Police in Provo Utah arrested a woman for sexually abusing child and falsely accusing child's father. Read the story from Deseretnews.com, published April 10, 2011. http://bit.ly/hCRY5O Shocking? Not to me. I know of dozens of men (occasionally women) falsely accused of abuse, including child abuse. Frequently, the accusers have made false allegations in family court and when they are rewarded with protection orders, based on lies, they progress to false criminal complaints.
In most cases, unlike this one where there was actual child abuse but by the accusing party, the accusers are NOT prosecuted for filing false police reports. The accusing party is more often than not rewarded for false accusations by gaining custody and at least restricting visitation, of the innocent parent, with their children. In a similar case in NH, Miller v. Todd the Supreme Court ruled women should not be so rewarded.
The solution to the widespread problem of false police reports of domestic violence and the growing problem of false reports of child abuse is to arrest and prosecute every time that anyone makes a false police report of domestic violence or child abuse. It is a crime in every state. We must demand that those laws be enforced.
Why are false allegations in family court so common? The rewards are great, in Delaware, you get free legal representation from Community Legal Services and if you file for divorce you don't have to pay the filing fee that everyone else pays. AG Biden, Patricia Blevins and Mike Barbieri want to throw in free PO Boxes at taxpayer expense, in a law proposed in March. Family Courts reward false allegations with the desired results. You can hurt the other party using the courts and the police with far reaching consequences of false allegations such as causing the other party to loose their job, become unemployable in many career fields, have a permanent blemish on their background check (protection orders are civil and in DE can not be expunged even when expired or vacated), cost them time and money to defend themselves, deprive them of custody and at a minimum restrict access to children that are their children too. There are endless benefits to false allegations to obtain protection orders and the list of benefits is growing. In some states you can't be evicted if you are a "victim" of domestic violence, in some states you qualify for perks such as having your electric bills paid or getting free housing.
There are incentives to the civil filing false allegations of abuse and an individual can multiple the damage to the other party and benefits to themselves, by filing false police reports against them.
My question, though, is why do more and more individuals lie under oath in court documents and lie to the police in criminal complaints? When did the "ends justify the means" become socially acceptable? In many cases, such as Ruggiero (see March post)there are other family members and friends who are involved. They conspire to commit and participate in false police reports and give false testimony in court, under oath. When you see an instance where a parent goes along with false police reports and lies under oath does anyone wonder how the children that they raised feel no remorse initiating false reports? What would discourage them from continuing to commit perjury, file false police reports and progress to other forms of fraud that extend beyond domestic violence and family court? What is the cost to society to let false allegations in family court and false reports to the police go unpunished? What is the cost to taxpayers for the misuse of court and police resources? What is the cost to society when this behavior results in more children being deprived of full and meaningful relationships with both biological parents while also growing up with habitual liars and seeing them rewarded for what is criminal behavior?
What we must do is to arrest and prosecute every single person who files a false police report of any domestic violence related crime.
Current Delaware law, 11DE1245, provides for restitution to the state for costs incurred and fines up to $2,500 for a first offense. Delawareans should demand that law be enforced. False allegations in family court should not be rewarded and false police reports must be punished. Not just for the sake of the innocent individuals accused, not just for the sake of their children, who suffer direct and indirect adverse consequences but this is something we need to do for the benefit of all of us as a society.
Utah woman arrested, for filing the false statements and for abusing child to fabricate evidence
Labels: Delaware Family Court, Tiffany Smith
Attorney General Biden,
false allegations of child abuse,
false allegations of domestic violence,
false police reports,
Family Law Advocates Initiating Reform,
FLAIR,
woman arrested
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