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October 10

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Restraining order

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Can a suspect in a criminal case take out a restraining order against the detective investigating him/her, and would such an order actually have legal force? (This is NOT legal advice -- this is a fact-check for a work of fiction!) 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:0:0:0:EA04 (talk) 12:19, 10 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In the first paragraph of the article you linked to, it states: a restraining order is issued "in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault". A normal police investigation would clearly fall outside of that scope. Now, a private detective could perhaps fall into the harassment category, especially if he uses invasive investigative methods akin to stalking. But IANAL. --Xuxl (talk) 13:03, 10 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The harassment part could apply, say if after a lengthy investigation, the detective's superiors decide there's not enough evidence to file charges, and order the detective to drop the investigation, but he continues anyway. StuRat (talk) 14:55, 10 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Using restraining orders to impede the police is usually about restricting an entire department because they're doing something unconstitutional. Here is an example from Ferguson : [1]
I have to assume that if you were trying to stop the cops from investigating a legitimate crime, the judge would realize what you were up to and not give you the order.
But it doesn't take much googling to find cases where the cop is probably in the wrong. Sometimes by poor women who some cop decided it would be fun to strip search.[2] or a cop's ex and/or mistress who he's now using department resources to stalk.[3] ApLundell (talk) 16:10, 10 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
So the answer to the question is "probably not"? Just like I thought -- the screenwriter didn't know jack (as is the case with most screenwriters these days!) (FYI: this question was about a detective TV show episode where a Mafia godfather took out a restraining order against a police detective who was investigating his possible involvement in a murder, and the PD had to assign another detective to the case because of it -- when I saw that, I just went, "This can't be right!") 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:0:0:0:EA04 (talk) 05:42, 11 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I think it is right. Judges impose specific restrictions on police all of the time. I can see a situation where a cop is willing to ignore the rules, his boss yells at him but doesn't effectively stop him (this is pretty much the plot of any random Dirty Harry movie or Law and Order episode), the target complains to a court, and a judge decides that the police department is breaking the law. The difficulty is in convincing the judge.
--Guy Macon (talk) 10:16, 11 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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