Sophya K. v. Houth CA1/2

Filed 12/17/20 Sophya K. v. Houth CA1/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

SOPHYA K., Plaintiff and Respondent, A160445 v. MENG C. HOUTH, (Alameda County Super. Ct. No. HF20048902) Defendant and Appellant.

Respondent Sophya K. (wife) filed a request for a restraining order under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (DVPA) (Fam. Code, § 6200 et seq.) against her husband, Appellant Meng Houth (husband), based on verified allegations he had been physically abusing her on almost a daily basis since she had arrived from Cambodia to live with him some months earlier, and she feared for her own life as well as that of their infant, 15- month-old son. “Every time we got into an argument,” she wrote, her husband “found a way to hurt me by pinching, slapping, shouting or kicking me” and he would slap her whenever he was displeased with her, leaving red marks on her face. She detailed several recent incidents of abuse, including slapping her so hard she fell to the ground (in July 2019); attacking her with a broom in front of their son when she was trying to clean the house (on October 5, 2019); shouting at her and slapping her, bringing her to tears,

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after she saw him slap their son’s hand so hard she was worried he would hurt the child (on October 7, 2019); and pinching her thigh so hard one morning (October 16, 2019) it left bruises and then telling her not to tell anyone, and that evening trapping her painfully in the backseat of their car by pushing his driver’s seat all the way back so the seat dug into her, and then later, during an argument, grabbing and painfully pulling out her pubic hair. Following a contested hearing with multiple witnesses, the trial court entered a domestic violence restraining order against husband, who now appeals. No respondent’s brief has been filed. We affirm. BACKGROUND Consistent with the standard of review, we state the facts in the light most favorable to wife as the prevailing party. The parties are Cambodian natives. Husband has been living in the United States since 2009. In February 2019, wife moved to the United States to live with him, and about nine months later, in mid-November 2019, she took their 15-month-old son and went to live with a cousin in Long Beach, California in order to escape her husband’s abuse. Wife initially sought and obtained a temporary domestic violence prevention order from the Los Angeles Superior Court, on December 13, 2019. She then dismissed the Los Angeles case without prejudice and initiated this action in Alameda County, on January 2, 2020, based on the verified allegations summarized above. The trial court issued a temporary restraining order, and the matter proceeded to a contested hearing with multiple witnesses.