Thread: Unfounded Accusations

My brother and his ex didn't have a friendly divorce, and he wanted to get custody of their two kids. His ex accused him of molesting my niece.
It turned out that he was disqualified for custody for an entirely different reason. But, the charge of molestation wasn't believed because of expert testimony. Shouldn't there have been some kind of penalty against his ex, for lying about such a thing?

Speaking of that sort of thing, is it similar if someone's accused of sexual assault but not convicted?

I don't think I can recall a case where someone sued an accuser after being found innocent.

There was a case in California maybe twenty years back that was a daycare center being accused of molesting nearly all the children in their care. This was an older, family run business and a grandmother and grandson were both charged. The charges got stranger and stranger, and soon it was apparent that the mother of the child making the charges was totally crazy, and it turned out that none of the charges had any basis in fact.
This case had gone on for years, those charged had been in jail with ho bail set, and I'm sure they lost everything. I believe the family sued LA County, the company who supplied child specialists who gathered the evidence, and the woman's family. I never found out how it came out, but the day care family had very valid reasons to sue, in my opinion.

It's a very serious situation where you could possibly lose a business based on an unfounded accusation.

I'd hope that the company got as much compensation as they could after something like that.

Originally Posted by Taggart

Speaking of that sort of thing, is it similar if someone's accused of sexual assault but not convicted?

I don't think I can recall a case where someone sued an accuser after being found innocent.

Good question, Taggert. I have never heard of anyone suing theire accuser after they were found innocent, but there have been many cases of people suing the state for false imprisonment or something like that. I don't know how successful such suits are, though.