Hiring a private investigator does not violate a restraining order.

A man who hired a detective to trail his wife to a motel where she was having an affair with a local priest was not stalking her, an Orange County, N.Y., judge has ruled.
Forced to resign after her husband turned over a recording of her and the priest to officials at the church where she worked, the wife accused her husband of violating an order of protection requiring him to stay away from her home and place of employment.
But Family Court Judge Debra J. Kiedaisch, who was sitting in the Supreme Court's integrated domestic violence part, held that the husband, who only handed over the tape at the urging of church officials, had the right to gather evidence to defend himself in a divorce proceeding.
"The hiring of a professional licensed private investigator in a matrimonial action to gather evidence is for a proper and legitimate purpose," the judge wrote in Anonymous v. Anonymous.
After the wife filed for divorce in November 2008, her husband countered that she was having an affair.
On Feb. 26, 2009, the court issued an order of protection, directing the husband to stay at least 1,000 feet away from his wife's residence or place of employment, except for court-ordered visitation or to attend church.
While the wife did not contest the affair, she accused her husband of violating the order of protection by hiring the investigator.
She also claimed he had not been legally bound to turn over the DVD, which she claimed caused her to resign from her post at the church and amounted to harassment. Judge Kiedaisch disagreed.
"Under the circumstances, the hiring of the private investigator, in and of itself, was not an unlawful intrusion upon the rights of the wife secured by the order of protection," she said.

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