Some type of malicious doing....

[JordanSammi]

My mother in law (now estranged) had me arrested for reading her emails. This all happened 9 months ago but I was just arrested for it 2 months ago. She gave me permission to go into her email to help her proof read and send out an email. While I was in her email I seen many emails in the sent items with my name in the subject line. I opened them up and they were very derogatory and crazy. I showed my husband and I called her to confront her. She told me she didn’t know what I was talking about. So I went back into her email to print them out and they were all deleted.

I was arrested for 3 felony charges. Larceny for "stealing" her password (I was given it) and 2 computer crime felonies. My charges were dismissed today with a charitable contribution and very expensive attorney.

Last year she cam to my house while my husband and his father were there and said "I have called the police for ______ (me) being in my email and I will drop the charges (like she has the authority to) if you let me take the kids twice a month." After reading the emails she wrote about me my husband and I decided she should not see the kids anymore. The emails were THAT bad. Bible thumping, bat s**t "crazy talk" and saying she hoped something bad happened to me, I have the devil inside me and need to be stopped.. etc etc... Don't know if she can be arrested for the threats in these emails but I'm not going there right now.

She basically told me and anyone who will listen that if we let her take the kids I will be free of my criminal charges. (she thinks she has control of that)

She will not ever see the kids because of the things she said and all the times she left the kids alone in the car, grocery store and in the lake near her house. All which she admitted to my LCSW and told the LCSW she seen no problem with doing those things.

My question is do I have a tort or bases for a civil/small claims case for something like malicious prosecution, abuse of process or bribery/extortion? She has written my mother many emails this month that said "this all could have gone away if they let me see the kids like I asked them to in June of last year," "I would have never pushed this with the police if ____ (me and my husband) just cooperates with me to see the kids" and "I will plead in her defense for her criminal case if they write up a formal agreement for me to take the kids." She has also written in emails that she is "sorry for this whole mess and wished it would all go away or be erased." This was before my charges were dismissed. She has just filed a petition for grandparent visitation Friday too, which I was just served papers to.

 

[Eekamouse]

She gave you permission to proofread one email, not snoop through her outbox.

 

[JordanSammi]

No, she told me to go into her sent items daily and print out the emails pertaining to a certain group of activists she was working with to pass a house bill for healthcare.

I was not arrested for snooping. I was arrested for "going into her email without permission."

Obviously, I had permission. She texted me her password and email. I presented that to the state's attorney and the charges were dismissed.

My mother in law wasn't smart enough to delete the emails about me in her sent items (she's 100% computer illiterate) and she became embarrassed by what I saw and then when my husband and I said she couldn't see the kids anymore she became angry and malicious and decided to say I had no permission to be in her email. Then she took it further to dangle this "carrot" of charges over my head to see the kids. I decided I'd rather go to court then leave my children with her because I knew I'd get out of my charges because I was innocent.

 

[Zigner]

She texted me her password and email. I presented that to the state's attorney and the charges were dismissed.

Then why did you need an expensive attorney and a charitable contribution?

My charges were dismissed today with a charitable contribution and very expensive attorney.

 

[JordanSammi]

Because I chose the best attorney in my state and a charitable contribution is not in favor or the defendant, it's still a not guilty plea. It was my word against hers.

Do I have a case to sue her?

 

[tranquility]

In most states, you don't have to prevent a judgment from going to a defendant as an element of malicious prosecution, but one where it was dismissed in your favor. In most of America, you don't have a case.

But, U.S. law only.

 

[Zigner]

Because I chose the best attorney in my state and a charitable contribution is not in favor or the defendant, it's still a not guilty plea. It was my word against hers.

Do I have a case to sue her?

In my opinion, no.

 

[Eekamouse]

First you said this:
. She gave me permission to go into her email to help her proof read and send out an email.

Then you said this:
No, she told me to go into her sent items daily and print out the emails pertaining to a certain group of activists she was working with to pass a house bill for healthcare.

You can't even keep your story straight. Whatever the real story is, she did not tell you it was okay to snoop through her other emails, did she? So why did you? You talk about her being such a jerk but you seem pretty jerky yourself, imo.

 

[JordanSammi]

There are many things she said to me over the course of the 7 years that I was "allowed" to do while in her email, for the past 7 years. These are just 2 of them that pertain to this case.

I was always in her email, with her, without her, at my house, at her house, at work when she called me to help her. Always with permission.

It seems like we're discussing semantics with each other instead of discussing whether she should have been allowed to have me arrested when I suddenly seen something she forgot to erase.

It was ok for me to be in and out of her email for the better part of 7 years. the fact of the matter is, when I seen things that she thought I wouldn't find out about she decided I shouldn't have been in her email. Another fact is that she wanted me to choose my freedom or her seeing my children. I choose to take my chances in court, and it worked out in my favor.

I would be thankful if you could refer by to my original question.

 

[tranquility]

U.S. law only.