster's Third New Int'l Dictionary 490 (unabridged ed. 2002) ("to make connection with : get in communication with *** to talk or confer with"); State v. Crombie ,
*770order *** would allow [the] defendant to easily subvert the intentions of the order, which are to prevent him from communicating with the victim" (emphasis added) ). Thus, the plain meaning of the verb "contact" is communication.
"In conducting our examination of the text in context, we consider prior judicial construction of the relevant term." State v. Tatarinov ,
Similarly, in State v. Balero ,
Defendant contends that, "[j]ust as the defendant in Trivitt did not 'interfere' with the petitioner by conveying information about the petitioner to a third party, defendant here did not 'contact' [the] petitioner by conveying information about [the] petitioner to a third party." The problem with that comparison is that Trivitt involved our examination of legislative history to interpret the legislature's definition of "interfere" under ORS 107.705(5) and ORS 107.718 (1)(e),
As noted, the plain meaning of the verb "contact" is communication between people. "Willfully," for purposes of contempt of court and determining whether defendant willfully violated the FAPA order under ORS 33.015(2), means "intentionally and with knowledge that [the act or omission] was forbidden conduct." State v. Nicholson ,
Here, it is reasonable to infer that defendant intended to communicate to the petitioner that she wanted the petitioner off the bus-defendant simply used the bus driver as the means by which to convey her message to the petitioner because she knew that directly communicating with the petitioner was forbidden conduct. It is also reasonable to infer that defendant did not merely convey information about the petitioner to the bus driver because, immediately after defendant's conversation with the bus driver, the bus driver approached the petitioner "[a]t the request of [defendant]" and told him that "[defendant] wants you to get off the bus," and defendant waited to receive the petitioner's response. Defendant had no reason to speak with the bus driver and wait for the petitioner's response if she did not intend for the bus driver to communicate her message to the petitioner that she wanted the petitioner to get off the bus. Viewing that evidence in the light most favorable to the state, we conclude that the state presented sufficient *517evidence from which a rational trier of fact could conclude that defendant willfully attempted to contact the petitioner through a third party. Thus, the trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal.
Affirmed.
At trial, although defendant did not formally move for a judgment of acquittal, in her closing arguments, defendant argued that there was legally insufficient evidence that her conduct was a violation of the FAPA order. See State v. Gonzalez ,
The trial court also found defendant in contempt on Count 1. Defendant does not challenge that finding on appeal.
Defendant also argues, without analysis or elaboration, that the denial of her motion for judgment of acquittal violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We decline to address that undeveloped argument. See State v. McNeely ,
ORS 107.718(1)(e) restrains the respondent to a FAPA order from "intimidating, molesting, interfering with or menacing the petitioner, or attempting to intimidate, molest, interfere with or menace the petitioner." ORS 107.705(5) defines "interfere" as "to interpose in a manner that would reasonably be expected to hinder or impede a person in the petitioner's situation."
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.