Our client was a successful IT developer and father of two who was accused by his ex-wife of molesting their 4-year-old son.
About two years prior to the allegation, the couple had gone through a contentious divorce. During this time, the ex-wife had accused him on several different occasions of molesting the kids. These accusations were investigated by several police departments and the kids were subjected to numerous forensic interviews and medical exams.
After two years of investigations, and seven trips to Scottish Rite where the ex-wife had the kids examined and interviewed, the ex-wife was able to get a detective from the Dunwoody Police Department to take our client’s son for yet another forensic interview. It was during this interview that the young boy stated for the first time that his father had been molesting him. This resulted in our client’s arrest on aggravated child molestation charges. We were brought into the case by another law firm and we began conducting our investigation.
We were able to pull old emails from the ex-wife that showed how devastated she was by the divorce and how she threatened to get back at our client. We obtained her employment records which showed a history of erratic behavior and false statements. We were also able to obtain medical records and preschool records which documented the numerous complaints she had made regarding alleged abuse by our client. We spoke to numerous witnesses who confirmed that the ex-wife was determined to do whatever was possible to have charges filed against our client.
Most importantly, we were able to obtain records from a prior investigation conducted by the Cobb County Police Department and DFCS. The records revealed that the ex-wife had been repeatedly questioning the kids and reporting to the authorities that the kids stated that their dad was sexually abusing them. The police had the kids interviewed and examined several times and, each time, no evidence of sexual abuse was found. The lead detective even noted in her report that the repeated allegations were becoming obsessive and that the ex-wife’s conduct was possibly having a negative impact on the kids. Our theory was that the repeated questioning and accusations by the mom had the effect of coaching the young children into believing that they had been molested.
We spent a little over a year investigating the case and presenting our findings to the District Attorney’s office. As a result, we were able to convince the prosecutors to dismiss the case prior to indictment. Following the dismissal, we were able to have our client’s arrest expunged from his record.
Categories | Child Molestation Cases,