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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    2

    Default What Can I Do After Dismissal of Charges

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: Washington

    I went through a year-long court process with my ex-girlfriend whom still lives with her ex-husband.

    To summarize for background:

    My ex and her ex-husband have a child together and he was very jealous and controlling. When they divorced, he bullied and threatened her relentlessly into giving full custody of their child over to him. This guy is a convicted felon and spent time in a federal prison. He's lies very easily and seems to have a personality disorder (i'm not a medical professional nor expert, going on what my lawyer told me here after she had a few conversations with him). He told my ex-girlfriend that if she contested custody that he would run away into the witness protection program and other crazy threats. She was always scared of him and he even tried to bully me with threats through her, never to me directly. The threats were always very crazy and unbelievable, it was very hard to imagine a 38 year-old man making up and believing such crazy stuff. This is one reason why I never reported it or did anything about it. Also, I have never been in trouble before and had no experience with the legal system, therefore I had no idea I could have filed an anti-harassment order against him.

    Anyway, my ex-girlfriend became pregnant and that's where the real craziness came in. Her ex-husband became more controlling and threatening toward her and I became concerned about how we were going to raise a child together. This was the impetus of many arguments. I never once put my hands on her nor threatened her. He started threatening to file a restraining order against me because he did not want me around his daughter (I never was), I thought this was ridiculous. Next thing you know, SHE filed for an order for protection against me. I fought the PTO with everything I had and it went through two months of continuances. The declarations submitted to the case file were CRAZY. They also filed police reports saying that I was stalking her in order to try and get me arrested for violating the temporary PTO. The police took the reports but never summoned me nor questioned me, in fact they didn't seem to believe them based on the concluding statements in the reports.

    The police did, however, investigate the allegations that I threatened to kill her. This came about because they had filed an order for protection not knowing that it would get turned over to the police. The police wanted to charge me with DV-Assault but the actual charges filed were DV-harassment. Again I fought the case vigorously and hired a lawyer. Because I had no criminal background, they offered me a good deal but I refused it because I didn't actually do what they claimed that I did. The police report for the case was absolutely ridiculous - her ex-husband told the detective that I threatened some random guy on an internet forum with a gun, despite not having any actual proof or screenshot of the alleged post. He also told the detective that it was "his job to check up on people and be aware of their activities". He's a process server but very badly wants to be a PI and has fantasies of doing "shadowy" work. However, due to his felony convictions, he's not able to attain a PI license (thank god).

    It gets worse. To serve me, this idiot came to my place of work and barged in through security to yell and disrupt the office. When HR stopped him, he got pissed off and started swearing (this is what they told me, I wasn't there). He then told the HR Director that I beat up his ex-wife, which wasn't true - she admitted in police reports that I never touched her. Still, he wanted to damage my reputation to my employer. The detective on the investigation was very angry about this and she called my lawyer.

    I opted for a jury trial and it took a full year to go through the process. My lawyer summoned my ex to have her interviewed and when she arrived she suddenly refused. My lawyer then ordered a deposition and they tried to evade service. When they were finally served, her ex-husband called the prosecutor and ranted and raved that they were improperly served and that we'd have to do it again. The DA told him that she'd better be there or he was going to summon her to the court to explain to the judge why she wasn't at the deposition. The DA also submitted his voice mails to the case file. He also threatened to file a witness tampering charge against him.

    During the deposition many things were revealed that basically came down to her ex-husband controlling her and coming after me. The DA promptly dropped the DV-Harassment charges against me and that's the last I heard of it. This was three months ago.

    My question now is - what can I do legally against these idiots for creating and putting me through so much drama? They both lied very badly and I feel they should be held accountable. The DA didn't like them at all but yet he did nothing to punish them for falsifying police reports and generally screwing with the courts.

    I'm not a legal expert and have limited experience. Is there anything which I might be able to pursue legally against these two?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    98,846

    Default Re: What Can I Do After Dismissal of Charges

    I recognize that you're venting, but adding extraneous detail doesn't help clarify what you're trying to ask.

    In most cases, the best course of action to take after getting a charge dismisses is to move on with your life. You have a lawyer, so your lawyer should be able to advise you as to whether it makes sense to devote another year of your life to this matter, seeking a potential judgment against people who don't seem like the sort who would be able to pay it.

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