Erie County Executive Davis is due in court over restraining orders. Here are his options

Erie County Executive Brenton Davis will have two options when he walks into a courtroom Monday to face two temporary restraining orders that a judge granted against him late last week.

Davis can fight the orders.

Latest: Erie County Executive Brenton Davis fights restraining orders in court

Or he can consent to allowing the temporary orders to become final for a period of months or years.

A judge issued both temporary orders — commonly known as protection-from-abuse or intimidation orders, or PFAs — against Davis on Thursday.

More: Woman granted temporary restraining order against Brenton Davis

Consenting to the final orders would let Davis end the cases quickly. And by consenting he would not have to acknowledge that the allegations in the petitions for the orders are accurate.

Fighting the orders would give Davis a chance to get them dismissed.

But such a strategy would also allow the plaintiff in the case, a woman who said she had a prior relationship with Davis, to testify in open court and further detail the allegations she made against him in court documents last week regarding his treatment of her and her two minor children.

She filed on behalf of herself and her children in separate petitions against Davis.

The plaintiff alleges that Davis, on the morning of April 9, which was Easter Sunday, physically assaulted her at his Millcreek Township home. She further alleges that Davis used fear and intimidation to monitor her behavior during their roughly 16-month relationship and physically hurt her two children on multiple occasions.

Davis, 41, a Republican elected county executive in 2021, has denied the allegations. The plaintiff, 38, has declined to comment to the Erie Times-News about her petitions.

A strategy of attempting to dismiss the orders could create legal complications for Davis. A challenge would force him to put up a defense. He would get subjected to cross-examination as the judge weighed the evidence and decided whether to grant the plaintiff's request for final restraining orders.

If Davis challenges the restraining orders, the plaintiff would also have to testify and be subject to cross-examination. The plaintiff and Davis, the defendant in the case, would oppose each other in a proceeding that would be the equivalent of a nonjury trial.

No detailed testimony would occur if Davis were to agree to final restraining orders.

Why would someone want to consent to a final restraining order?

With consent, a defendant who accepts a final restraining agrees not to have contact with the plaintiff, but "also does not admit that any of the facts alleged are true," said Erie lawyer Gregory Grasinger, a former managing attorney for SafeNet, the Erie-based agency that provides services related to domestic violence. He is not involved in the Davis case.

Grasinger said consent also eliminates the possibility that a defendant will testify and say something that could be used against him or her in a criminal case related to the allegations in the restraining orders.

Davis is facing no criminal charges over the allegations related to the restraining orders. A restraining order is litigated in civil court. The violation of a PFA is a crime and is prosecuted in criminal court.

Consent "is the best way for a person to just follow the rules and stay away from the other person and not say they did anything wrong," Grasinger said.

A judge decides whether to accept a defendant's consent in the case of a restraining order and then decides how long the final order will last. A PFA in Pennsylvania can be as long as three years.

A judge would also decide the length of a final order if the judge issues the final order following a hearing.

Can someone with a PFA possess firearms in Pa.?

If a judge issues a final restraining order against a defendant following a hearing, the defendant is prohibited from possessing or buying firearms as long as the restraining order is in place.

The same prohibition applies to a defendant who consents to a final restraining order.

Federal and state law allow for firearms prohibitions in domestic violence cases, and federal law is clear that the restrictions apply even if a defendant consents to a final restraining order, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition on Domestic Violence.

"A final PFA Order, whether entered by order or agreement, is a 'qualifying protective order'" under federal law, "prohibiting the defendant from possessing or acquiring a firearm while the order is in effect," according to the coalition.

Due to federal law, the firearms restrictions in cases of restraining orders "cannot be negotiated," Grasinger said.

Davis would be able to keep his firearms only if he had the final restraining orders dismissed.

Davis already has been forced to turn over his firearms due to the issuance of the temporary restraining orders. The temporary orders required him to relinquish the weapons under the law.

The Erie County Sheriff's Office serves PFAs, handles firearm relinquishments and stores the relinquished weapons.

Erie County Sheriff Chris Campanelli told the Times-News he served the temporary restraining orders on Davis on Thursday afternoon at the Erie County Courthouse, where Davis's office is on the fifth, or top, floor.

Campanelli said Davis, as arranged, turned over his personal firearms to the Sheriff's Office, also at the courthouse, on Friday.

What are some of the allegations against Brenton Davis?

The plaintiff alleges that Davis physically assaulted her shortly after she visited his home on April 9 to return an unloaded hunting rifle that she claimed belonged to him and that he had let her son use for hunting.

In her petition, the plaintiff said, among other allegations, that she had gone to Davis' house to return the rifle in person "since he blocked me from getting a hold of him."

"As I was sitting on the defendant's couch, he walked over to me, picked me up, threw me to the ground and dragged me by the hair approx 20 ft.," according to the petition. "He let go and I sat up. The rug was all out of place and I had a rug burn on my leg.

"He threatened me by saying I could go to jail for coming to his house to return an unloaded rifle. He said I would lose my job and my children would be taken away from me."

She alleges Davis instilled fear in her to prevent her from leaving the house and seeing friends and family. She also said in the petitions that he used his position as county executive to intimidate and threaten jail time, telling her that he's the "most powerful man in Erie and that he could get away with anything," according to her statement.

The woman stated she felt too intimidated to report Davis to the police and instead sought help with SafeNet Erie.

Davis is disputing the woman's account.

"Mr. Davis was awakened at 7 a.m. Easter Sunday with a loud banging at the door. He observed (the plaintiff) at his front door," according to a statement provided to the Times-News on behalf of Davis by Dennis Roddy, a political consultant who formerly worked as an adviser to the Davis campaign.

"She then forced her way into the house with a rifle that appeared to be loaded," according to the statement. "He immediately disarmed her."

"At the time she appeared," also according to the statement, "he had no idea as to the origins or ownership of the weapon and was understandably concerned for his safety. The rifle could have been safely returned by a third party without disruption or implicit threats."

The statement said Davis reviewed surveillance video from his house and "discovered that (the plaintiff) had come to his home, armed with the rifle, multiple times on the previous night."

"Mr. Davis had previously advised her not to come to his home," according to the statement. "Mr. Davis unequivocally denies any wrongdoing."

Roddy did not respond to inquiries about what Davis planned to do at Monday's hearing.

How did the cases against Brenton Davis get started?

The plaintiff made the allegations against Davis in two petitions she filed Thursday in Erie County Common Pleas Court. The petitions were made public when they were docketed Friday. A judge granted the temporary orders Thursday and scheduled the hearing for Monday on whether to make the orders final.

One petition is for a protection-from-abuse order the woman filed on her behalf. The other petition is for a protection-from-intimidation order that she filed on behalf of her two children, 11 and 10 years old.

The woman is identified in court documents, but it is generally the Times-News' policy not to identify subjects in alleged abuse cases without the express consent of those persons.

The PFA applies to the woman's case because she said she had an intimate relationship when she alleges Davis abused her. The PFI applies to the children because they did not have a familial relationship with Davis but are the children of the plaintiff, who alleges that Davis also mistreated them. A PFA and a PFI both are actions meant to address domestic violence.

Once the woman filed her petitions, all nine judges on the Erie County Court of Common Pleas recused themselves from hearing the cases against Davis "in the interest of justice and to avoid any appearance of impropriety," according to a court order issued Thursday morning.

Erie County President Judge Joseph M. Walsh III signed the order with Erie County Judge John J. Trucilla, the county's administrative judge for family court, which handles PFAs.

The Erie County bench arranged for a retired judge from Venango County, Robert Boyer, to handle the cases against Davis.

Boyer heard the petitioners' requests for the temporary restraining orders on Thursday. He granted the requests and set a hearing on the final orders for 10:30 a.m. Monday.

The hearing will be at the Erie County Courthouse in Courtroom E on the second floor. The courtroom is three floors down from the county executive's office.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

A.J. Rao can be reached at arao@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNRao.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie County Executive Davis has 2 options as he faces PFAs in court