I'm not a law student. But I have been studying a family here in SC. The adult children and grandchildren become zombee-like when they are around their family of origin (the mother and father who started this family). They cannot make decisions without being "advised" by "the family", almost mafia like. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen in real life.
Away from their family, they are able to function somewhat normally in the outside world, but even then they ALL have problems relating to authority, social rules the rest of us live by (such as respecting others boundaries, not interrupting when someone is talking, getting physically up close to someones face to speak and I mean LOUDLY, the grandchildren physically hit each other and know better).
The issue for me is my dear friend became involved with this family when she was 13 years old. She lived beside them when she was growing up and eventually married one of their sons. She has 3 children for him and later escaped the marraige. She was controlled by threats from her ex husband and the "mother" of this awful family. Now they are trying to get her jailed for crimes that she says she hasn't committed. They had tried to threaten her with these for years and even to keep her from divorcing. I am thinking they talked to her about it so much, she became convinced they could make it stick somehow. But her character is anything but criminal. She is a med student, hard worker and great mom. I just can't see her willingly doing anything criminal, yet they have her convinced they can get her put away.
Any thoughts?
Thanks for your time and consideration on this matter. I really care about my friend and want to be there for her.
