Prosecution Controversies:
Can Victims Violate Their Own Protective Orders?

That's the question being raised around the country as the result of an Ohio case in which a battered woman was charged with violating the protective order she held against her ex-husband. The case arose when the woman invited the ex-husband to attend one of their children's birthday parties, at which both drank and began what her lawyer called "a mutual combat situation...[which] resulted in [the woman] kicking his butt." The woman received 90 days in jail for the assault, plus 90 days for violation of the protective order. The man was also prosecuted -- solely for violating the protective order -- and fined $100.

The case, which is currently on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court, was reported on in a June 3, 2003 Associated Press report that was widely reprinted throughout the country.