An Iowa father is knocked off his feet by his ex-wife after she drives straight into him.
Events caught on a school surveillance camera in Oelwein, Iowa on January 28 hold many lessons for the family court reform movement. The entire event can be seen here, and it makes fascinating viewing.
According to the dad, whom I will call “Josh”, he enjoys 50/50 shared parenting of his five children under Iowa’s fairly enlightened shared parenting laws. He claims mom had interfered with his designated parenting time the day before, so on the day of the videotaped incident, Josh was determined to avoid a repeat. He notified the school that he would be picking his daughter up an hour early. But the school notified mom, who came to the school six minutes before Josh.
At the 2:00 point in the video, you can see mom arriving and entering the school. At 7:30 in the tape, mom and daughter exit the school and get into mom’s car, parked in clear view of the camera. At 8:01, just as they are about to drive off, dad runs in from the left and stands directly in front of the car. The footage is grainy, but there does not appear to be anything that might be interpreted as a threat.
Josh claims that mom nudges him with the car, but it is not readily apparent on the video. Then, at 9:35 in the tape, the car lunges forward, pushing dad back about 20 feet, at which point he loses his footing and falls to his knees.
Mom stops the car, and he gets up again. He leans over the hood and holds the windshield wipers at their bases, so he can lie on the hood and avoid being run over if she drives forward again. Another period of inactivity follows.
At 12:47 of the tape, a police car drives up, an officer emerges, Josh raises his hands in the surrender position, and the officer cuffs him. According to Josh, the officer approached him with a drawn Taser, screaming, “Get off the car, get off the car, get off the car!” But within a minute or two, after listening to his story, the officer is prepared to release him.
Then, at 14:20 of the tape, another police vehicle pulls up within view of the camera. According to Josh, the Chief of Police emerges, refuses to listen to him tell his side of the story, and insists that Josh be arrested for disorderly conduct. Shortly thereafter, the available tape ends. According to Josh, he was cuffed again and spent the next six hours in jail.
Subsequently, mom filed for a no-contact restraining order, which was granted–even though the judge viewed the videotape and, according to Josh, mom testified that no physical or emotional abuse had ever occurred between the parties. The Oelwein Police Department has not filed charges against the mother, who is apparently guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. The district attorney likewise has refused to prosecute the mother.
According to Josh, he is limited to supervised visitation with ALL his children until April 1...Read more here.
Ned Holstein, MD, MS
Founder and Chair of the Board
My ex was constantly interfering with my parenting time during the divorce. I videotaped an incident where she refused to allow me to have the kids for my parenting time. I was non confrontational with my ex when I asked that she allow me to exercise my court ordered parenting time. She sped of in her vehicle in a huff when I confronted her at school. The difference between me and this poor unfortunate guy was I didn’t stand in front of my ex-wife’s vehicle in an effort to stop her. I just let her drive off. I video taped the incident as proof of what my ex was doing to alienate the children from me. Unfortunately, I once again being a man was ignored by Marital Master David Forrest. Marital Master David Forrest did not want to see or consider this proof of my ex-wife’s alienation tactics. He wouldn’t admonish her for her behavior and by doing so he condoned her parental alienation behavior. I will someday post these videos for the world to see just how perfect my ex-wife is. What will be seen is a woman who is perfect at her parental alienation scheme.
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