abuse in marriage

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Question

Country: United States of America State: All States/Provinces My friend was in an abusive marriage to a cop and when they were married he raped her. A trial was had in which he lost but my friend chose to use her marital rights or something like that and not press charges. The case was kept open in case it ever had to be visited but my friend is so drained and stressed that she doesn't want to go through another trial. They got a divorce and the ex-husband was fired from his police job but he appealed and won his appeal and thus got his job back. And now he is threatening to sue my friend for defamation of character and put her in jail for perjury and said that he is going to take the kids away from her even though he is the one who lied and got away with abuse and rape . It is a classic abuse of power scenario where he has controlled her life when thy were together and is still wanting to control it now and when she tries to stand up for herself he pushes harder. She just wants all this nightmare to be over and get on with her life. Is there any way to make this all be over and a way where he cannot bring her to court anymore and hold false allegations over her head? Even though she is the victim he has all the money and great lawyers and the chips get stacked against the innocent.

Answer

She may just want to get away from him--but if not she may need to go to court again; he normally cannot sue her if the police were conducting the investigation--that may be an empty threat on his part.