There have been a number of new comments recently to various articles here on Falsely Accused Dad. While I really love getting comments, I beg you to please not leave any personal information in your comments, this can include:

• Your full first name
• Your phone number
• Your email
• Your address
• Full names of people involved in your case

Why not?  There are a number of reasons, but here’s just a few that immediately come to mind:

• If you have a legal case in progress, posting information about your case can seriously hurt your case and frankly you could be brought up on additional charges.  I can be subpoenaed by the court and anything you put on this site could be used against you.  BUT, this can only happen if you put personal information they can use to link the comment to you.
• This is the internet.  People from all over the world both good and bad read this site.  Leave your address, and some crazy person could show up at your door one night…not good.  Leave your name, and they can find your address…again, not good.
• False Accusations especially when it comes to child sexual offenses really get people’s fur up.  Some vigilantly just might decide to skip the “justice system” and serve justice themselves.
• This site is read by the press.  How do I know?  They’ve contacted me.  By putting your personal information out there, you’re opening up yourselves the press.  While in some cases this might be good, in general it’s not, especially if your case is pending.

There are of course many other very good reasons to not post your personal information here on Falsely Accused Dad.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I want you to comment, add your stories, share your feelings, etc.  Just exclude the personal details…if you must use a name, I’d suggest using a false name (and stating that you are)…I do, that’s why I go by Falsely Accused Dad (or fad in the forums).

Thanks everyone.  I sincerely appreciate your comments, your emails of prayer and concern, and most of all your encouragement.  Please keep the comments coming!  Thanks so much for reading Falsely Accused Dad and helping me spread the word!

I just read on Examiner.com that a mother has been sentenced to 6 weekends in jail for alienating her children from their father and for falsely reporting sexual abuse by the father.  6 weekends in my opinion is a joke, frankly a false accusation should be felony charge with mandatory jail time, but at least it’s a start.

From the article on examiner.com:

“The crescendo of the plaintiff’s conduct involved accusations of sexual abuse. Plaintiff falsely accused defendant of sexual misconduct in June, 2008, shortly after defendant moved to Huntington and the children’s friends were enjoying play dates at defendant’s home. Plaintiff testified that D. shared that she was uncomfortable when the defendant tickles her, and conceded that she knew there was nothing “sexual” involved. Undaunted by the lack of any genuine concern for D.’s safety, plaintiff pursued a campaign to report the defendant to Child Protective Services. To facilitate this, she spoke with W. M, the psychologist at the school D. attended. Plaintiff also “encouraged” D. to advise Dr. C. (the chidren’s pediatrician) that defendant inappropriately touched her – – but he saw no signs of abuse. Plaintiff also advised Dr. A., Ms. M., Dr. R. (the children’s prior psychologist) and family friends of the allegations and, ultimately, the Suffolk County Department of Social Services opened a file on June 3, 2008, and began an investigation.”

“According to the Case Narrative contained in the New York State Case Registry, a complaint was made that “On a regular basis, father inappropriately fondles 13 year old D.’s breasts. This makes D. feel very uncomfortable. Last Sunday, Father hit D. on the breast for unknown reason… ” When the caseworker and Suffolk County detectives interviewed D. on June 3, 2008, she reported only that her father tickles her on her neck and under her arms, and she categorically denied her father ever fondled her breasts. She admitted that her father was not attempting to make her uncomfortable, but that he still regards her to be a tomboy. The detectives closed their investigation.”

“Thereafter, and significantly, when the CPS caseworker met with plaintiff on August 19, 2008, plaintiff was quick to state that her ex-husband “did it again.” Plaintiff claimed that the defendant hugged D. too hard. According to the caseworker’s notes, the caseworker repeatedly cautioned the plaintiff not to bring the children into her disputes with the defendant. This warning was contained in CPS records.”

“Although unfounded child abuse reports are required to be sealed (see, Social Services Law §422[5]), such reports may be introduced into evidence,”by the subject of the report where such subject… is a plaintiff or petitioner in a civil action or proceeding alleging the false reporting of child abuse or maltreatment” (Social Services Law §422[5][b][1]). Allegations that defendant had injured the child were found to be baseless and, by making such allegations, plaintiff needlessly subjected the child to an investigation by Child Protective Services, placing her own interests above those of the child. This report was not made in “good faith” – - rather, the investigating agency warned the mother not to re-utilize the allegations and her children in her custodial litigation with the defendant.”

Reading this literally makes me sick. What are your thoughts? Add a comment below letting us know what you think.

Many of you have been asking for a while if I had forums or if I intended to create any.  I finally decided to bite the bullet this morning.

I’m proud to announce the creation of the Falsely Accused Dad Forums.  The forums will be a place of community, where those of us that have false accusation stories to share can help and support each other.  The forums will also provide a great way those recently accused to ask questions and seek help.

Anyone can read the forums, but in order to make posts, you’ll need to register.  Don’t worry, it’s anonymous and only takes a minute or two.  Please spread the word, I’d love to build a supportive and helpful community for all of us.  Oh, please make sure you read the rules too.

Since these are brand new, I’m open to any suggestions you might have, so please drop me a private message on the forums with any suggestions you might have.  See you in the forums!

I’ve been debating this for a while and I finally decided it was worth the risk: I joined Twitter.  I was hesitant as I wasn’t sure how people would react and frankly I’m expecting to take a little heat, but we’ll see how it goes.

My whole intent and purpose with this site was to share my story with you: others that have been falsely accused, friends and family of those falsely accused, and you the general public.  I want Falsely Accused Dad to be a place where others that have been falsely accused can visit and not feel alone.  I also want to share my story in order to educate the general public on the truth behind child sex offense accusations and on how messed up our current legal system really is.

So, if you’re on Twitter, follow me.  I’ll be posting my article updates, news events, and even asking some tough questions.  Now, off to put on my extra thinck skin and armor

Breaking News: I just read on CNN.com that the supreme court ruled that sex offenders can be held in jail past their sentencing for an indefinite period of time.  This concerns me on two fronts:

1. What about the falsely accused?
2. Who determines how long these people are kept?  what good is initial sentencing if it can just be overridden.  Certainly opens up a can of worms if you ask me.

Now, with that said, I am all for protecting people against legitimate offenders, especially our children.  This is even more so in repeat offender cases.  I just pray the supreme court puts some guidelines on this.  It scares me to death to think that falsely accused offenders end up in jail, which is bad enough, but then can be held even longer based on what?

What are your thoughts on this?  Is this over he edge, or the right thing to protect the true sex offender victims.  What about the offenders that have psychological issues?  There are some arguments that sex offense is a disorder, just like any other mental disorder.  Will these people be helped? Add a comment!

Last night I was checking my traffic statistics for this site using Google Analytics, and noticed that I received a pretty decent spike on Sunday.   Generally this means that I was linked to by another large site, or more commonly mentioned in a forum somewhere.  I was right, someone posted a link to My Story page on The Student Room and there was a decent amount of discussion about My Story going on.

As normal, there were quit a bit of assumptions being made, along with some plain old false information being stated.  Additionally some were being very judgmental about my story without fulling reading it.  When this occurs, I like to register and respond.  I always do so in a respectful way, even when people attack me and call me names (pedo is the #1 on the list right now).  I also try to remember how I thought of accused child molesters before I was charged.  To be honest, I felt the same way most of these people did: burn them at the stake.  Ignorance is bliss right?

So I registered with The Student Room, and spent about 45 minutes typing up a response that addressed many of the main concerns people were raising and tried to clarify some confusion areas.  Again, I was not ugly, did not use bad language, and my response fully complied with their rules.  I pressed the post button and my reply went into moderation.  This didn’t surprise me as I had included a link to my site (again, not against the rules).

I came back a little later to find my response approved and up, along with a reply my wife had made as well.  Again, her response fully complied with the rules and was very nice and respectful.  I was anxious to see what the responses would be and hopefully assist with educating people on the realities of people being falsely accused.  I also noticed a number of other similar falsely accused discussions going on and was looking forward to participating.  I enjoy forums.

An hour later I checked the site again to see if I had any replies and found I was BANNED, and my wife as well.  Our posts were deleted and our accounts banned.  WHAT??  I immediately sent a message to their Contact Us link asking why, clearly stating why I had posted and that I had not violated a single site rule.

I doubt I’ll get a reply and thus will assume that censorship is still alive and well in the world.  The Student Room is a UK site, but there are many Americans posting.  Seems people don’t want to hear the truth, they just want to keep believing what they want.  If I receive a reply from The Student Room, I’ll be sure and post it out here for you.

If you care to read the thread and/or join in, you can read the thread here and join The Student Room here.

Be careful though, you might get BANNED!

One of the things I’d like to begin doing on Falsely Accused Dad is not only sharing My Story, but also sharing the stories of others and promoting news stories about those falsely accused of child sex offenses and even those with questionable cases.  One of things I learned very quickly during my mandated counseling was that even though people where technically guilty, the circumstances are often shocking and prove just how broken our law system is as it relates to child sex offenses.  AGAIN, don’t get me wrong…people who are guilty of harming children need to suffer the full consequences of the law, but right now there is a public and legal witch hunt going on.  There has to be a better way to protect our children and at the same time deliver proper justice to those involved.

Just after publishing my latest entry here on Falsely Accused Dad, I headed over to CNN.com to check out the daily news and immediately noticed the following headline: No longer a registered sex offender, but the stigma remains. So I clicked through and read this heart wrenching article.  Here’s a kid that did indeed commit a crime, but completely didn’t know it, yet look at the price he paid.  Even though he is no longer an offender, his life will never be the same.  Like all of us guilty or not, he will suffer scars for the rest of his life.

One particular portion of the article struck really close to home for me.  It said:

Blackman tenses up when he sees children at a supermarket and avoids talking to girls his age, even if they initiate contact, his mother says.

“I got a lot more fear in me, I mean, because anything could happen,” Blackman said. “Say you’re on the registry, and you’re in the mall and a kid comes up missing. Well, guess what? You’re the first person they’re going to because you’re on the sex offender registry.”

While I am not on the registry (thank God) I can still relate. Before we moved to restart our lives, I was afraid to death to go to local stores. I knew way too many people who knew about my arrest and legal case, but didn’t know any of the facts. I knew what they thought about me. To this day I avoid children in stores like they have the plague. I won’t even go into aisles with kids by myself and if a child gets near me I move away as quickly as I can and frankly often hold my hands up. It’s not a conscious reaction, but automatic. I am just fearful of ever being in a situation where someone could accuse me.

I recall one time a few months after being arrested when I went to the grocery store and got in line to buy groceries.  The man in front of me turned around and I saw that it was one of the police officers that came to my house that night.  He looked at me and all of the sudden got a shocked look on his face.  He just said “Oh my God, you’re kidding.”  He then walked away and got into a different line.

Sure, many on the registry are guilty and deserve what they get, but many aren’t.  I implore you to make sure you understand everyone’s situation before making judgments.  Don’t make the same mistake the convenience store clerk in the story above made.  You just never know.

What are your thoughts on the article?  Did this kid get justice?  Add a comment and let me know what you think.