Rape Victim Threatened with Jail for Back Child Support to her Rapist

Hi. I'm a breastfeeding, home schooling mother of 7. My youngest daughter is only 7 months old, is still breastfeeding, and she has Down syndrome and needs me more than any of my other children, to be around 100% for her.

In 2010 I tried to leave my then husband of 11 years but I was threatened that my children would be taken from me and I would get nothing in the divorce if I left. My ex filed for divorce in September and made these threats. I backed down. In February 2011 while going through our final break up I was raped. My ex is a transgender person which is why I wanted the divorce (he wanted a sex change operation). He raped me because he was unable to control himself and I was refusing his advances for months at a time because of his perverted fetishes and molestations. He also did so to prove to me that he was going to be in control of everything and would hurt me if necessary.

From the time I was 18 until 32 I put aside my career and worked to put my ex through school. I was in law school at the time of our divorce.

It was made clear to me that I didn't have a choice in what would happen in the divorce. I moved out as quickly as I could just to get free of him but I hoped he would move on with his life and let me move on with mine.

Instead every few months for the past 8 years he's harassed and threatened me. I was sued for custody in 2012 and taken to court where my children were given to my ex four days before I sat for the bar exam. From there it was all downhill. Every time I register to take the exam something happens that prevents me from succeeding. I'm not an attorney but I haven't given up hope.

Now my ex is trying to have me thrown in jail for 6 months and convicted of a felony because I'm behind on child support to him. The entire reason he sued me for custody was to get out of paying around 25% of his income in child support (with a six figure income that's a lot of money to him). Instead I have to pay 25% of mine in child support, but since I'm a stay at home mom, I don't have an income.

I've paid over 20k in child support so far, but the court starts over every time there's a new order and they are trying to make it look like I've paid almost nothing. For over 4 years I was refused an opportunity to lower my child support obligation from 525 a month (which was lower than the 687 I was ordered to pay originally) to the minimum wage presumption, since I'm a stay at home mom and I have other kids. The Attorney General did everything possible to delay the case to rack up as much back child support as possible. Because there were fraudulent claims and there was coercion involved in the case, including rape and my ex threatening me and filing false CPS cases against me, I have tried to stay back and haven't been able to defend myself adequately. Whenever I try, I'm either sent a death threat in writing, or a photo of a dead body in a pool of blood, and allegedly according to witnesses who looked at a Facebook page created by what I believe to be him, also a video of a teenage boy getting murdered by a cartel, which I report but the cops only protect him and have refused to accept my reports. Yes, I did report these threats to various agencies, but when I did so, my ex had me investigated by CPS for "endangering my children through investigative journalism" pretending the threats weren't from him but were from some random stranger online (yes you can be investigated by CPS for getting threatened with murder, did you know...) His attorney also composed discovery inquiries asking for detailed information about my other children that were pretty creepy to read. The AG's case rested on a false premise that I owed my ex medical child support for copays, which ultimately they had to admit last September was false. So if they hadn't pursued that type of fraud in the first place, which I alerted them to before they filed the case, then I could have lowered my amount a long time ago, and it would now be paid off, instead of behind.

If I am convicted of a felony for child support I'll never be able to become an attorney. At this point although I am disgusted by the legal industry, I still hope to become a lawyer one day so I can help other women going through similar problems as what I have had to go through because of the messed up way our legal system works.

Please help me send a message to the judge that the public doesn't approve of harassing moms for being behind on child support to wealthy men, and that it shouldn't be used as a tool of abuse against rape and domestic violence victims. Sign my petition, and I'll attach a print out of signatures to my response to their lawsuit against me. Please sign as soon as you can and share the petition around with others.