T.G.

BACKGROUND

Mother and father were in a relationship that began in 2014 and ended in April 2022. They are the parents of two minor children. Mother and father agreed to share parenting responsibilities, but the parenting schedule became a source of conflict between them. Mother stated that father would harass her with phone calls and text messages; she eventually asked to confine their communications to email.

1 In September 2022, father filed a petition to determine the parental relationship of the two children. One month later, mother requested a domestic violence restraining order, asserting a pattern of abuse and harassment by father. Among other things, she stated that father had verbally abused her since 2014 and that his behavior escalated after she began dating someone in May 2022. Father yelled at her in front of the children and repeatedly threatened her boyfriend. Mother recounted multiple incidents when father threatened her, including one incident when father came home drunk in July 2022. In another, father surprised mother outside of their child’s school, blocked her in with his car, and yelled at her. He picked up the children, even though it was not his scheduled…