Five Year Old Lied and I Was Arrested

[Draven]

My question involves police conduct in the State of: Ohio.

My Girlfriends five year old told a string of lies from shortly after the new year started. the first couple were told to us about her Dad's girlfriends two boys and sexual exploits. When we went to our local police department after an inconclusive exam at the local hospital they told us they couldn't help.

The next lie was told on my girlfriend to the 5 year old's father saying that mom was strangling her. the local police arrive the 5 year old tells them she just missed her dad and that mommy didn't hurt her. the police explained the importance of not lying and being good made a report and left.

After several other minor instances documented by the local police department the father and girlfriend took 5 year old to local police department. the local police department taped an interview that started with the girlfriend asking the 5 year old if she knew what would happen if she didn't tell the police man what she was supposed to tell? the five year old leans forward pointing to the girlfriends pocket and say i get the soap in the mouth, and the girlfriend replies yep that's right.

The interview is riddled with comments from dad and girlfriend that are out right lies. to the point that the patrolman conducting the interview tells them to shut up.

The patrolman conducting the interview asks around 10 questions each question has the answer he wants her to say in it. (i. e. what do you think of mom's boyfriend? she answers he's my friend. he restates the question "yea but what do think about him? she answers he's big and he's my friend. the cop then says so he's big and that scares you? she replies no he's nice and he's my friend.) the entire interview is about 15 to 20 minutes long and after continuously being asked the same questions you can see the 5 year old get frustrated and just repeat what the cop says.

The Father then takes the five year old from memorial day weekend until the first week of August. refusing to allow any visitation or to give her back when my Girlfriend has primary physical custody.

On memorial day we received a knock on the door and the same patrolman who has had prior knowledge of the turmoil we have been going through, Who also conducted the interview presents and arrest warrant for me for domestic violence. He continuously apologizes to both myself and my 8 month pregnant girlfriend (5 yr olds mom) and carts me to jail. My GF bails me out and goes into premature labor. through the course of the pretrial and even to this day no one has ever asked us if what the 5 yr old said was what happened, or any other question. i was arrested on the sole evidence of the interview.

The case was dropped. We now have the 5 yr old back. our son arrived after 4 early labor trips cause directly by the court case and her ex's actions, safely and healthy.

Even though the prosecutor told my attorney and I several times at several different pretrials we could have a copy of the tape. they never complied and made a copy for me. Now that the case has been dismissed with out prejudice the prosecutor is refusing to give us a copy of the tape.

My girlfriend and i would like to pursue civil actions against the father and his girlfriend for the things they said on the interview tape, we would also like to go after the officer, the department and the village, as well as the prosecutor and judge if possible.

i need an attorney able to handle the different cases stemming from this but my attorney say no one in this county can do it. Obliviously there is a lot more to the story but those are the basic's anyone have any advise or know an Attorney or firm that would be able to take this on? or any other suggestions?

[Dogmatique]

It will be impossible to prove that the early delivery was caused by Dad and the court case.

Forget that route, because it's not going to happen.

Your next problem is that you have no damages. Without damages, you can't really go after anyone at all - period.

There's a fairly simple rule of thumb in situations like this - if you cannot find an attorney to take the case, you really don't have a case.

I understand your frustration (and hope to high heck that the little girl is in counseling - she has some major problems), but honestly I do not see any cause of action based upon what you've said here.

Your girlfriend MAY be able to discuss with an attorney something called "parental alienation". There are hints of it here.

[Draven]

Damages
1. Time off work to make every pretrial appearance.
2. We live paycheck to paycheck, we had to come up with roughly 10 grand over the course of the case.
3. instead of preparing for our son's arrival we had to jump through countless hoops and focus on trying to get her daughter back, because the dad wanted to get his child support payments stopped.
4. we were in the process of purchasing a house in this small town and had to redirect that money to lawyer fees.
5. we had to move to another town because of the harassment by the community. ie the lack of confidence in the police to do their jobs, the way that our neighbor s look and treated us after.
6. Nearly lost my job and still may.
7. it really goes on and on. I realize that from what I've written here.... well it sounds very ... brief when compared to the whole of the story. I in no way ever want to play the victim, but seriously as much as possible i have not tried to embellish or exaggerate in the retelling of the tale so to speak. I am not looking for pity or a hand out but i am serious in looking for some type of a direction to go.

It's not really wrongful arrest its more of very sloppy and very poor police work and perhaps not malicious prosecution but maybe rather incompetence of some type. i don't know how to categorize it in order to narrow it down to be able to find a heading to start the search for the type of attorney i am going to need. that's where i am hung up.

quite frankly my girlfriend and our kids myself we are all tired of being crapped on for doing the right thing, following the rules and still being treated like we did something wrong.

5yr old is in counseling, and we start family sessions soon however.... with the officer having prior knowledge of the situation, . . . thedre's something wrong with it all....

[Dogmatique]

Damages
1. Time off work to make every pretrial appearance.
2. We live paycheck to paycheck, we had to come up with roughly 10 grand over the course of the case.
3. instead of preparing for our son's arrival we had to jump through countless hoops and focus on trying to get her daughter back, because the dad wanted to get his child support payments stopped.
4. we were in the process of purchasing a house in this small town and had to redirect that money to lawyer fees.
5. we had to move to another town because of the harassment by the community. ie the lack of confidence in the police to do their jobs, the way that our neighbor s look and treated us after.
6. Nearly lost my job and still may.
7. it really goes on and on. I realize that from what I've written here.... well it sounds very ... brief when compared to the whole of the story. I in no way ever want to play the victim, but seriously as much as possible i have not tried to embellish or exaggerate in the retelling of the tale so to speak. I am not looking for pity or a hand out but i am serious in looking for some type of a direction to go.

These things, though painful to you, do not classify as "damages" in the legal sense.

You have referred to pretrial issues several times, and of the $10k. Put yourself in the other parent's shoes for a second.

What if the little girl truly believed (at the moment she opened her mouth) what she said? You can't exactly sue her - but as a parent, you'd absolutely want the police to investigate, right? If your son (at her age) came to you with the same allegations, you'd absolutely want an investigation, wouldn't you?

A mistake or a child's lie does not equal misconduct or malicious prosecution.

It's not really wrongful arrest its more of very sloppy and very poor police work and perhaps not malicious prosecution but maybe rather incompetence of some type. i don't know how to categorize it in order to narrow it down to be able to find a heading to start the search for the type of attorney i am going to need. that's where i am hung up.

Truly, I do not see where you have any legal recourse at all. By all means, keep calling attorneys though.

quite frankly my girlfriend and our kids myself we are all tired of being crapped on for doing the right thing, following the rules and still being treated like we did something wrong.

Welcome to the world of co-parenting. I'm not being flippant or cavalier about the situation, but what happened here is not uncommon at all.

5yr old is in counseling, and we start family sessions soon however.... with the officer having prior knowledge of the situation, . . . thedre's something wrong with it all....

The Officer is doing his job. If he is told to investigate an allegation, that's what he has to do.

The fact that you were cleared should bring some relief to you. I strongly suggest that you all - as a family unit - concentrate on being that family unit and let this go.

[cdwjava]

Interview attorneys from outside the county. If none of them agree to take the case on a contingency basis (i.e. they collect if you win) then your case is not as good as you might want to believe.

If things went down in the interview as you say, the officer is a poor interviewer of young children. This is not uncommon. It takes specially trained individuals to interview young children and not lead them in their answers. In most cases poor police work is not going to be grounds for damages. Negligent or intentional misconduct, sure. But the delivery of police services is largely a civil one.

As for the arrest, the officer appears to have had an arrest warrant. That means someone convinced a judge that there was probable cause to believe you had committed the offense for which you were arrested. That burden of proof is substantially lower than that needed for a conviction at trial.

If the dad and his cohorts lied or otherwise maliciously damaged you in some way, you might be able to sue them.

Again, only an attorney with all of the information can make this determination.

The situation you describe - about dueling accusations of abuse and neglect - are sadly not uncommon. Children that want attention will sometimes make stuff up ... sometimes they are pressured into stories by one parent or another as a great many bitter and contested breakups include allegations of physical or sexual abuse. On some occasions, the accusations are true, but the authorities are so skeptical as a result of so many false accusations and unsubstantiated tales that the true victims get overlooked.

So, take your tale past some attorneys outside the area and see what they have to say.

[Draven]

Thank you both for your responses. This whole thing has been very frustrating. with out giving more detail or recounting the entire story i don't feel I'll be able to adequately get to what it is I'm looking for.

I understand and see what the problem is. I've considered this from every point of view. I however do feel that this must be pursued, and that if the shoes were shuffled they would as well.

if the father had truly believed what they told the police i would not take the stand i am taking however... prior to picking the 5 yr old up he went to the place she was then getting counseling for and demanded that her current counselor be fired and declared that the 5yr old was a liar and not to be believed. less then an hour later he had her at the pd. it was an attempt to alter the then custody arrangements.

they only dropped the criminal case after the custody agreement had been altered in another court.