The story is familiar to law enforcement and court officials, but one often obscured by the sound and fury of media coverage of sex crimes allegations.
The 20-year-old was a gamer who spent a lot of time online, masterminding battles and conquests. His mother describes him as introverted, sensitive and immature. Uncertain of how to meet women offline, the lonely young man began to pursue casual sexual encounters online.
There are signs of a growing awareness in both the legal system and the mental health community of parental alienation, a disturbing divorce phenomenon in which one parent turns a child against the other parent.
Not only did the World Health Organization recently classify the behavior as a form of child abuse, but a much-need resource is on its way, too.
Michigan law enforcement officials have repeatedly said that they won't allow the passage of time to deter them from conducting criminal investigations. Two recent arrests made it clear that they take that vow seriously.
One man was arrested on a charge of criminal sexual conduct stemming from an alleged assault in 2010 in Jackson County. The other man, 77, is a former priest accused of sexually assaulting a minor in 1977.
Everyone who follows the news these days knows the nation is embroiled in a contentious presidential election filled with nearly daily charges and countercharges of wrongdoing in heated exchanges between candidates President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, and their supporters.
Two Trump supporters were recently accused by Michigan's attorney general of taking political disagreements to another level. The men have been charged with four white collar felonies each, including conspiring to intimidate voters in violation of election law and using a computer to commit crimes.
If you drive a little more than 20 miles northeast of Ann Arbor, you will arrive in Novi. The Detroit suburb is the home of a man recently arrested by Michigan State Police for possession of child pornography.
Officials said that law enforcement officers found more than 50,000 files "related to child pornography" in the possession of the 27-year-old man. He has been charged with aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material and using a computer to commit a crime.
As regular readers of our Ann Arbor legal blog know, parental alienation is sometimes a part of high-conflict child custody disputes. A recent Psych Central column by Sharie Stines, Psy.D on the painful phenomenon looked at the long-term effects on the child who has been alienated.
Stines writes that the results of parental alienation "are devastating for the alienated child and can last a lifetime." In those long-lasting cases, the child misses a lifetime loving and supportive relationship with the parent they were "conditioned to reject."
If you drive about 150 miles north of Ann Arbor, you will arrive in the small village of Farwell. A businessman in the town of about 850 residents was recently indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit.
Dale Thrush has been charged with failing to pay his business's payroll taxes to the IRS, as well failing to file his personal tax returns. He's the owner-operator of a Mount Pleasant company that provides payroll tax services to area businesses. Among the services provided: withholding payroll taxes and then forwarding the funds to the IRS.
Family law attorney Dennis Beaver has been writing a syndicated newspaper column called "You and the Law" for more than 30 years. The veteran Bakersfield, California, barrister recently wrote about "weaponized divorce," in which he shared a reader's letter.
"My greatest fears are coming true," the reader wrote. His former spouse is "poisoning" their three children against him, depriving them of his presence and love in their lives. He asks if there's a legal term that describes this kind of sabotaging behavior.
Like any good journalist would, Beaver turned to an expert: Ann Arbor attorney Ashish S. Joshi. In an interview, the two discussed a disturbing family law phenomenon.
Robert Williams was standing on the front lawn of his Farmington Hills house with his wife and two young daughters when police pulled up, cuffed him and put him in the back of a squad car. His wife asked where he was being taken.
"Google it," an officer responded, as the little girls, 2 and 5 years old, cried.
It is likely that all of our Ann Arbor blog readers have seen at least one courtroom drama on TV or in movies in which attorney-client privilege played a prominent role. While the concept is a familiar one, details of what is and is not privileged communication between a lawyer and client likely remain elusive.
Joshi | 2433 Oak Valley Drive | Suite 500 | Ann Arbor, MI 48103 | Phone: 734-249-6170 | Fax: 734-327-5032 | Map & Directions
