The latest painful letter from a man

Good evening. My name is XXXX and I'm going through the hardest fight of my life!! I'll try too make this short.

My wife and I split up in April of 08 and she and I agreed that my son would live with me. One day six months later, she simply took him away. I didn't know what to do so I did what they said the law told me to do. I filed a petition for paternity but she said in court that I beat her up a few times. That never happened!!!!!!!

She filed with the state attorney's and they picked up the case in Jan.09. So I have had to hire two attorneys--one for my child and the other for my criminal defense!!!!

My heart is clean and clear but I still worry because if I lose, my chances to be with my son dwindle away. I love my son!! Any tips you can provide would be so appreciated.

XXXX

"ONE MILLION People Falsely Accused of Domestic Violence EACH YEAR"

I just received this from a nonprofit called RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting):

Tuesday, September 16, Wendy Flanders of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was convicted of making false claims of domestic violence and for committing perjury in a child custody hearing.

Ben Vonderheide, the target of the charges, explained he had been subjected to more than 40 false allegations over the past six years, including charges of domestic violence, harassment, and even the kidnapping of his own son.

"All I wanted was for Wendy Flanders to get help, and stop behaving in these awful ways, destroying her life and ours. " Vonderheide revealed. "I'm overwhelmingly happy for the fathers down the road who may not have to go to jail, for the children who are going to know their fathers, and love their fathers."

Ben Vonderheide is just one of the one million(!) (See Note 20 on p. 12) persons who are falsely accused of domestic violence each year. 

In order to stop the wave of false allegations, the theme of the 2008 Domestic Violence Awareness Month is "False Claims Hurt True Victims: Fix VAWA Now!"

(VAWA is the Joe Biden-sponsored Violence Against Women Act, which excludes male victims of domestic violence and makes it easy for wives to use false domestic violence claims against their husbands as a way of getting more desirable settlements in divorce cases.)

RADAR has prepared a flyer to hand out at political rallies, meetings, or other meetings. The flyer can be found here: http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARflyer-DVAM2008.pdf. 

To learn more the problem of spurious charges, we invite you to read RADAR's Special Report, "A Culture of False Allegations: How VAWA Harms Families and Children:" http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARreport-VAWA-A-Culture-of-False-Allegations.pdf

Ben Vonderheide's battle cost over $350,000 in legal expenses. False allegations of domestic violence have become a legal and social travesty. For our children, we must work together to stop this epidemic.

---

R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://www.mediaradar.org.