New England Patriot Randy Moss Slapped with Restraining Order

New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss was recently served with an order of protection by a Florida woman who claims that he assaulted her so severely that, according to one story (link provided at the end of this article), she was "seriously injured." She then alleged that he denied her access to medical care. She further alleged that the incident occurred on January 6, 2008, in her home. (I don't want to speculate as to why he would be there, or why she would invite him in in the first place.) As expected, Moss denies the veracity of the woman's allegations. This is strictly a matter for the civil courts; Moss was not arrested, nor were charges filed. A hearing will be held in late January 2008 to determine if the temporary restraining order needs to be made permanent.

Randy Moss isn't the only one who has had a restraining order lodged against him. Elijah Dukes, who was just recently traded to the Washington Nationals, has just had a restraining order against him dropped when the woman who lodged the order against him failed to show up in court at the appointed time. A woman accused Dukes of sending her "threatening text messages." I have been unable to determine just what type of threatening messages were sent, but only that the charges were dropped, because the Constitution gives a defendant (in this case, Dukes) the right to face his or her accuser (anonymous though she might be in this instance).

Many of my readers might remember Gordie Howe, who played on the Detroit Red Wings hockey team when I was younger. He recently had cause to file a restraining order of his own, against a neighbor whom he and his wife claim was stalking them. They claim that the person they are accusing installed surveillance cameras outside their home, programming the camera to take pictures of the Howe's property at five-minute intervals. The North County article to which I link states that a total of 17,000 pictures were taken over an unspecified time period (as in, we don't know how long the camera had been taking pictures of the Howes' home).