Bill would criminalize making false allegations of abuse
March 13, 2008
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Posted by ANCPR
Bill would criminalize false abuse charges
By MICHAEL C. LEWIS / Journal Staff Writer
POSTED: March 10, 2008
MARTINSBURG—Nine times, one aggrieved father says he fought to protect his name and his relationship with his daughters after he was accused of child abuse in a custody dispute.
The man, whose name we will not use to protect the identity of his daughters, said he is pleased that West Virginia legislators last week passed a bill that slaps criminal charges on those who falsely report child abuse or neglect in order to influence a custody case.
On Thursday, state senators passed House Bill 3065, after the measure met overwhelming approval in the House of Delegates last week. The bill charges those who makes a false abuse report with a $1,000 fine, or forces the plaintiff to pay for the defendant’s legal fees. The misdemeanor crime would also carry a punishment of up to 60 hours of community service.
The man, previously a resident of Huntington who now lives in Burlington, Ohio, said in 2003 and 2004, he was accused of breaking and entering, assault and sexual and physical abuse against his two daughters. Faced with serving at least one year in jail and losing custody of his daughters, the man fought the charges.
“They were never proven to be false. They were said to be ‘unsubstantiated.’ They found me not guilty. But I know I’m innocent. I want the satisfaction of knowing that on my record it was a lie, but I’ll never get that,” said the man, who said he spent thousands of dollars in legal fees to prove his innocence. “People have no idea how much time and money this wastes in the system.”
In West Virginia, from March 2007 to March 2008, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Child Protective Services received and did paperwork on 37,165 incidents of child abuse. From those, 26,904 cases were further investigated, said John Law, spokesperson for WVDHHR. Only 3,998 cases were found to be substantiated, or less than 20 percent of all investigated incidents.
“There are circumstances of false reports. If it’s done intentionally, certainly it’s wrong. But there are also circumstances where someone says something and it is later found to be unsubstantiated. It doesn’t mean people lied, it means they reported in good faith something they perceived as child abuse,” Law said. “A lot of (cases) are proven to be unsubstantiated.”
Law said HB 3065 is a bill DHHR will be looking at “very closely.”
The lead sponsor of the bill, Delegate Jeff Eldridge, D-Lincoln, said that based on the statistics shown to him, the state spends as much as $18 million per year investigating and processing false abuse allegations.
“So much paperwork and so many man hours are spent investigating abuse allegations and some of them lack sufficient evidence. This bill makes people follow through with their allegations. If they file charges, then there will be a hearing on it,” he said.
Eldridge said the bill is a victory for people who truly are abused, and if passed, would save state taxpayers money.
“If the fathers or mothers are truly abusing the spouse, this bill will hold them accountable. At the same time, if they’re not truly abusing them, then there will be penalties for whoever filed it. There are consequences to this behavior.”
Sen. John Yoder, R-Jefferson, voted in favor of the bill.
“I think it’s only reasonable that people who deliberately make false reports of child abuse should be held accountable because it causes a very high degree of disruption to the family and encourages further fighting,” Yoder said. “We hold the people who go into the courtroom accountable for their words and we can charge them with perjury. I don’t see why someone who swears out a false complaint should not also be held accountable.”
Ron Foster, Region 4 coordinator for Men and Women Against Discrimination, or MAWAD, said HB3065 came about because more and more people have been using false allegations in Family Court to have one or more parents removed from the house.
“This is a huge issue. The children get hurt when false allegations are made because they’re denied the opportunity to spend time with the parent at a time when they need the parent the most,” he said.
The false allegation sets the stage for how much time the accused parent spends with the child after the alleged abuse occurs, and is a tool used regularly in cases involving sexual abuse, child abuse and domestic violence against the spouse, Foster said.
“This bill will definitely benefit child custody proceedings,” he said. “We are wasting an inordinate amount of court time. We believe this bill will have a significant effect on the number of cases that go through the court system.”
A study conducted in 2007 by MAWAD reviewed all requests and cases involving protective orders in Cabell County Family Court for 2006. The study determined that 76 percent of all cases were dismissed for one reason or another.
Berkeley County Family Judge Sally G. Jackson acknowledged that some of the allegations of domestic violence that she hears are proven false, but said that doesn’t mean the person making the accusation lied.
“What somebody thinks is domestic violence, I may not, and I may dismiss the case. But that doesn’t mean they’re lying,” she said. “I have to say sometimes there are cases where it seems people file charges not for very good reasons.”
Jackson said many times parents bring domestic violence petitions because a child says something about one of the parents and describes the incident different than it actually was. And what a child says to one parent may not be the same thing said to another parent, she said.
It’s for this reason, Jackson said, that parents must communicate with one another.
“Generally, the first thing a parent should do if a child comes home from visitation (and says something happened) is call up the other parent to see what happened,” she said. “Parents need to keep their lines of communication open. Parents get so wrapped up in hurting each other, that they forget they’re hurting their kids.”
For the man, the bill may be too little too late, but that’s because he now lives in Ohio.
“I have little to no faith in the judicial system any longer,” he said. “Every time I turned around I was being arrested for something I never did. I see how easy the system was to manipulate. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I don’t want someone to go through the hell I went through.”
He described his relationship with his children as “great,” but every now and then, he said, they ask him why he went to jail.
Now, he said he uses the experience as a teaching tool to show his children the problems that are caused when people lie.
“I use it to teach them to be honest,” he said. “I went to jail because someone lied.”
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If a child says one thing to one parent and another to another, that’s a time you need to take them to the woodshed and get their attention. As for the main part of the story the sentence is ticky-tack but it’s a start. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the wall of lies doesn’t come down in a day either.
i truly hope my ex wife and daughter roast in hell for these false allegations of child abuse.
i am now charged with this, and I badly need a pro bono attorney. can anyone help?
please contact me
vincent brown
awbplg@comcast.net
We have a friend who is going through a divorce.
He is anglo, and his wife is Chinese.
What makes their circumstances so exceptional to me is that having known them for about 7 years, I have always considered them to both be responsible, decent and level headed.
They have a 6 year old son, which they seem to dote over, and they were both clearly very good parents.
Now in the past Ms B made some incidental but ominous comments about the wife, which I disregarded at the time. Ms B told me that the wife would bitterly complain in private about her husband, but there was no substance to the complaints. Ms B described the complaints as being “child-like” and repetitious in nature.
Had my wife not told me this, I would never have thought this woman was child-like, nor someone who complained about her husband behind his back. She just seemed too nice and empathetic in public. In fact, she really won me over as a great mother and a great wife.
But clearly I was wrong!
Well, this couple separated about a year ago. Since then the husband has wanted to see the child 3 days per fortnight, but the wife refused. She would only agree to 8 hours per fortnight.
So after failing to get anywhere in mediation, the husband filed for greater access to his son via the Family Court.
In response his wife filed allegations of child sexual abuse.
Now I won’t go into detail about these allegations, but to say that they are completely preposterous and bizarre.
I read the wife’s statement and the allegations in full, as did Ms B. We both agreed that the wife was either lying or she is so disturbed by the divorce that she is deluding herself. In fact I had to pinch myself a number of times as there was no logic in the ramblings, apart from references to women’s intuitition and references from the internet about bed wetting being linked to child abuse. She also supplied some selective snippets from the internet suggesting that any form of shared care was disruptive to children.
My final take was that this was all about child support, given that in Australia child support reduces if the child sees the other parent on overnight stays. Its the only way I can understand what has happened.
But now to my point, and this is eerily similar to one of the comments by a poster to a previous post.
The husband has hired a solicitor and barrister to represent him in Court.
He told me recently that while in a briefing with his barrister, the barrister said that in his experience, Chinese born wives are particularly malicious during divorce. In fact he mentioned that of the 5 most spiteful wives that he comes across per year in his work as a barrister, about 3 tend to be Chinese born.
Now make of this what you will, but if true, it is a worrying statistic for many fathers out there.
interacialmarriage.blogspot.com
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People who are found to have made false child abuse allegations in a custody battle should be punished. The government went to all the trouble (using taxpapers money) to create House Bill 3065 they should exercise House Bill 3065 and punish the individual making the false charges. If they are not punished they will continue to use the system to their benefit. While this is happening the children are the ones that suffer.
I see so much written about “Father Rights”, who is protecting the mothers?
@Karen Painter
The current atrocious system of courts that are so biased against Fathers and their rights is what is “protecting” the mothers, Whether they are right or wrong.
@Karen Painter @O’Kelley
Courts are not protecting mothers, nor are they protecting the children OR the fathers. Instead, courts have an almost unfailing drive to keep as many cases in court as long as possible, to justrify bigger budgets and bigger salaries.
In many states now, activist groups that were once strongly pro male or pro female now concentrate on better court outcomes all around. By working together, men and women can help diffuse some of the “pro-court” atmosphere so prevalent today. We should all support groups like “Men and Women Against Discrimination”.
Anyone (father or mother) who makes false child abuse charges should be punished. The courts need to take quick action and not draw the custody case out for months and sometimes years. As time passes it just continues to have a truely negative impact on the innocent children and their families. The parents of the children as well as all members of society have a obligation to protect the chidlren. It should not take case workers, court appointed guardians, judges and attorneys so long to make a decision. These long drawn out cases costs the people invovled lots of money unnecessarily.
In the state (West Virginia) where my daughters child custody case is being handled the courts are NOT always in favor ot he mothers. I don’t believe they should be biased either way. It should ALWAYS be handled fairly and the best interest of the children should ALWAYS be the courts focus.
In some cases, the childs well being is best with the Father and sometimes the Mother.
Unfortunately the court isn’t always totally knowledgeable of the childrens situations. They are provided information from a court appt guardian or counselor who has and obtains very limited information before making a decision on behalf ot the children.
I believe that both the Mother and Father play important roles in the children’s lives and it is the duty of each parent to nurture the relationship of the children with the other parent.
The children get hurt and they need the opportunity to spend time with each parent; during these battles is when the children need the parents the most.
I believe there should be criminal charges placed. Parental Alienation is parental abuse and child abuse. All child abusers should be personal held accountable and stripped of all rights to ever be around children again. They are preadotors that prey on the under developed mind of a child. The more time they have to do this the more they are successful they should be confined to a jail cell. The system rewards their behaviour instead of punishing for contempt of court rulings. There is legislation and then there is justice. Also hatred is not an emotion that comes natural to a child it is a learnt and taught behaviour. Hositily breeds hostility.
My brother’s story. Chip was not only happy but wanted everyone around him happy; until his wife not only cheated on him but told lies to take their daughter away from him.
She started cheating on him about 3 months before filing for an order of protection with some guy at school. Went on a few dates with the guy at school and admitted it to Chip about 2 months before his death. At that time she claimed she wanted to work on their marriage and relationship.
He tried to make her happy while she just complained how depressed she was and how she wanted to hurt herself. She even wrote in her school notebooks about being depressed and wanting to hurt herself. He tried to convience her to see a therapist rather than just getting Lexipro from her general doctor who is known for writing prescriptions too easily. He had her agreeing to see a threapist at one point but she went to visit her mother and returned to Chip in a bad mood saying things her mother told her like how her depression was not a sign that she needed a new medication but that the depression was a symptom of being unhappy with Chip.
About a month before his death in early Oct, one of the ball players on their co-ed ball team told Chip that Sarah was cheating on him with Nick-one of the other team members and that everyone in the dug-out knew. Chip confronted Sarah who denied it. Oct 29th she told him she loved him and wanted to go out for dinner (a few days before she told him in front of another friend that she wanted to go home and make love with Chip). But on Friday the 29th she went to visit her mom at work and a few hours later shows up with police at their home to take their child (Ellie) away while having Chip served with an order of protection claiming he has been abusing her for months.That he would not let her out of the house so she had been trying to leave him for over a month and could not. They let her take Ellie with no proof of such abuse. The court date was set for the following Thurs Nov 4th. She had texted him just hours before she showed up with the police to take the child saying she missed him and loved him and was on her way home.
Once their co-ed team and other friends heard what she was claiming they all started coming forward to tell Chip that she was still messing around with Nick. One told him she had admitted to having sex with Nick. Another told him how she used his house to meet up with Nick and do drugs. All of them witnessed her loving and kissing on Chip at ball games in public during the time she claimed he was abusing her. Several of them recalled how she would lay in bed all day complaining while Chip would have to take care of Ellie-getting her ready for kindergarten and taking her to school. On Nov 1, Chip confronted Nick and Nick denied to his face about having relations with Sarah. Chip believed him (he so wanted to believe it was not another man but that Sarah’s depression was out of control and her mother was using it to break them up).
In the days leading up to his suicide, Chip received phone calls from Sarah’s dad demanding petty crap from him that she left at their home just so they could harass him by telling him things like “you don’t have a family” “Sarah hates you” etc…
Monday night Nov 1 another friend on the team showed Chip a video of Sarah and Nick. Nick was rubbing all over Sarah in an intimate manner in front of their child. He saw the video just hours after confronting Nick. Someone stayed with Chip that night because his friends could tell he was upset after seeing the video. After all he had believed Nick and Sarah when they denied the affair. Partly because he wanted to believe it but partly because it was not the first time accusation of an affair had arisen in their marriage-her friends when they were first married had tried to break them up with accusations of him cheating when he had not cheated so he thought maybe someone was trying to break them up again as before. Thus he believed Nick and Sarah when they denied the accusations only to have video proof of the affair shown to him. It destroyed him.
The next morning Nov 2 he made an excuse to our parents for going horse back riding. Got away from everyone, broke into our parent’s house to get a gun of our father’s. Went back to his house, sat on the floor with his wedding pictures and prom pictures with Sarah. Put the gun in his mouth and shot himself. He left a note but the note was not found until the next day on top of the cabinets up high. I suspect he was planning it all during the night as he mentions the video in the note and how Sarah and Nick both lied to his face about them cheating on him.
It has been very difficult and my family blames Sarah for her part in the lies she told. She wanted to leave him but she wanted make it look like he was the one in the wrong by saying he was abusing her when he was not. His wife had been telling lies to people at college/work about him for a year (found out this after he shot himself). She told her boss that Chip made her late to work or made her miss work. He had witnesses who were going to testify on his behalf that she never did housework (chip did all the housework), she stayed in bed all day of her own free will complaining how she did not feel good, and she would kiss and hug him in public of her own free will. She would initate the public displays of affection all during the time she was telling lies about how he abused her to her boss and friends at work/school. Plus no one had seen a single bruise on her all during the HOT months when she is known for wearing shorts and skimpy clothes. She did not want to admit she was leaving him for another man so she made up lies about my brother so she could take their child away from him.
She did not come to his funeral and her mother told my sister that they have not told Ellie that her father is dead nor will they tell her that her father is dead because they feel 5 years is too young to understand such. Sarah refused to come to the funeral and face the family. They refuse to allow any of Chip’s family to see Ellie. My parents are having to sue for Grandparent’s rights for visitation now.
Sarah lied and took his child from him. Her family believing her lies tormented him. Can we press charges on Sarah or her family for the lies she told and the harassment they inflicted on my brother? No. Ultimately my brother did chose the quick way out instead of fighting for his child and rights as a father. However, I feel Sarah should be charged for making false accusations as she did. Maybe if she had a record for lying then she would not be allowed to get away with it next time with her next failed marriage and husband. Unfortunately the courts won’t do a thing about women who lie to get custody and hurt the innocent spouses.
FALSE ALLEGATIONS WORK WELL BECAUSE LAISSEZ-PERJURY RULES!!
Why are not false allegations made to courts and law enforcement treated as the perjury and not punished as a felony?
According to Marvin H. Shoob, U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta, “Perjury is like a naughty word never to be admitted or discussed publicly. It’s the justice system’s dirty little secret that no one wants to admit or confront.” The pandemic of perjury, false allegations, material misrepresentations, and false witnessing now accepted as routine reveals how corrupted our justice system has become.
Litigants, government workers, and witnesses lie to win for themselves and to punish others. Cops and detectives engage in ‘testilying’ to falsely convict and no one – in the justice system or media – wants to touch this issue.
As perjury laws – related to testimony in court – are NEVER enforced, who really thinks this new law about ‘false allegations’ will make a difference?
How bad is it really? Just call your local prosecutor’s office and ask about how perjury allegations are actually handled? You are likely to find there are no procedures.
If oaths in court really mattered, at least occasionally there’d be someone indicted for having lied. Ask your state Attorney General for statistics showing how many trials and convictions for perjury – related to false testimony in civil, family, criminal, or probate court – there have been?
Don’t hold your breath for an answer. No one in government, on the bench or in the bar, wants to admit they actually know cases and court decisions are won by the side with the preponderance of perjuries.
Lies enslave. Truth sets free. And when We, the people, decide to no longer be ‘sheeple’, we will be better off.
ASK YOUR LEGISLATOR TO HOLD HEARINGS ON THE DE FACTO LAISSEZ-PERJURY PRACTICES THAT NO ONE WANTS TO DISCUSS OR ADDRESS. SUCH AN ACT WOULD REQUIRE UNCOMMON MORAL, ETHICAL, and POLITICAL COURAGE.
I attribute the suicide in this blog to the COURT’S AND PROSECUTOR’S LAISSEZ-PERJURY policy which encourages and fails to punish false allegations.
Simply put filing a false allegation of domestic violence
is equivalent to filing a false police report with the intent
of malice or gain of a benefit (divorce action, child custody action, revenge, gain control of a dwelling, etc.. This action should be made a crimminal offense with jail time
and extremely large fine. END of Story. If an attorney is implicated to fascilitate false allegations then that person’s ability to practice law should be taken away and should also do jail time. If false allegations are not as rampant as men know it to be then there will be no issue with this. But men talk to each other and know the truth. Simply, there are just too many men that know the truth.
My ex left town and would not dare come back because she knows that everyone with the slightest connection to our lives knew that she threw out the false accusations to get me out of the house.
The state does not care about this despicable sort of perjury but common people recognize the low life that falsely takes advantage of a law designed to protect true victims with draconian measures.
What is with the women on here complaining. Look at all of the government funded women’s shelters, women’s groups like NOW, or the propaganda posters in DHS buildings that talk about deadbeat dads, where is one poster that tells a woman to pay her child-support or else she is a social reject and a failure as a human? These presuppose the mother as the custodial parent and cause social exceptance that such is the exceptable norm.
Fantastic post and I had thought of this before