Valdez

BACKGROUND

In the proceedings on the original applications, the trial court found Joe was the initial aggressor and that David used disproportionate force when he responded by twice striking Joe on the head with a 14-pound piece of steel. The court granted both brothers’ applications and issued mutual three-year restraining orders.

Three years later Joe applied to permanently renew his restraining order against David, whom he alleged had repeatedly violated court orders and continued to harass and disparage him. In opposition, David argued that Joe failed to demonstrate the objectively reasonable apprehension of future abuse required to renew a restraining order. (See § 6345; Rybolt v. Riley (2018) 20 Cal.App.5th 864, 874.) According to David, his sole transgression was acting excessively in self-defense during the 2017 altercation; moreover, Joe had been evicted from their father’s property (the site of the altercation) and moved to a different county, so there was no longer any reason for the brothers to encounter each other.

Joe disagreed. In addition to recounting a markedly different version of the October 2017 incident and what he described as a long history of David’s…