Dixon v. Dixon
| Decision Date | 02 November 2022 |
| Docket Number | CV-21-323 |
| Citation | 2022 Ark. App. 439,655 S.W.3d 520 |
| Parties | Keith DIXON, Appellant v. Holly DIXON and Tyler Van Dyke, Appellees |
| Court | Arkansas Court of Appeals |
Branscum Law Offices, by: Herby Branscum, Jr. ; Perryville, and Elizabeth Branscum Burgess, for appellant.
LaCerra, Dickson, Hoover & Rogers, PLLC, by: Traci LaCerra, North Little Rock, for appellees.
Keith Dixon filed this appeal from the Faulkner County Circuit Court's entry of two final orders of protection in favor of his estranged wife and daughter. He brings four points on appeal contending that the circuit court erred (1) by failing to rule on his motion to dismiss for insufficiency of service of process and to dismiss the actions; (2) in granting a final order of protection in favor of his daughter, Tyler Van Dyke; (3) in granting an order of protection in favor of Tyler for a ten-year period; and (4) in granting an order of protection in favor of his wife, Holly Dixon, for a ten-year period. We affirm the circuit court's orders.
Keith and Holly married on October 24, 2009, when Tyler was seven years old. Keith adopted Tyler in a stepparent adoption after the parties were married. On September 3, 2020, Holly left Keith, and she and Tyler moved into an apartment in Conway. Keith filed for a divorce in the Perry County Circuit Court on September 4, using Herby Branscum as his attorney.
After an incident in early October in which Keith came to their apartment, detailed more herein, both Holly and Tyler filed petitions for ex parte orders of protection. The petitions were filed on October 20, 2020, in the Faulkner County Circuit Court, and the court entered temporary orders, which were later extended through December 10. An affidavit of service was filed on November 9, showing proof of service on Herby Branscum, as agent authorized by appointment or law to receive service on Keith's behalf. On December 2, Keith filed a motion to dismiss in both cases, alleging that neither he nor anyone authorized on his behalf was served with the petition. He contended that he had not authorized his divorce attorney to receive service on his behalf in this case. No hearing was ever set for the motions to dismiss.
A hearing for the permanent orders of protection was held jointly on December 17. Tyler testified that she had witnessed physical and emotional abuse in their home during the approximately ten-year period she lived with her mother and stepfather. She said that she saw Keith strike, choke, punch, and kick her mother; that Keith was often angry; and that there was "a lot of screaming, throwing things, and of course hurting my mom." She said the fear of it happening to her or to her mom again made her feel unsafe. She also said she felt "unsafe and uncomfortable" due to "sexual tensions" that had arisen, and she thought Keith was behaving inappropriately. She gave as an example—Keith coming into her room unannounced at random times. She said "[T]he control had gotten extreme, and it seemed, there were just certain instances that made me feel uncomfortable and like my friends also felt very uncomfortable." She said he made inappropriate comments to her based on her appearance that made her uncomfortable. She testified that he would call her friends "sexy" and engaged in "inappropriate touching," leading her to tell him that he shouldn't touch them. She said he also walked into her bathroom when she was in the shower. Tyler moved out in May 2020 when she turned eighteen, initially moving in with her grandmother and then with friends.
Tyler testified that her mother left Keith in September and that they rented an apartment together in Conway. Neither she nor her mother told Keith where the apartment was located, but she said he eventually found it and began coming there. She described the incident that prompted her and Holly to file their petitions. She said that she and Holly were driving home from shopping at Target, and she noticed someone behind them when she was pulling into the apartments. It was Keith, and he pulled up, parked behind them, and blocked them in their parking space. She said he came to the side of the car, "knocking on the windows violently," and demanded they give him their keys and credit cards. She testified that they were scared, and they locked the car doors until he backed away and they were able to get into the apartment and call the police. She said that she had seen him drive around the area since that time and had seen him sitting in his car at the Walgreens close to the apartments when she was coming home from school. She said it makes her anxious because he has no reason to be in Conway at Walgreens by the apartment. She was afraid that he would continue to "stalk," "harass," and threaten her if a permanent order of protection were not entered.
Holly testified that Keith began physically abusing her in 2011, several years after they had married. She said it happened multiple times and recounted one incident in which he told her she needed to tell him she was sorry, and she asked "for what" because she did not know what they were fighting about. She said he left the room and then returned "out of nowhere and just grabbed me and threw me to the ground." She said she did not remember a lot after that because she hit her head and he started kicking her. She said at some point, Tyler came in screaming and telling Keith to stop. She said the abuse continued, but she did not call the police because she was afraid, and she did not speak to Keith of the pain because he would hit her again. She learned not to disagree with him. She said he also has an anger and "rage" problem. She said she did not know why, and she would "just bow down and just [do] whatever it would take to ... stop the anger." She said the night she moved out, he already knew where she was moving and the apartment they were moving into, although she had not told him any of that information. She said she moved out because she did not feel safe anymore and because she did not want to be without Tyler, who had moved out.
She said on the night he blocked in Tyler's car at the apartment, he "came out of nowhere," pulled in behind them, and "bright-lighted" them. She said he came up to the car yelling, screaming, and threatening them while they sat there "petrified of what he could do." She said she had no idea he would come from the marital home in Perry County to Conway to threaten her. She said they had been in counseling about separating, and she was trying to "do it in a civil way." She said when a narcissistic person loses control, the person is grasping at straws. She said that she was petrified because she knew he had a concealed weapon, knew what he was capable of doing, and knew he had lost control after she filed the petition. She said he has always gotten away with whatever he wants to do; that she had always gone along with him; and when she stopped going along, things started to happen. She said that she was fearful for her safety and would look both ways and in the bushes whenever she left the apartment. She said he's "going to get his way," and he's going to "do whatever it takes to get his way." She testified that he had always told her that "a random crime is the best crime."
Keith testified that he is a retired nephrologist and general internist. He said he had kicked Holly out of the house before when he tried to call her an hour and a half after she went to play tennis, and she said she was at Kroger on the way home. He continued to try to call and talk with her, but she did not answer the phone and showed up at the house four hours later in different clothes. She explained that she had been Christmas shopping, but she had no gifts, so he kicked her out. He said he was drunk and that he gets severely depressed and turns to alcohol in such instances. He said Holly called the police to get her stuff, and the police asked if he had threatened her. In response to counsel's question whether any of her allegations of physical abuse were true, the following colloquy took place:
When asked whether he has violent anger and rage, he said that Holly is his "trigger" and that he would beg her to stop and leave him alone, but she would not during an argument. He admitted that Holly's actions did not "justify it." He said he asked her if she loved him, and she said she had not loved him in eight years, so he filed for divorce the next day. He testified that he had never done anything sexually inappropriate to...
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