Tales of the Crazy

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Tales of the Crazy Page 27

by Charles L Cole


  This statement about her getting pregnant was completely false. Jess was never capable of getting pregnant, as she had only one intact fallopian tube, and it was blocked. I also had records of us going through two separate in vitro procedures in an attempt to conceive. Ray looked at me and said, “This is crazy of her, trying to say this.”

  I replied, “I have something freaky to show you.”

  I showed Ray a full-page color picture of Jess’s uterus in a quart mason jar filled with formaldehyde.

  Ray asked, “What’s that?”

  I said, “The psycho keeps her uterus preserved in a jar of formaldehyde.”

  His head snapped back, and he had a look of utter bewilderment. Ray told me he had seen some bizarre stuff in more than twenty years of practice as a divorce attorney, but this was the weirdest and most disturbing thing he had ever seen. I told Ray this was my golden ticket to show the court just how crazy Jess was.

  This is the uterus.

  When the court had removed her from the home, I had been getting all of Jess’s personal belongings together and found the uterus. I knew how valuable this would be just in case she went off the deep end. I hoped she wouldn’t look or ask for it. She didn’t. Now that I was armed with this freakish evidence, my path to getting the PPO tossed out had just become a whole lot better. Jess and her attorney were clueless about what was going to happen next. I was going nuclear.

  Years ago when Jess had her hysterectomy, she convinced her ob-gyn to give her the uterus. Before she brought it home, the doctor had it sealed in a plastic bag containing formaldehyde, and then at home, Jess took it out of the bag and put it in a mason jar for safekeeping. I saw it and was stunned. Jess said she wanted to keep it as a remembrance of her being a whole woman. She wanted me to build a miniature shrine to display her uterus in the jar. I wasn’t about to say no—she was already unhinged from the recent surgery—but I said, “We can discuss what you want later when you are feeling better.” Luckily she never brought up the subject of a shrine again, and the uterus had been tucked away in a closet for all these years.

  Ray and I spent the next couple of days e-mailing back and forth as we prepared a response to her amendment. Because Jess had cited medical issues on her amendment, we had the right to conduct discovery and ask for all her medical records. I told Ray we needed to see her psych records so we could address her bizarre behavior; however, I knew Jess’s pride would not allow her to grant access to all her medical and psych records. She had an extensive psychological treatment history, but she would not allow proof of her issues to be displayed in court for all to see.

  I told Ray there was no way she would allow this record access, and Ray told me it was in my best interest for her to block access. If we had no access to her records, Jess couldn’t use any medical arguments in the PPO, as we would have no ability to examine evidence of her claims. On September 29, Ray sent a request for a HIPAA medical record release to Jess’s attorney, and they denied our request. Good—Jess thought she had won, but her decision would ultimately work against her.

  On October 9, Ray sent out our evidentiary hearing brief and exhibit list. Much of my detailed document was not used. Ray kept it simple and to the point, but it was extremely damaging to Jess’s statements and showed how ridiculous her false accusations were. Of course, having the picture of Jess’s uterus in the mason jar was the most freakish piece of evidence in our reply.

  Some of our statements submitted to the court and Jessica were as follows:

  I. Procedural Background

  Ms. Cole has a long history of mental health problems. If Ms. Cole maintains her position that Mr. Cole is not entitled to her medical records due to privilege, prior to the hearing, Mr. Cole anticipates bringing a Motion in Limine to prevent Ms. Cole presenting any sort of medical evidence, including evidence of her emotional upset at the time she made calls to the police.

  II. Statement of Facts

  In the summer of 2014, petitioner was taking various mixtures of the following medications: Vicodin (pain), Hydrocodone/Noro (pain); Morphine Sufate (Pain); Neurotin (pain); Percocet (pain); Ultram (pain); Cyclobenzaprine (muscle relaxant); Lidoderm patch (localized pain); Liothyronine sodium (hormone imbalance); Prozac (depression); Mirtazapine (depression); Adderal (ADHD); Ambien (sleep); Clonazepam (panic disorder); Xanax (anxiety); Zoloft (depression); Diazepam (muscle relaxant); Progynova (hormone replacement).

  Some of these medications were prescribed, others were brought to Ms. Cole by her mother when she visited from Thailand, and the source of others is unknown. Mr. Cole will prove this through his testimony, having seen these medications in his wife’s possession at this time. Mr. Cole will also prove some, but not all, of the medications by way of Mr. Cole’s health insurance records.

  Ms. Cole has a significant history of mental health and emotional issues. Mr. Cole will testify that made a 911 call after Ms. Cole threatened suicide, the result of which was a short commitment to mental health facility. Mr. Cole will also offer documentary evidence that Ms. Cole requested and received “service animal” status for her dog based upon emotional and anxiety disorders.

  Mr. Cole was charged with domestic violence on or about July 30, 2014. The case was ultimately dismissed after Ms. Cole failed to appear for the trial. After the incident, Ms. Cole told her friends and family that the domestic violence incident did not occur and that the police and prosecutor lied about the allegations she made against Mr. Cole. Mr. Cole anticipates calling the following witnesses.

  Katrina - was Ms. Cole’s close friend- Katrina is expected to testify that Ms. Cole told her and her husband that the domestic violence criminal complaint did not occur and that both the prosecutor and police officer lied about what Ms. Cole told them.

  Steve- was Ms. Cole’s close friend- he is also expected to testify that Ms. Cole told him and his wife that the domestic violence criminal complaint did not occur and that both the prosecutor and police officer lied about what Ms. Cole told them.

  Herbert Cole- is Mr. Charles Cole’s father- he is expected to testify that he refused Jess Cole’s request to lie about her whereabouts the day before the domestic violence case in an effort to avoid service of process.”

  Mr. Cole will also produce text messages, which in the divorce proceedings, Ms. Cole admitted sending. Ms. Cole texted her husband the following text after the criminal case was dismissed. “Sweetheart, please forgive me for your injustice, I am so sorry. What will happen to you, if I couldn’t stand trial, because of anxiety. Even now, im having anxiety attack & chest pain, you know that i had to wear a heart monitor for a month. This is because i am feeling your pain and just thinking about what’s going through your mind, i love you.” “please call asap”

  Testimony will show that Ms. Cole told many people that Mr. Cole was wrongfully charged with domestic violence and that the event she complained of did not exist. Mr. Cole unequivocally denies the allegations that he abused Ms. Cole. Rather, Mr. Cole spent years supporting, caring for, encouraging, his wife. However, her mental health issues result in her fabricating grandiose stories and paranoid fantasies involving just about every person with whom she becomes emotionally close. Her grandiose pride prevents her from ever acknowledging she is wrong, and instead, she creates even greater lies to keep her stories alive.

  III. Issues and Law

  The court must find there is “reasonable cause” to believe that the person to be restrained or enjoined may commit one or more of acts prohibited by the PPO statute MCL 600.2950(1). The court must consider (a) Testimony, documents, or other evidence offered in support of the request for a PPO, and (b) whether the individual to be restrained or enjoined has previously committed or threatened to commit one or more of the prohibited acts. MCL 600.2950(4). The petitioner bears the burden of proof.

  Kampf v. Kampf, 237 Mich App 377, 385 (1999).

  In this case, Mr. Cole did not commit any acts that would cause a reasonable person to be in fear. Rather, the timing of the
request in this case -- after Mr. Cole initiated divorce proceeds and sought court assistance in the return of his property and the right to live at his home unmolested- would cause a reasonable person to believe the request for the PPO is solely the result of gamesmanship by Ms. Cole to gain a tactical advantage in the underlying divorce action. Testimony from credible witnesses will prove that Ms. Cole said that the allegations she now makes in her PPO did not occur.

  Ms. Cole’s own text messages contradict her allegations in this case.

  IV. Evidentiary Issues

  Ms. Cole should be prevented from offering testimony as to her emotional and physical state.

  Ms. Cole has asserted doctor-patient privilege in connection with her medical records in this case. These records would be important in supporting Mr. Cole’s defense. For example, records of Ms. Cole’s medications, especially if it can be shown that she was obtaining prescription drugs by “doctor shopping” would support Mr. Cole’s assertion that Ms. Cole has mental health problems such that her testimony is not credible. These records would also show that Ms. Cole’s anxiety concerning Mr. Cole, if it exists at all, is not reasonable. Medical records would flatly contradict certain allegations in her petition. For example, Ms. Cole now claims that during the marriage, Mr. Cole ignored her medical concerns when she was pregnant. In fact, Ms. Cole has not been able to become pregnant since the parties married. Rather, she had a hysterectomy and inexplicably she keeps her surgically removed uterus preserved in a jar. Thus, her allegations of miscarriage are pure fantasy, and medical records would prove this.

  Medical records would prove that Ms. Cole suffers an anxiety disorder. This disorder requires multiple medications and a service dog. Thus, if testimony from, for example, police officers suggested that Ms. Cole seemed emotionally upset with or fearful of Mr. Cole, this testimony would not be subject to cross examination with records that would prove her anxiety was the result of her medical condition and not the result of Mr. Cole’s conduct. Unfortunately, Mr. Cole has been denied access to these records that support his defense.

  A few days after we sent our response, Ray got a call from Jessica. They wanted to drop the PPO. I thought of a scene in the movie Mortal Combat. Flawless victory! I was elated and called my dad to tell him the good news.

  Of course they wanted to drop this. Jessica had to know that if we went into court and presented all the freaky evidence I had, Jess would be completely discredited. We would prove her to be a liar, and none of her further testimony in the divorce could be held as true. Contempt of court for submitting false testimony would have been a sure outcome. I would happily pay attorney costs to get this ruling. They had no choice but to ask us to agree to drop it.

  At first I didn’t want to drop this PPO. I wanted to see this through just to prove I was innocent and Jess was a pathological liar. I really wanted to humiliate her in court for all the hell she had put me through with her web of lies. I thought, The liar must pay. Ray calmed me down again, stating that the goal here was to get her out of my life as quickly as possible and not to delay this divorce any further. Ray could have made a lot more money off me. But he genuinely felt bad for me, and he wanted me to start my life over free of Jess.

  What Jessica proposed was that we agree to a mutual civil restraining order. I did some research on this, and it was not a court ordered restraining order. It was simply a written agreement between parties that there would be no contact. It was a civil, not criminal, matter, and police had no authority if terms were broken. If one person broke the agreement and contacted the other, the other had to petition a judge and schedule a hearing to determine if the agreement had been broken. Ray also said that once the divorce was finalized, the mutual civil restraining order and any other orders were terminated.

  I agreed to this, so on November 2, both Ray and Jessica signed an order that dismissed the PPO. The PPO evidentiary hearing scheduled for November 6 was canceled. Now it was time to focus on the real issue: getting this divorce done and removing the psycho from my life for good. Ray and I talked about this PPO and the implications it had for Jess.

  I asked him if the court now realized that she was nuts. Ray replied, “No doubt.”

  I imagined the court staff calling one another about the embalmed uterus picture and saying, “You have got to come and see this!” Truth really can be stranger than fiction.

  I also spoke with Ray a bit about Jessica’s actions. I was very troubled that she would give statements in court she had to know were false or greatly exaggerated. It was clear from this amended PPO that Jessica was willing to do almost anything without a shred of evidence. Ray said she was a good attorney and was only representing her client’s best interests.

  This statement was very revealing about how attorneys work. Truth does not matter with many of them—only attempting to destroy the other party by any means possible matters. I told Ray I thought Jessica was a reprehensible human being and devoid of ethics. I told him that if I entered data I knew or suspected to be false in engineering reports, I would be fired. But Jess and her attorney had no legal repercussions from committing perjury.

  The harsh reality in today’s divorce and criminal court system is that honesty and integrity are for chumps. Liars and their attorneys or prosecutors are in full attack mode, and decent and honest people have to spend all their time in pure defense mode. I have no plans to ever allow myself to be put in this position in marriage again, knowing I’d have to make things up in court to get the upper hand. I’d also have to find a sleazy attorney to support me. The thought of tossing aside your values and resorting to this behavior is unacceptable to any decent human being with a sense of integrity.

  The problem is that when you are dealing with a spouse and attorney who will make up anything to destroy you, the financial and emotional burden will be huge. Even though I was innocent of Jess’s bizarre accusations, the court still effectively punished me through exorbitant legal fees to defend myself. If there is no solid evidence for your defense, as I had, be prepared for a PPO or other criminal charges to be granted; the court will certainly err on the side of the weeping spouse playing the victim card. The judges will cover their behinds, as none of them want to be known as the judge who let off someone who later harmed the spouse. Now someone who is innocent has a criminal charge on his or her record for life only because that person can’t definitively prove that the false accusations are bogus.

  In my case, the things that saved me were my own guile and ability to gather and interpret data that proved Jess’s crazy accusations false. An attorney can’t do all this for you—an attorney handles multiple cases, and there is no way attorneys can keep all the sordid details straight. Keeping an extremely detailed diary after I was arrested turned out to be a lifesaver for me, because I had an accurate time line of events I could reference. Someone else without my abilities would be in a much worse situation even if he or she were innocent. The truth doesn’t matter unless you have evidence to prove it.

  When I talk to people about this divorce and all the hell I’ve been through with the DV charge and the PPO, the subject of the uterus preserved in a jar of formaldehyde always comes up. The expressions on people’s faces are pure shock. No one has ever heard of something so bizarre. Men will say something like, “Glad you are still alive and not in jail from doing something to her.” Women will typically say, “Hope she gets some help,” or ask if I know how she is doing or where she is living.

  Some of the more colorful comments I’ve heard after people saw the uterus picture are the following:

  •“Holy shit!”

  •“That’s divide-by-zero level of batshit crazy.”

  •“Damn, dude. Glad that you got out alive.”

  •“No kidding. The uterus in a jar is just freaky.”

  •“No, that’s weapons grade fucking nuts.”

  •“Holy shit balls. A uterus in a fucking jar. OK, now I’ve seen it all.”

  •“Wow, I am a female and nev
er thought to do such a thing. That is just plain weird and nasty.”

  •“That’s just nuts. How does a person hide that level of bonkers?”

  •“She’s nuttier than squirrel shit.”

  •“Holy crap! You’re in first place in the horror-stories race.”

  •“Hope I never see my uterus.”

  •“Did you get to keep the uterus in a jar? Based on no-fault law, I’m guessing half.”

  Seventeen

  Finalizing the Divorce

  Jess and her attorney had the gall to submit another motion to the court asking for attorney fees related to the PPO they’d filed. In response, Ray and I asked for my attorney fees based on the frivolous nature of this PPO. The judge quickly squashed her request and also denied mine. Once again I was being punished for Jess’s actions by my wallet being drained with attorney fees.

  Because Jess withdrew all the PPO claims, the next step in the divorce was mediation to attempt to negotiate the terms of the divorce judgment. We had to determine how much spousal support she would get and divide personal and shared property, equity in the home, and all other financial matters in the estate. We scheduled mediation for December 4, 2015. I knew this would not go well. Jess wanted to take me for all she could get, and it was a sure thing that she would be very difficult in negotiations.

  Prior to mediation, both attorneys submitted interrogatory requests for all assets we held. Jessica even sent a subpoena to Ford asking for my employment records. I gathered all my assets together, along with my 401(k) balance at the beginning of the marriage. Jess was entitled to get half of the marital portion of my 401(k), pension, and all other assets that had increased during our marriage. We had been married close to 60 percent of the time I’d been employed at Ford, so she would take half of the marital portion. This worked out to be 30 percent of my gains while we were married.

 

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