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Witness Tampering, Witness Intimidation, Obstruction of Justice in Family Law Case

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harmonybabies

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MD

I am a Defendant in a child custody case. The father of the Plaintiff (my daughter-in-law)was overheard by another witness intimidating a Psychiatrist that was an expert witness of the Plaintiff's. The Dr. was to testify about the results of my Psychological Evaluation. I agreed to a Psych Eval if they'd pay for it. The paid and chose the Dr. The father stood over the Dr told him he should stick to evaluating crazy bitches and not giving any opinions. The Dr had included in his written statement to the court that in addition to adminsitering his evaluation, he talked at length with my regular psychiatrist who'd observed me with the child since he was 3 wks. old, and his opinion was that granting me custody of my grandson would be in the child's best interests. The father raised his voice and told the Dr he had paid $1000 for that evaluation and it wasn't worth the paper it was written on. The Dr is an older (65 or so) small man. He was waiting in the hallway to testify. The father raised his voice again saying he was a quack and didn't stop until the other witness told him to stop or he would alert the Sheriff.

In addition, the father and his wife, both witnesses, sat in the hallway for two days talking about my son (the child's father) with another witness brought in by the Plaintiff to testify against my son. They went to lunch together both days. I personally had to hear disparaging comments about my parenting skills (I am the mother of the minor child's father)--"how can that crazy bitch think she can get custody of this baby when she raised a drunk""--this witness was there to testify that my son passed out drunk at at 4th of July party with the baby in the house. This witness became known to the Plaintiff when she called her to say she'd been sleeping with my son. Strange they'd all be giggling and skipping off to lunch. I heard these comments myself, but so did another witness.

Wait--it gets better (or worse from my end)--

Another physician, this time the Plaintiff's surgeon, after testifying and leaving the courtroom, went out to the hallway, and stated to the Plaintiff's parents, "I didn't want to say this in there, but her next surgery is gonna be bad." He also asked them why I was asking him medical questions. They the father answered, "because she's trying to take the baby back to FL." This is in direct opposition as to what he stated under oathe. Although this speaks bad for the surgeon, it also is bad for the parents because when the witnesses were sequestered out into the hallway, they were instructed not to speak about the case to anyone until they were discharged.

Then---At the end of the second day of testimony, the court adjourned without completing my questioning of the father. The Judge instructed him not to speak with anyone about the case, including his daughter, his wife, or his daughter's attny. He agreed, but then, right outside of the entrance of the courthouse, the four of them stood there for 45 minutes talking about the case in front to me and all the witnesses that were still present (all relatives on the Plaintiff's side and my only witness.) To be honest I personally only heard a couple of things, but one of them was whether or not they'd attached one of the witnesses that failed to show up, and whether she'd make a good witness because she had to be brought in by the Sheriff to get her to testify. I was waiting for my car to be brought around, but I wasn't about to leave while they were talking about it. This case was a year old, and there was not way that's all they were talking about the case. There sure wasn't 45 minutes of dead air. There was a lot of finger pointing my way and looking at paperwork.

At that time, I didn't know of the other things with the Dr.--I didn't find out until the other witness informed the child's Best Interest Attorney the next day. I then informed her about what I'd heard.

After lunch on the third and final day of testimony, the Best Interest Attorney brought all of this to the attention of the judge. The judge called the witness that overheard the situations (my older son--not a party to the case) with the Drs. and the character witness, and what he'd observed outside of the courthouse.

The judge called in my older son, and asked him what he'd observed. My son had not yet given his testimony concerning the case at that time. My son told him in detail exactly what he had seen and heard.

The judge recalled the Plaintiff's father and asked him if he'd spoken with either Dr. He testified he asked the Psychiatrist if he'd been paid yet and gave him a check.

When asked if he'd spoken to the surgeon he stated that the surgeon commented on how well his daughter looked, and told him I was the child's grandmother.

The judge didn't ask him anything else.

You can tell from all of this, I'm sure, that I was not represented. I feel the Plaintiff's attny took straight advantage of that and doesn't think I intend to do anything about it.

Well, no matter what the eventual outcome, I do intend to do something--I just don't know what.

The custody evaluation and the Best Interest Atty's recommendation was that I am and have been the child's only parent, and that he should remain in the care of me and my son.

I felt confident that my son and his wife would share legal custody, and that my son would have priamry physical custody. The child has been in my care in FL since birth, and my son has lived here with us for the past year.

The judge granted the mother sole legal and physical custody. My son put in a Motion for Reconsideration because many of the facts stated in the opinion were fundamentally incorrect as to dates and such. If it goes to appeal, the grounds will be abuse of discretion, judgement made against the weight of the eveidence, something about fact finding (I don't know the words.) Anyway, I know we need lawyers, but we can't afford one as we've spent $50k on traveling to and from FL to MD, fees, postage, fax, copying, taking the baby to visit mommy every two weeks, etc. My son is making arrangements for a lawyer now, but my third party claim will just have to be dealt with pro se. I know we lost because we weren't represented. I get that. We'll deal. The love I have for this baby, and his love for me can't be taken away by any legal proceeding. My son will not stop fighting until he gets shared custody.

But there is a moral issue here for me. My son and I did not lie, stretch the truth, manipulate or anything. We told the story. We were evaluated and observed by the court's social worker, and the best interest attny traveled to FL to observe us in our home with the baby. We felt that because we were honest, the truth would speak for itself. We didn't have discovery b/c we weren't aware we could have it until 2 months before the trial and the lawyer refused saying we had missed the deadline. Our subpeonas for witnesses met with the same. No response to request for admittances. We screwed up by letting the attorney use our ignorance of the system against us and against the child.

I just told you all this to give you background. What I'm asking about, is are there ever charges that come out of witness tampering and intimidation and perjury in family law cases? Or is this kind of thing just expected. I know there are laws, but do they work or is lying and cheating just a part of the family law game?

I want to do the right thing, and just let this go but I just can't. I know the Plaintiff's father was doing anything he could get away with to protect his daughter. I thought I did the right thing by encouraging my son to let justice prevail. Well it damn sure didn't, and I was wrong. And now I want to fight back.
 



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