Can you sue someone that has falsely accused you of child abuse?

Question

I have relative that I can't stand. This person to get back at me became close to my wife and alignated her. Our marriage fell apart and she divorced me.

This same relative had my young daughter draw dirty pictures of me and called the state social services. My parental rights are now threatened. My entire family knows this is BS and will testify on my behalf if necessary. If my attorney (who knows this is case is utter crap) can prove that that this was coached or proded out my daughter can I sue her? i think this will be the only thing that might stop this sick and reckless witch HELP!!

Answer 1

You make no mention if whether or not criminal charges are pending, which makes me a bit curious about the information you have posted.
Personally, I have the mindset for ANYONE who touches a child in an INAPPROPRIATE WAY, or otherwise subjects a child to ANY INAPPROPRIATE behavior be tortured in such a way as to prevent death for a long time. Get my drift here....
However, I also believe in this countries judical system and that a person is innocent until proven guilty. I am aware (I am far from naive) that the guilty go unpunished, and the innocent suffer. That being said, hopefully I can provide you some insight to what some of your options may be.
First, and FOREMOST, get over the RELATIVE ISSUE... If you are on the verge of criminal charges and may lose the right to be with your daughter, that should be the least of your concerns. If this guy is with your ex and your daughter, you are going to have to deal with him, and the better you are at it the better your chances of clearing your name
Secondly, IF the social services are investigating these allegations, they will have trained professionals interview your daughter for the sole purpose to establish if she was coached, proded, or directed to "develop" these pictures and/or stories.
Since the McMartin case in LA several years ago where many people were destroyed by incompetant psychologists who interviewed the children, many of whom actually instructed the kids on what and how to say the abuse happened, there are severe penalties now in place. Couple that with extensive training and oversight, thankfully those wrongfully accused are often vendicated.
Another case in San Bernardino Calif, in the 1980's where a whole segment of a neighborhood was brought up on charges for inappropriate conduct, later were vendicated when evidenced proved the kids were coached. You may have heard of them both, however, the point is that you must follow the level of interviewing and investigation very closely and with the utmost integrity.
Before you can take civil action for potiential slander you MUST allow the process in place to complete itself. You MUST be found "innocent" that the allegations brought up by the child were not "legally found to be factual". You MUST HAVE SUFFERED a loss. Your loss can not necessarily be money, but reputation, the relationship of your daughter, job, housing, etc. If this action has been made public in your locality, and as a result, you get fired, can't find work, can't rent a home, are asked to leave a public establishment, then that is "suffering". When and ONLY when the "investigation' comes back that you did not commit any wrongful act then you could seek legal remedies against your ex.
Now... Do you really want to add salt to the wound for your daughter? Do you really want your daughter to grow up seeing you as the person who sued her mom? Isn't it bad enough that her mother has already condoned this current problem and that your daughter is now pitted between two parents? Is your future relationship with your daughter really worth "getting even"?
At stake here is much more than your reputation, even your freedom, it's your integrity as a man, a father, and a human being, and to throw all of that to the wind on the premise of getting a few bucks and making your daughter's mother look bad in public really underscores your value as a FATHER. Isn't that what this is about, your parental standing?
Frankly, I am a little concerned... Why haven't you addressed this with your attorney? I have no doubt he/she would have told you much the same thing... Haven't they??

Answer 2

Falsely Accused Of Child Abuse

Answer 3

Wrongly Accused Of Child Abuse

Answer 4

Since the person you are accusing of doing this to you did not write or say anything about you in public, you can't get them on libel or slander.

Depending on the laws in your state, you might be able to seek harassment, persecution, or- in a VERY STRAINED interpretation [and possibly in Texas only] you could try for 'alienation of affection'... But I have only heard of that in divorce\adultry cases.

Face it, when it comes to child molestation cases, you are GUILTY until proven innocent. Same as with rape cases. You need to cover your *** at all times; make sure you have solid witness statements for you AND against your accuser[s]. You need to be prepared to lose this, though... Some people are blinded by images of young girls being abused\killed in the recent news and would rather send a 'possibly' innocent man to jail than let a guilty man go free.

Answer 5

Anyone can make allegations of child abuse, actually it's the law to report. You would have to probe that there was malice in the report. In addition, you have your child to think about, she would be questioned about the drawing that she did and this can be traumatic to a child. If you are cleared of this, ask your lawyer to assure that any legal documents be shared with CPS and be made part of that file. Good luck

Answer 6

Slander is if you suffered damages as a result of it. If they are causing you to lose money because of the allegations and you can prove they are saying these things with no basis and only doing it to cause trouble, you may be able to sue but good luck finding an atty to handle it without a hefty deposit.

Answer 7

Unfortunately, in this country there is a particularly negative stigma against fathers who either get accused of being "dead beat dads" or who are accused of in some way abusing their children or spouses. There are some fathers out there who are like this. However, there are also women out there who know the power of the negative stigma and use it to gain power over the men that they fall out of love with. When in such a marriage where your wife is doing things like unjustly preventing you from seeing your children or making false claims, you have every right to seek an attorney, and yes that will cost you a lot of money. You could represent yourself in court if you feel that you are articulate and can convince the court of your honesty (e.g., I have represented myself but not for marriage rights). Should you go to court remember that this negative stigma against fathers is a real thing in our culture, and even judges are not unbiased towards it. The courts almost automatically side with mothers who are taking out restraining orders not necessarily because they are in any real danger, but because these mothers feel they can gain some power over their ex-husbands by using their kids as pawns in a bitter divorce. And please, I know very well there are women who are actually physically or psychologically abused, but I'm not refferring to these women (not that I don't care about them. In these cases their husbands are indeed criminals). I'm referring to the women who want to do everything they can to eliminate the marital mistake they made--even at the expense of having their children discontinue a relationship with their father. They want to wipe away the past at the expense of the man who is denied seeing his children because the court system is biased in favor of mothers.

Answer 8

You can sue anyone over anything. You can certainly sue over defamation but remember your daughter might have to testify which can be a drama for them.

If they falsely accused you and called any kind of law enforcement you can prosecute them. It is called misuse of law enforcement and it is a crime. People cannot use law enforcement to get people in trouble.

Answer 9

Absolutely! You are in the right if you sue that person for slander, or libel. You could probably get them on both charges, as one is written fallacies, and one is spoken against you. You can sue for the damages you've suffered from their lies, and for mental anguish and such. Go for it. Hope you get the b**ch

Answer 10

you can sue anyone for anything,winning the case is a different story.
I heard about about a burgular that broke into another man's house and the home owner shot the burgular,then he turned around and sued the homeowner....and won.
Tell me that's not messed up !