Rеspondent challenges the legal sufficiency of the allegations and evidence underlying a restraining order entered against him pursuant to the Family Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA), ORS 107.700 through ORS 107.732. We review de novo and affirm.
Petitioner and rеspondent were married in 1987 and separated in September 1998. They have a nine-year-old son, who fives with petitioner. In her petition for a FAPA order, petitioner alleged that, after their separation, respondent persistently harassed and frightened her. According to her petition and her later testimony at a hearing in which respondent challenged the FAPA order, respondent barricaded her out of her house. He telephoned many of her friends and apparently told them a disparaging “story” about her. He went to the school where she was a student teacher. While at her house for parenting time, he went through her dresser drawers and her garbage, and took a letter, a note, and a receipt. He made frequent hang-up calls to her house and stopped only when he learned she had installed a caller identification box. During an argument, while standing only a few inches away from her, he screamed obscenities at her in the presence of their son. Most alarming to petitioner was an episode in which he called her late at night and described accurately what she was wearing to bed. 1 Some days later, at 1:30 a.m., he tapped on her window, a method оf communication the two had used in the past but never so late at night. In the context of what petitioner considered increasingly obsessive behavior, respondent’s late night telephone call and subsequent visit frightened her. That fear was enhanced, according to petitioner, by an episode nine years earlier in which respondent was obsessed, for a period of six months, with killing his former emрloyer. Petitioner also expressed concern about the fact that respondent, who resided with his police officer brother after the separation, had easy access to *300 wеapons. Petitioner alleged no actual or overtly threatened physical violence.
Petitioner sought and obtained an ex parte FAPA restraining order. Respondent requested a hearing to contest the order. In upholding the order, thе trial court found:
“I’m satisfied that the l:30-in-the-moming incident at the window, combined with the argument that the parties had in front of the child, the apparently looking through items in the house while he has been in the house, knowing whаt she was wearing, that those factors, combined with his conduct towards a previous employer, are sufficient that the Court is satisfied that [petitioner] has.been placed in fear of immediate serious bodily injury, and the restraining order is to remain in effect.”
On appeal, respondent asserts that petitioner’s allegations and supporting evidence were insufficient as a matter of law to support the issuance of a FAPA order.
We review
de novo.
ORS 19.415(3);
Boldt v. Boldt,
“(1) * * * the occurrence of one or more of the following acts between family or househоld members:
“(a) Attempting to cause or intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury.
“(b) Intentionally, knowingly or recklessly placing another in fear of imminent serious bodily injury,
“(c) Causing another to engage in involuntary sеxual relations by force or threat of force.” (Emphasis added.)
Petitioner alleged that respondent placed her “in fear of [imminent] serious bodily injury.” ORS 107.705(l)(b). Respondent disputes the trial court’s determination that his actions constitute “abuse” under FAPA. Instead, he characterizes his pattern of conduct as amounting to no more than *301 “unwanted involvement.” Specifically referring to the allegation that he screamed obscenities at petitioner, respondent denies that she could have been in fear, because there was no history of physical abuse in the parties’ marriage. Finally, he argues that the statute requires more threatening conduct than that which he committed in order to authorize the issuance of a FAPA order. Petitioner responds that the trial court was entitled to rely on the totality of the circumstances that placed her in fear in order to uphold the order. We agree with petitioner.
An overt threat is not required in order to authorize the issuance of an аbuse prevention restraining order. Instead, FAPA requires that the respondent has “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly” placed the petitioner in fear of “imminent serious bodily injury.” ORS 107.705(1); ORS 107.710(1). In addition, the petitioner must be in immediаte danger of further abuse.
Id.
As to the latter requirement, respondent correctly points out that our previous reported decisions upholding FAPA orders have generally involved more overtly threatening conduct than that present here.
See Cottongim v. Woods,
In Cottongim, we held that the respondent’s behavior fulfilled the statutory definition of abuse because it “deviated considerably from that which a reasonable person would exhibit under similar circumstances[,] and a reasonable person fаced with such behavior would be placed in fear of imminent serious bodily harm.” Id. at 45. The same reasoning applies here as well. Respondent’s conduct was erratic, intrusive, volatile, and persistent. He screamed obscenities in petitioner’s face, unrestrained by the presence of their child, made numerous hang-up phone calls, and rummaged through her possessions. Notably, respondent’s late night call describing the sleeping clothes petitioner was wearing *302 put her on notice that he was lurking about her house, watching her, and that she was vulnerable. Moreover, petitioner knew thаt respondent had previously been obsessed with the idea of killing another person. Despite the lack of an explicit threat, the totality of the circumstances supports petitioner’s аssertion that respondent at least recklessly 2 placed her in fear of imminent serious bodily injury and in immediate danger of further abuse.
Respondent cites
Fogh v. McRill,
Finally, in passing, respondent contends that “[t]he incident relating to [his obsession with his former employer] did not concern [petitioner] and [is] eight and a half years too remote to be the basis of a FAPA Order,” which requires that аbuse have occurred within 180 days of the filing of the petition. We disagree with respondent’s premise. The trial court did not sustain the order on “the basis” of the remote conduct; it considered that behaviоr “combined with” the more recent *303 incidents, and sustained the order in light of all of the circumstances.
Previously, we have allowed testimony regarding events outside FAPA’s jurisdictional window for the purpose of еstablishing the imminent danger of further abuse.
Strother,
“[petitioner’s] testimony that the statements [the respondent] made to her were similar to the ones that preceded the battering during the marriage was sufficient to еstablish that, at the time of the filing of the petition, [the petitioner] was in immediate, present danger of further abuse.” Id.
Likewise, in this case, as discussed above, abuse occurred within 180 days of the date wife filed the FAPA petition. The testimony regarding respondent’s previous obsession with killing his employer, as in Strother, was relevant to the issue of whether petitioner was in immediate danger of further abuse. Therefore, the triаl court properly considered it.
Affirmed.
Notes
Respondent denies this, but the trial court disbelieved him. We defer to the trial court’s assessment of his credibility in the absence of a reason to do otherwise.
Kempke and Kempke,
The trial court made no express finding concerning respondent’s mental state. However, we presume that the court found the facts necessary to support the issuance of the restraining order.
See Loverin v. Paulus,