Jessica Gonzales had a restraining order, she had a documented history with police, she knew who had taken her three daughters, and she repeatedly told officers where she believed they were.

And over the course of one night in June 1999, she contacted police again and again asking them to act.

Hours later, her estranged husband, Simon Gonzales, drove to the Castle Rock Police Department and opened fire.

Police shot and killed him.

Inside his truck, officers found the bodies of Jessica’s three daughters: Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie.

What happened that night became the beginning of a legal battle that would eventually reach the United States Supreme Court as Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales.

And at the center of that case was a deceptively simple question:

What does a restraining order actually require police to do?

That’s the case we’re unpacking in this week’s two-part episode of This Feels Criminal.

But the legal ruling only makes sense when you understand what Jessica had done before she ever stepped into a courtroom.

Listen to the Full Episodes:

Who Is Jessica Gonzales?

Jessica Gonzales, who later became known as Jessica Lenahan, lived in Castle Rock, Colorado, with her family.

She and Simon Gonzales had three daughters together, Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie. Jessica also had a son from a previous relationship.

According to Jessica’s account, Simon’s behavior became increasingly controlling, unpredictable and abusive during their relationship. She described stalking, threats and other forms of abuse.

There were also documented encounters involving law enforcement before the night her daughters disappeared. In the months leading up to June 22, 1999, Simon had multiple interactions with police, including a road-rage citation and an incident in which he was caught trespassing in a restricted portion of the Castle Rock police station.

Jessica and Simon separated in 1999.

Then Jessica went to court.

The Restraining Order Against Simon Gonzales

On May 21, 1999, Jessica obtained a temporary restraining order in Douglas County District Court as part of their divorce proceedings.

The court found a risk of “irreparable injury” and that physical or emotional harm could result if Simon was not excluded from the family home.

The order was served on Simon and made permanent on June 4.

Jessica received custody of the children. Simon was permitted alternating weekend visits and a prearranged midweek dinner visit, with advance notice required.

According to Jessica, she understood that if Simon violated the order, police were required to enforce it.

That belief would become enormously important.

Because less than three weeks later, Jessica needed them to do exactly that.

What Happened to Jessica Gonzales’s Daughters?

On Tuesday, June 22, 1999, Simon took Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie from outside the family’s home.

The girls were 10, 9 and 7.

It wasn’t his scheduled night with them, and the visit had not been arranged in advance.

When Jessica realized they were gone, she contacted Castle Rock police.

There is a discrepancy in the historical record about precisely when that first call occurred. Jessica’s account places it at approximately 5:50 p.m., while the U.S. government’s later position put it closer to 7:40 p.m.

What isn’t disputed is what followed.

Jessica kept trying to get help.

When officers eventually came to her home, Jessica showed them the restraining order and explained that Simon wasn’t supposed to have the children that evening.

According to Jessica’s account, she was told that because Simon was their father, it was okay for the girls to be with him.

Police told her to call again if they weren’t home by 10 p.m.

Jessica Knew Where Simon Had Taken the Girls

The situation became more alarming as the evening continued.

Simon’s girlfriend contacted Jessica and told her Simon had threatened to drive off a cliff. She asked whether he had a gun and whether Jessica believed he might hurt the children.

Then, at approximately 8:30 p.m., Jessica spoke to Simon herself.

He told her he was with the girls at an amusement park in Denver.

Jessica immediately passed that information to police.

According to her account, police told her Denver was outside their jurisdiction. She asked them to contact Denver police or issue a missing-child alert.

They did not.

Later, when Jessica called again as instructed, a dispatcher told her she was being “a little ridiculous.”

Eventually, Jessica began looking for Simon herself.

By the middle of the night, she drove to the Castle Rock police station in person.

Depending on how the contacts are counted, Jessica reached out to police eight or nine times over roughly ten hours.

And while Jessica was trying to convince someone to intervene, something had happened that she didn’t know about.

Simon had purchased a handgun.

The Shooting at the Castle Rock Police Station

At approximately 3:20 a.m., Simon Gonzales arrived at the Castle Rock Police Department and opened fire.

Officers returned fire and killed him.

Then they searched his truck.

Inside were Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie.

All three girls were dead.

The tragedy left Jessica with questions about what happened that night, but also about the piece of paper she had carried while begging police for help.

If a judge had issued an order restricting Simon’s contact with her and the children, what did that order actually guarantee?

Jessica decided to find out.

Why Did Jessica Gonzales Sue Castle Rock?

Jessica sued the Town of Castle Rock and three police officers under federal civil rights law.

She sought $30 million, but publicly explained that her larger purpose was accountability and improving how police departments enforce restraining orders.

Her legal argument centered on the language of Colorado law.

The statute said officers “shall” use every reasonable means to enforce a restraining order.

Jessica argued that this mandatory language created a protected legal entitlement to enforcement. If she had that entitlement, she argued, Castle Rock’s failure to enforce the order deprived her of it without due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The federal district court initially dismissed her claim.

But her case didn’t end there.

The Tenth Circuit eventually concluded that she could proceed with a procedural due process claim.

Then the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

What Did the Supreme Court Decide in Castle Rock v. Gonzales?

On June 27, 2005, the Supreme Court decided Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005).

The decision was 7-2.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The central constitutional question was narrower than the larger moral question surrounding Jessica’s case:

Did Jessica have a constitutionally protected property interest in police enforcement of her restraining order?

The Supreme Court said no.

Why Did the Supreme Court Rule Against Jessica Gonzales?

This part gets oversimplified online, so it’s worth slowing down.

The Supreme Court didn’t simply decide that the word “shall” meant nothing.

The majority recognized that Colorado had deliberately adopted mandatory language as states attempted to reduce police discretion in domestic violence cases.

But the Court concluded that police traditionally retain significant discretion in how laws are enforced.

Justice Scalia also focused on the fact that Simon wasn’t standing in front of an officer when Jessica first reported the violation. Officers would have needed to locate him, and the majority concluded that the mandatory-arrest framework did not eliminate all police discretion under those circumstances.

The Court then went further.

Even if Colorado law made enforcement mandatory, the majority concluded that this did not necessarily create an individual entitlement that qualified as “property” protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

In other words, a legal duty imposed on police for the public’s benefit does not automatically give an individual a federal constitutional property right to have that duty performed.

That distinction ultimately defeated Jessica’s federal due process claim.

What Did the Dissent Say?

Justice Stevens strongly disagreed.

One of his arguments was that the Court should have allowed the Colorado Supreme Court to determine what Colorado’s own mandatory enforcement language actually meant.

The dissent also emphasized why these laws existed in the first place.

Mandatory-arrest and enforcement provisions had been enacted against a history of police under-enforcement in domestic violence cases. In Stevens’s view, the majority gave too much weight to traditional police discretion when the legislature had specifically attempted to limit that discretion.

That tension is one of the most fascinating parts of the case.

The legislature used mandatory language because discretion had created a problem.

The Supreme Court nevertheless concluded that a longstanding tradition of police discretion still mattered when determining what that language actually guaranteed.

Does Castle Rock v. Gonzales Mean Police Don’t Have to Enforce Restraining Orders?

This needs a careful answer.

Castle Rock v. Gonzales did not hold that restraining orders are meaningless or that police should ignore them.

It also did not rule that Castle Rock officers handled Jessica’s situation correctly.

The Supreme Court answered a specific federal constitutional question.

It held that Jessica did not have a constitutionally protected property interest under the Fourteenth Amendment in police enforcement of her restraining order.

That distinction matters because state laws, departmental policies and other legal remedies can still govern how protection orders are supposed to be enforced.

What Jessica lost was this particular federal due process claim.

Jessica Gonzales Took Her Case Beyond the Supreme Court

Losing at the highest court in the United States didn’t end Jessica’s fight.

Now known as Jessica Lenahan, she took her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an international human rights body.

It became the first case brought against the United States before an international human rights body by a domestic violence survivor.

In 2011, the Commission concluded that the United States had violated Jessica’s and her daughters’ human rights, including through failures of due diligence concerning protection from domestic violence and gender-based discrimination.

The Commission recommended stronger protections, accountability mechanisms, an investigation into systemic failures and reparations.

There was one major limitation.

The Commission’s ruling was not binding on the United States.

Jessica had reached another institution that recognized a failure, but that institution couldn’t force the government to implement its recommendations.

The Bigger Question Behind Castle Rock v. Gonzales

It’s easy to look at Jessica’s case with the benefit of hindsight and say someone obviously should have acted.

Our two-part episode tries to wrestle with something harder.

If we can recognize danger, why don’t we act?

There are real consequences to intervening too aggressively. Police and courts can restrict someone’s freedom based on predictions about something that hasn’t happened yet. Predictions can be wrong.

But waiting has consequences too.

And choosing not to intervene doesn’t make those consequences disappear. Sometimes it simply determines who has to carry them.

Jessica already had a court order.

She had reported previous behavior.

Police knew Simon.

She called repeatedly.

She eventually went to the station herself.

And years later, when her case reached the Supreme Court, she learned that the protection she believed the restraining order guaranteed was not a constitutionally protected entitlement to police enforcement.

That’s why this story is bigger than one devastating night in Castle Rock.

It forces us to ask what we actually mean when we tell someone:

Get a restraining order. Call the police. Document everything. Ask for help.

What happens when they do?

That is where our conversation begins, so make sure you tune into This Feels Criminal wherever you get your podcasts.

Key Takeaways

• Jessica Gonzales had a restraining order against her estranged husband, Simon Gonzales, that restricted his contact with Jessica and their three daughters.
• On June 22, 1999, Simon took their daughters, Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie, without a prearranged visit.
• Jessica contacted Castle Rock police eight or nine times, depending on how the contacts are counted, over approximately ten hours.
• Jessica eventually learned Simon and the girls were at an amusement park in Denver and provided that information to police.
• Simon later drove to the Castle Rock Police Department and opened fire. Police killed him.
• Officers found all three girls dead inside Simon’s truck.
• Jessica sued Castle Rock, arguing that Colorado’s mandatory restraining-order enforcement language gave her a protected legal entitlement to enforcement.
• In Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 against Jessica on her federal due process claim.
• The Supreme Court did not rule that restraining orders are meaningless or that Castle Rock police acted appropriately.
• Jessica later took her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which concluded in 2011 that the United States had violated Jessica’s and her daughters’ human rights. Its decision was non-binding.
• Jessica, now known as Jessica Lenahan, has continued advocating for domestic violence survivors and policy reform.

Castle Rock v. Gonzales FAQs