Lancaster Online.com: News : In ‘he said, she said,’ DA gets in a word
Woman, who said ex-husband violated PFA, charged with lying.
By Gil Smart
Sunday News
Published: May 06, 2006 10:58 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - A child custody case that has landed in county court, county commissioners’ meetings and has ensnared the largest church in the county took a new twist late last month.
The Lancaster County District Attorney’s office accused two people of making false statements to police and with criminal conspiracy after they made allegations that were contradicted by several witnesses — as well as two different videotapes.
Wendy Flanders of Leola and Theodore P. Yoder, also of Leola, were each charged April 28 with making false reports to law enforcement, unsworn falsification to authorities and criminal conspiracy to commit unsworm falsification as the result of an investigation into their claims that Bennett J. Vonderheide had violated a protection-from-abuse order and behaved in a threatening, abusive manner toward them.
Flanders and Vonderheide are embroiled in a custody case involving their 7-year-old son. Yoder is described in the affidavit as a friend of Flanders.
PFA granted
In 2004, Flanders sought a PFA against Vonderheide. That petition was granted and ultimately amended to remain in effect through April 20 of this year; as part of the order, Vonderheide was constrained from “threatening, harassing, abusing or striking his former girlfriend.
In a case that caught the attention of several fathers’ rights groups, Vonderheide has claimed that Flanders sought the PFA specifically to punish him as the result of an acrimonious breakup.
Neither Flanders nor Yoder returned messages seeking comment for this article.
According to the affidavit, filed by the District Attorney’s office in the case, on Jan. 13 Flanders and Vonderheide were at the Lancaster County Courthouse relative to the custody issue when Flanders and Yoder say Vonderheide violated the terms of the PFA by following and verbally harassing her, calling her a profane name, coming within three to four feet of her and telling Flanders “she was not going to get her way, or similar words.â€
Flanders and Yoder went to the county sheriff’s office and less than a week later, Jan. 19, Flanders signed a four-page statement detailing the allegations. Feb. 1, Yoder told county detectives that Vonderheide blocked Flanders’ path as she came down the stairs in the courthouse, and even demonstrated “the relative positions and movements he alleges occurred.â€
But in his affidavit, Det. Jan Walters of the county district attorney’s office noted that deputy sheriffs witnessed the incident, and that it was caught on tape by surveillance cameras mounted in the county courthouse. That tape shows that at no time was Vonderheide closer than 15 to 20 feet of Vonderheide and Yoder.
No expletive heard
Vonderheide also videotaped the encounter; his tape, which he said county officials reviewed, captured sound. In it, he is heard to say “Good morning, Mr. Yoder,†but not the expletive Flanders said he directed at her.
In the affidavit, Walters concluded that “Mr. Yoder’s account is consistent with that of Mrs. Flanders, but is contrary to the deputies’ accounts and the video recording to such a great extent that it cannot be reconciled … this investigation has determined both Wendy Flanders and Theodore Yoder fabricated their stories in an attempt to have Bennett Vonderheide falsely arrested for violating a Protection from Abuse Order.â€
Vonderheide said he felt vindicated, and that this situation was exactly the reason he has begun taping all his interactions with his child’s mother.
“Since I got my camera out, I’ve been exonerated of every charge against me, by my own camera,†Vonderheide said.
The custody case is the subject of a lawsuit in Lancaster County Court, in which Vonderheide accuses Flanders, as well as her church — Calvary Church in Manheim Township, the largest in the county — of conspiring to alienate him from his son and enable Flanders to maintain custody of the child.
Theodore Yoder is the husband of Kathy Yoder, a former counselor at the church who worked with Flanders; both are among 36 defendants named in the suit.
Vonderheide is seeking $700,000. The church and its attorneys have denied the allegations. The Sunday News reported last December that several prominent members have left the church as a result of the suit.
Commissioner confronted
In November, Vonderheide confronted a church member — Lancaster County Commissioner Dick Shellenberger — during a commissioners’ meeting, demanding to know whether Shellenberger had used his position to intervene in the case. Shellenberger denied that anyone named in Vonderheide’s lawsuit against the church had contacted him about the custody issue.
Shellenberger is not named in the lawsuit.
The case also has drawn the attention of 5thEstate.com editor Ron Harper Jr., who has written about it on his Web site and who was cited by city police for harassment in October as he attempted to act as an intermediary in the exchange of Flanders’ and Vonderheide’s child. Harper said Flanders called city police and accused Harper of harassing her; as police arrived, Harper switched on his ubiquitous video camera and caught the event on tape. Though police initially cited Harper for harassment, they withdrew the charge a few days later.
Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro said it is uncommon for charges of making false reports to police, unsworn falsification and criminal conspiracy to commit unsworn falsification to be filed in a custody dispute.
The maximum penalty for each charge is up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Vonderheide said the charges were so rare, that they were the subject of an April 29 conference call involving 14 different “fathers’ rights†groups from around the country.
“I have a lot of gratitude for [District Attorney] Totaro and [Det.] Walters,†Vonderheide said. “What they have done is hugely courageous.â€
12 responses so far ↓
1 mikevac // May 7, 2006 at 7:24 am
I hope the two of them rot in jail for two years - they’ll probably not get jail time but they should.
2 Terri Lynn // May 7, 2006 at 7:47 am
We have begun a letter writing campaign to support Ben and the local reporter, Gil Smart, of the Lancaster Sunday News, Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Gil needs his editor to know that organizations across the country are aware of have been following the critical local case of Bennett J. “Ben” Vonderheide.
The reporter, Gil Smart, has been keeping up the pressure on the District Attorney’s Office in this case and needs support from his editor to continue to make this story and the truth about domestic violence heard.
There are as many more people who need to be charged in this case. We would like to get as many letters and reports to this editor as possible to help keep the pressure up on the D.A.’s office.
You can read Gil Smart’s story in today’s paper is at: http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/22544
We have copies of the initial criminal complaints if anyone wants to read them.
Please write the editor and include your story of false allegations of domestic violence, reports, letters to Congress and some background on your organization’s efforts to see false claims of domestic violence dealt with as the crime they are.
The contact information for the editor of the Lancaster Sunday News is: sunnews@lnpnews.com
or
Fax: (717) 291-4950
or via mail at:
Letters to the Editor
Sunday News
P.O. Box 1328
Lancaster, PA 17608-1328.
Phone: (717) 399-6504
Thanks,
Terri Lynn
President & C.E.O.
True Equality Network
Research Triangle Park NC 27709
http://true-equality.blogspot.com/
Equal Protection Under the Law is True Equality
3 ericbmohr // May 7, 2006 at 7:53 am
If more of these women got kicked into jail for a whole host of “alledged” crimes by men, this crap would stop. Instead, these women come down to court, lift up their shirt, say to the corrupt judge, “I am here” and take care of “him” (meaning men). Like Pavlov’s dogs judges are trained to obey.
This just goes to show you how evil this type of women are. They know that in the overwhelming cases, these damn judges will side with them. Therefore, women think they have nothing to fear. Let those women who do this drop dead and rot in hell!!!!.
Oh, and by the way, was this mother thinking of the “best interest of the child(ren)?!!!!!
4 angelc20 // May 7, 2006 at 8:13 am
I think it is about time that women are treated equally and punished equally as men. How many men are in jail or been victims of women’s deceits, lies and false allegations? This guy was lucky to have taped his interactions with this irate woman and vindictive woman and also for the detectives who did good work by evaluating the court cameras and the victim (man) filmed event, otherwise, this guy would have been fried, like many other men have been fried and unjustly punished.
Have you ever wondered why only 2-5% of prison population is females? Why is 98% of prison population men? Why are more men homeless than women? Men build houses and buildings not women, so, why are more men than women homeless? Why are there more laws on our books to punish men and not women? Are women not as evil as men? I think they are more evil than men? Why does society give women a monopoly over our children, when these women cannot hold a family together or take care of their own man? Why should we entrust these women withour kids? Are they more responsible than men? Why do men die younger than women?Why are men so stupid as to allow women to stay home and mooch off the man’s labor?
Men we need to unite and change the laws, especailly the family laws of each state and also the federal laws. We need to urge our representatives in Washington to repeal the Bradley Amendment and enact shared parenting, elimnate all alimony or spousal support. The Bradley Amendment prohibits judges in family courts to retroactive adjsutment of child support to earlir than the filing dates, when a man’s salry is reduced due to job lay off or pay reduction. This law unjstly punishes men to benfit of women. Women have equal right to support themselves and the kids just as men do. Lets stop discrimanting against men, especailly in the family court system.
I hope this woman gets maximum sentence for perjury and lies.
Bottom line guys-don’t get married, do not father kids, do get vasectimy, wear condoms. If you do have kids doo not get divorced if married. You cna have kids without marriage. This will save man money for spousal support or alimony. Fxxx em and leave them. Love rarely lasts forever. Love lasts as long as the honeymoon afterwards it’s all downhill until you get stuck in the gutter. Many man’s lives have been ruined by women, even President Clinton’s. Do not trust any woman.
5 ANCPR // May 7, 2006 at 8:32 am
Recieved this from a group involved in this case:
We at True Equality Network have been following and supporting Bennett J. “Ben” Vonderheide in his effort to see justice for over two years.
We have begun a letter writing campaign to support Ben and the local reporter, Gil Smart, of the Lancaster Sunday News, Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Gil needs his editor to know that organizations across the country are aware of have been following the critical local case of Bennett J. “Ben” Vonderheide.
The reporter, Gil Smart, has been keeping up the pressure on the District Attorney’s Office in this case and needs support from his editor to continue to make this story and the truth about domestic violence heard.
There are as many more people who need to be charged in this case. We would like to get as many letters and reports to this editor as possible to help keep the pressure up on the D.A.’s office.
You can read Gil Smart’s story in today’s paper is at: http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/22544
We have copies of the initial criminal complaints if anyone wants to read them.
Please write the editor and include your story of false allegations of domestic violence, reports, letters to Congress and some background on your organization’s efforts to see false claims of domestic violence dealt with as the crime they are.
The contact information for the editor of the Lancaster Sunday News is: sunnews@lnpnews.com
or
Fax: (717) 291-4950
or via mail at:
Letters to the Editor
Sunday News
P.O. Box 1328
Lancaster, PA 17608-1328.
Phone: (717) 399-6504
Thanks,
Terri Lynn Tersak
President & C.E.O.
True Equality Network
Headquarters
P.O. Box 14214
Research Triangle Park NC 27709
http://true-equality.blogspot.com/
Equal Protection Under the Law is True Equality
6 anothervoice // May 7, 2006 at 11:45 am
It would be real nice to have this “boyfriend” turn state’s evidence and get a reduced sentence while the woman gets the maximum sentence. I say this for two reasons, first she was out to hurt the “ex”, the new “boyfriend”, just wanted to get between her legs. She will get alll the protection that she wants while she sends two years behind bars and the streets will be safer with one less woman on the streets!
7 ANCPR // May 7, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Here is a letter to the paper where the reporter who is covering this story works:
To: sunnews@lnpnews.com
CC: Ben Vonderheide, “Ron Harper, Jr.”
To the Editor:
We at True Equality Network have been following and supporting Bennett J. “Ben” Vonderheide in his effort to see justice for over two years.
We applaud Ben’s moral courage and the work of your reporter Gil Smart and that of Mr. Ron Harper for working to keep this case on the District Attorney’s Office agenda.
If your newspaper investigates this case fully it will become clear that there are many more people who need to be charged in this case, with an array of criminal offenses including; fraud, suborning perjury and conspiracy, among others. We ask you, as Editor, to fully support your staff in following this case closely.
During the past months members of True Equality’s leadership have participated in conference calls with business leaders in Lancaster County regarding Ben’s case and the outrageous level of fraud and blatant gender bias that permeates the domestic violence systems in your county and across the country. However, Ben’s case is without question among the most atrocious examples of the abuses of our family courts today.
Over the past four years True Equality’s women leaders and members have been conducting in person interviews in Courthouses across the country, asking the plaintiffs in protection order cases their reasons for filing. Few indicated being a victim of abuse as their reason. In Pennsylvania the interviews have been conducted in the courthouses of Allegheny, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Lancaster, Lebanon, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Westmoreland and York counties.
Lancaster County placed second only to Westmoreland County in Pennsylvania for the level of respondents that indicated reasons other than abuse as motivation for filing a Domestic Violence Protection order and fifth among all counties surveyed in the 97 surveyed counties located in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The most common reason given for filing a protection order among those surveyed was at the suggestion of their attorney to leverage higher child support awards, the second being to avoid having to deal with the issues regarding their infidelities and the third for revenge for their partner’s infidelities.
Attached is our report to Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), which contains the background information of the reports we are constructing to address these issues on a national, rather than state or local scope. Additionally a copy of an Advocacy Ad that ran in the Washington Times last July that resulted in the merger of several organizations into True Equality Network is also attached.
In closing; it is also important to mention that True Equality is joining what is currently approaching three dozen National, State and Local organizations to form the “Council For Domestic Violence Justice” (CDVJ). CDVJ will cooperatively speak as a unified voice regarding the abuses in the domestic violence systems, overt gender bias, the complete lack of support and funding for services for male victims of domestic violence and failure to provide service to the most severely abused. The press release naming the membership of CDVJ is forth coming. The first joint operation of this group, lead by R.A.D.A.R., reached 10 Million People.
–
Yours truly,
Charles A. St. Claire, P.E., J.D.
Chief Information Officer & V.P. of Data Services
True Equality Network
P.O. Box 14214
Research Triangle Park NC 27709
http://true-equality.blogspot.com/
Equal Protection Under the Law is True Equality
True Equality Network (TEN) is a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization under the provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code. TEN is a non-profit, fully volunteer membership staffed organization, working litigatively and legislatively for the preservation and protection of all citizen’s constitutional right to equal protection under the law and due process. Contributions to TEN of any kind are not tax deductible for the donor.
8 wanito // May 7, 2006 at 11:34 pm
I sent the following email to the address of the paper doing the story. Even though I don’t live in the state where this particular story is going on, we all know this is nothing new in the whole US.
I just read the story concerning the Vonderheide/Flanders case of false reporting on the national http://www.ancpr.com web site. One of the things mentioned in the article was that it was “uncommon” for the perpetrators of these false reports and lies to face consequences by being prosecuted. I believe this is the reason that this type of crime is so pervasive in the domestic relations and custody arena.
In my case, my ex-spouse filed 8 false reports of me committing crimes against her. All of the charges were either dismissed for lack of evidence or were adjudicated with my being found not guilty. For each of these false reports, my ex did not have one iota of physical evidence backing up her allegation, but I did have physical proof and witnesses proving it never occurred. On one of her allegations, I even had two police officers as direct witnesses that what she claimed happened did not happen, but she was granted a restraining order against me nonetheless; making her crime perjury as well as false reporting since RO’s are affidavits. Yet, despite all of the proof and witnesses I had proving her allegations to be false, and despite my complaints to officials that she be prosecuted, she did not face one consequence for her actions.
Though no criminal charges stuck against me, family court took my visitation with my daughter away from me, and I have not seen her at all based on my ex’s false allegations alone, again, despite the dismissals and not guilty verdicts. As long as someone is able to use the system to achieve a personal agenda, and not face consequences, and as long as the system willingly allows itself to be used, they will continue to use it; that simple.
That is why, even though I don’t reside in your state, I feel that this case should be given full attention by the media, and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Only when the perpetrators of this crime realize that consequences and punishment will be sure and swift for their commission of this crime, will this stop. But, if this domestic relations system continues to be a “producing well” for those seeking to commit abuse of process, then, they will continue to draw from it.
John Alvarez
Albuquerque, New Mexico
j5alvr@aol.com
9 E Truth // May 8, 2006 at 1:03 am
The revolution is comin people. It starts in August 2006. The days of peaceful demonstrations are over. RIP Perry Manley.
10 blulazries // May 8, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Yes I’m in that same boat winato up here in NH with over a dozen criminal complaints, alleged violations of protective orders and four DVP’s requested by my X -, dismissed. The detective and the prosecutor were later reprimanded, I’m sure ! If not the woman was just downright ugly, and I dont mean that in the visual sense, and meant to be locked up. The system protects the women, not the family. Who has custody of the child ? She is clearly not the best choice.
11 Wyatt // May 8, 2006 at 8:35 pm
ETruth,
Amen, Perry Manly rest in peace. I wish I could spit in the face of his vile ex-wife and the judges who torrmented this man.
12 Jim Deeny // May 9, 2006 at 11:09 am
I have some contacts from local newspapers in the area and I might be able to see if they can get a little publicity, in which this needs it. This story is literally in my back yard.
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