Warning to Those Who Want to Play Games in the Family Law Court

Once upon a time there was Mother who was very angry at Father for wanting a divorce. So angry, in fact, that over the course of five months Mother accused Father of horrifically abusing Child, who was only five years old. First the accusation was emotional abuse, then in a month or so went to physicl abuse, then shortly thereafter went to sexual abuse in the form of inappropriate touching, and finally sexual abuse via anal penetration.

Father was frantic. He had not done these things and feared a knock on the door at 2:00 a.m. from the local police. Father was deeply anxious and worried about Child, whom he feared was being alienated from him by Mother. Father's lawyer kept assuring him, "Stay the course." She made sure he worked with Child's therapist and talked to his own, as well. She also got Judge to order a custody evaluation to be done by a Clinical Psychologist.

Clinical Psychologist spoke with Father and Mother. Clinical Psychologist spoke with Police Detective and Social Worker. Clinical Psychologist spoke with Therapists. Clinical Psychologist spoke with Doctors. And Clinical Psychologist spoke to Child.

And Clinical Psychologist connected the dots and realized . . . Mother was lying.

Today, Judge spoke with Father and Mother. And Judge gave custody of Child to Father, and Judge gave visitation to Mother but only under circumstances where Mother could be supervised by a monitor.

Moral of the story: Payback is a bitch. And I can become payback when I see someone being accused of the worst type of abuse and and the other party placing a child in the midst of it. This is not a chess game and the child is not a pawn. But I will put you in checkmate if you want to play.