Termination: Appealing an Order of Protection in Tennessee

My question involves restraining orders in the State of: TN

I live several states away from the petitioner, and have for at least 2 years. I was recently served with a Temporary order from their state. I hired a lawyer and traveled to their state to attend the hearing.

• the petitioner presented their evidence, which my lawyer reviewed. The lawyer asked for a certain piece (that could not be linked to me) to be disallowed. The judge did not confirm yes/no
• My lawyer began to question the petitioner, who readily admitted 2x that I had not made any threats to or ever made them feel threatened (which was the claim for the TPO). The petitioner then stated that they did not know my intentions, and brought up an even from 2012 involving a family medical issue (I feel they knew this would affect me, as it was a traumatic event). My lawyer requested this be struck from the record, and I believe the judge agreed. Other general accusations were made at this time with no factual or evidence basis, and items from over 6 years ago were presented as evidence
• My lawyer attempted to present my evidence, most of which was from 2010-2013 and contained 165 pages of messages showing polite and consensual conversation. Unfortunately I did not save communication from 2014 to 2015. The judge stated that he was not interested in the past.
• My lawyer argued that sporadic, friendly messages are not a threatening, and that the petitioner already admitted to not feeling threatened
• The judges next statement was that a request to stop talking to someone was valid if it was 10 years ago, 2 years ago or 2 minutes ago, and that he would be issuing the order.

The order was issued, stating that I did everything stated in the petitioners original complaint (not true, and parts were discredited in during the hearing), and that I was found to have abused/threatened to abuse. I am concerned over the extremely negative connotation that this wording has, and the fact that it is not true, and how it may affect me in the future.

After the hearing I remembered that the petitioner had contacted me sometime in 2013-2015 to request my help with an issue they were having, which would have been after the claimed request that I not contact them.

I need to appeal this Order based on:

• The petitioner initiated contact after requesting no contact a few years ago. I am working to secure the records of this
• I believe that the petitioner is being manipulated/abused by their current partner and that this request for an order is a result of that influence. This ties to what a "reasonable and sane" person would infer from the communication.
• The petitioner was allowed to present claims/evidence from over 6 years ago, but I was not allowed to present evidence from 2 years ago
• I think that the judge may have been inattentive/unwilling to review my evidence (The judge's demeanor changed dramatically after the ADA made an error in the hearing before mine).

What are the next steps for me? I do not see any time limit for an appeal, but my laywer tells me that it is "too late". The hearing was 2 months ago in Memphis

Termination: Appealing an Order of Protection in Tennessee