What actions can I take against a minor who continues to make false claims?

B

bushkanaka86

Guest
Jurisdiction
Maine
My sister-in-law is 16 and to date, as far as I am aware, she has made false claims of sexual assault against 6 different men, including me, twice. Ever since she was young she has been obsessed with sex and fantasizes about men doing things to her. She knows her stories are made up (she isn't delusional enough to believe them) and she knows her parents will just ignore them. But she is smart and knows her teachers are mandatory reporters so she goes to school and tells these tales to her teacher which gets it reported to the police.

Twice she has had rape kits done which revealed nothing, and every other time, the details of her story have been so ridiculous that it can't be true. The best thing for me has been that she loves to make her stories more dramatic that I haven't gotten in trouble and she always puts her stories in the past, "3 months ago..." so nobody can prove anything either way.

This most recent time, I guess the police decided to try and take it serious, just in case, but that meant that a detective came to my house to interview me and my wife. Following that we didn't hear anything for 5 weeks which caused my wife extreme anxiety. She thought every car that slowed past our house was going to come in and arrest me and she even started taking anxiety medicine for this. Finally, the detective contacted us again and asked me to take a Polygraph Examination. This further increased both our anxiety and we finally hired a lawyer, even though we couldn't afford it. He said to not take the Polygraph and based on her history of false claims, her crazy story, and the lack of evidence, this case should now close very soon.

Sorry for the long story, but now my question. She has done this to at least 6 different men and because she is a minor, she gets away with it. I would like there to be some kind of punishment for her so she will stop. What can I do, if anything?

I would try to sue her to pay our lawyer fees and as compensation for my wife's extreme anxiety but I don't know that I will get much from her. The problem is that we don't want to hurt the parents (my wife's parents). My sister-in-law has a college fund, but I don't know if I can sue for that money, and it may end up hurting her parents anyway if they pay for college. I wish I could sue for her future income....

If getting money from her isn't an option, I thought about getting a restraining order to show her we are serious. The last time, we just blew off her accusations and continued as normal. Not this time. We already plan to completely avoid her and not let her have a relationship with my children, which will be a pretty big punishment. But to show her how serious, I thought about getting a retraining order against her that legally said she wasn't allowed to be near me or my children.

Any advice?

I live in New Hampshire, the girl lives in Maine.
 
What can I do, if anything?


You can't sue a minor.
You could probably sue her parents.
The parents could probably make your lawsuit disappear.

I suggest you IMMEDIATELY and FOREVER sever all ties to her and her family.
You should also cease all communications and interactions, too.
Don't do stupid stuff, ever!
 
My sister-in-law is 16 and to date, as far as I am aware, she has made false claims of sexual assault against 6 different men, including me, twice. Ever since she was young she has been obsessed with sex and fantasizes about men doing things to her. She knows her stories are made up (she isn't delusional enough to believe them) and she knows her parents will just ignore them. But she is smart and knows her teachers are mandatory reporters so she goes to school and tells these tales to her teacher which gets it reported to the police.

Twice she has had rape kits done which revealed nothing, and every other time, the details of her story have been so ridiculous that it can't be true. The best thing for me has been that she loves to make her stories more dramatic that I haven't gotten in trouble and she always puts her stories in the past, "3 months ago..." so nobody can prove anything either way.

This most recent time, I guess the police decided to try and take it serious, just in case, but that meant that a detective came to my house to interview me and my wife. Following that we didn't hear anything for 5 weeks which caused my wife extreme anxiety. She thought every car that slowed past our house was going to come in and arrest me and she even started taking anxiety medicine for this. Finally, the detective contacted us again and asked me to take a Polygraph Examination. This further increased both our anxiety and we finally hired a lawyer, even though we couldn't afford it. He said to not take the Polygraph and based on her history of false claims, her crazy story, and the lack of evidence, this case should now close very soon.

Sorry for the long story, but now my question. She has done this to at least 6 different men and because she is a minor, she gets away with it. I would like there to be some kind of punishment for her so she will stop. What can I do, if anything?

I would try to sue her to pay our lawyer fees and as compensation for my wife's extreme anxiety but I don't know that I will get much from her. The problem is that we don't want to hurt the parents (my wife's parents). My sister-in-law has a college fund, but I don't know if I can sue for that money, and it may end up hurting her parents anyway if they pay for college. I wish I could sue for her future income....

If getting money from her isn't an option, I thought about getting a restraining order to show her we are serious. The last time, we just blew off her accusations and continued as normal. Not this time. We already plan to completely avoid her and not let her have a relationship with my children, which will be a pretty big punishment. But to show her how serious, I thought about getting a retraining order against her that legally said she wasn't allowed to be near me or my children.

Any advice?

I live in New Hampshire, the girl lives in Maine.
You could try to get a restraining order.

What do your wife's parents think about their younger daughter acting like this? You and your wife are going to have to just sever ties with her sister until she grows up and stops making accusations.

The police and prosecutors don't generally prosecute people who make false sexual assault reports because they feel it will deter actual victims from coming forward. I have heard stories of someone being charged after making a false report on a sexual assault but not very often. The most recent one was a few years ago when I was a SARC for my unit the higher headquarters SARC told me that there was a female soldier who reported her commander sexually assaulted her. The only problem - the day she said it happened he was on a bus on his way back from Ft Irwin...California back to Kansas. She kept saying no it happened. But obviously it didn't. Not with that guy. So she got charged for making a false report and had to pay a big fine.

I think if it's proven that someone made a false report of sexual assault or rape, they should be charged and punished. Making a false report about that undermines the laws and makes it harder for actual victims to come forward.
 
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