My ex pulled outrageous stunts in our divorce and custody fight. She claimed in affidavits that I was “suicidal, homicidal, violent, had anger management issues, abusing prescription and illegal drugs”… Basically everything short of molesting our child (which my attorney expressed surprise at; as we walked into court on the first day she said that if our child had been a female, we’d be fighting such accusations.) Her attorney also tried very hard to portray me as a stereotypical military vet with deep emotional problems. So my ex petitions the court to have me undergo a psych evaluation. The judge looked at me and asked, “Mr___, how do you feel about this?” I said that I had no problem with it, but it would probably be a good idea if the ex had one, too. He found the idea delightful and even allowed my ex to choose the doctor to administer it.
So we go through the psych evaluation thing. This was a total of about 6 or 8 hours in the doctor’s office over the course of several days. The day before the divorce trial starts we get the results back:
Mr. ___ has mild symptoms of situational depression. Which is no surprise as his wife has been conducting at least one, and as many as several affairs blah blah blah. There is no indication of suicidal or homicidal tendencies, nor drug abuse, nor violence, nor antisocial behavior; he’s basically a good guy going through a divorce.
Mrs. ___ has a non-specific borderline personality disorder, a narcissistic personality disorder, and three of the five standardized tests used to evaluate her were invalidated because she lied on them.
Here’s the very cool part: When I went to settle the bill at the doctor’s office, his nurse pulled me aside and said: “We don’t get emotionally involved with our clients, Mr. ___, but everyone in this office is pulling for you.” Apparently, the ex had stormed in and lit the entire staff up in spectacular fashion over the diagnosis. My attorney’s secretary also lets me know that my ex’s attorney’s secretaries (seems that these folks talk outside of class a LOT) were very hopeful that my ex would get ram-rodded by the court. In the end, I was granted custody of my son, and the judge included some very sharp language about my ex’s testimony, and integrity that I am told will be my primary weapon should she ever choose to contest any aspect of either the divorce or custody rulings. My favorite quote “Her answers were evasive, disingenuous and, at times, breathtakingly unbelievable.” (Thanks, your honor!)
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