A jury deliberated about 45 minutes Wednesday before handing attorney Katie Kauffman another victory in Clark County District Court.

Her client in the Aug. 30 trial was charged with violation of a no-contact order, which can be a difficult charge to defend because it boils down to two questions: Was there a valid court order? Was the person found with the protected party?

In this case, however, the client’s ex-girlfriend testified that she and her ex-boyfriend both thought the order had been lifted and that was enough for the jury to acquit Kauffman's client. 

The ex-girlfriend testified that she had obtained a civil protection order in Clark County Superior Court in October 2016. The protection order was for one year, but during the hearing, a Superior Court commissioner told her that she could ask for it to be lifted at any time. The order allowed the ex-couple to have limited contact, but he wasn’t supposed to go to her residence.

She later filled out paperwork to have the order lifted, and told her ex-boyfriend it had been lifted.

In June, the woman called 911 because another one of her gentleman callers had come to her home and got into an argument with her ex-boyfriend. She said they were arguing loudly and she didn’t want her neighbors complaining about the noise. Deputies from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office responded and, as customary, took the names of the people who were there and ran a check. They discovered the no-contact order, which was still valid, and arrested Kauffman’s client.

Kauffman argued to the jury that the state had no evidence that her client knowingly violated a protection order. When the ex-girlfriend called 911 she didn’t mention anything about the order, and her client didn’t leave the home after she called 911, which he could have done if he had known he was there in violation of an order.

Violation of a no-contact order is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.