Laws and courts

Issues you should consider before taking a sociopath to court

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Lovefraud received the following email:

I was previously married to a sociopath, and we have a 4-year-old son together. I have sole legal and physical custody of our son, but have been fighting to reduce the amount of visitation for quite some time. I recently read that having a forensic psychological analysis done on the entire family would reveal that my ex is a sociopath and possibly prevent him from having ANY visitation going forward. Is this true, in your experience? Do you have any advice for me as I embark on this process?

Many, many Lovefraud readers have realized — to their horror — that they’ve had a child or children with a sociopath. Once you realize … Read more

Posted in: Donna Andersen, Laws and courts, Lovefraud Continuing Education

Signs of a sociopath: Man sinks his boat to kill wife on their honeymoon

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Lewis Bennett and Isabella Hellmann (Facebook)

Lewis Bennett will be sentenced this week in Miami, Florida, for the death of his wife, Isabella Hellmann, who was lost at sea during their honeymoon in November, 2017.

Bennett, an experienced British sailor, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Bennett had claimed that the boat had struck an unidentified object. However, photos released by federal prosecutors show that the hull was intentionally punctured from the inside, causing it to sink.

The United States Coast Guard found Bennett floating in his lifeboat in the Atlantic Ocean. The body of his wife was never found.

Signs that Lewis Bennett is a sociopath:

Murder.
Bennett saved himself — and $36,000 in rare coins he had

Posted in: Laws and courts, Media sociopaths

Legal Abuse Syndrome: the result of facing sociopaths in court

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**Book review — Legal Abuse Syndrome: A Preventable Public Health Problem, by Dr. Karin Huffer**

Review by Donna Andersen

You’re traumatized by your experience with a sociopath. Then you face a divorce, child custody or some other court battle against the sociopath — and you’re traumatized all over again.

The sociopath lies about you, smears your reputation and makes false accusations against you. So do his or her attorneys. And the clueless judge allows all of it.

Thirty years ago, Dr. Karin Huffer, a marriage and family therapist, witnessed this phenomenon among her clients. No matter what she did to help them, they kept getting worse. Then she realized that everything she did for them was being … Read more

Posted in: Book reviews, Donna Andersen, Laws and courts

“I encountered a serial killer and escaped”

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Kylr Yust (Facebook)

In response to a question on Quora, a writer called “Frances Red” said yes, she had escaped a serial killer, and told the story about her ex-boyfriend, Kylr Yust:

Out of nowhere he bashed my head into the dashboard, zip tied my throat to the back of his seat, and forced himself upon me. I was traumatized, all these years we had been friends and he has never even so much as raise his voice at me now all the sudden he is beating the living crap out of me and stealing a big part of my innocence and Trust. After he was finished he Release Me From the zip tie that was around my

Emotional abuse is a crime in Ireland

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emotional abuse Emotional and psychological abuse in an intimate relationship is now a crime in Ireland.

The Domestic Violence Act of 2018, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2019, created a new criminal offense of “coercive control.” Coercive control is defined as:

“Psychological abuse in intimate relationships that causes fear of violence or serious alarm or distress that has a substantial adverse impact on a person’s day-to-day life, manifesting as a pattern of intimidation or humiliation involving psychological or emotional abuse.”

Coercive control is already illegal in England and Scotland. Psychological violence is illegal in France.

In a radio interview, Margaret Martin, director of Women’s Aid in Ireland, explained coercive controllers frequently forbid or regulate their partners’ “freedom of … Read more

Posted in: Donna Andersen, Laws and courts

Donna Andersen and Attorney Megan Lyons talk sociopaths

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How many sociopaths are there? What are some of the warning signs at a romantic partner is disordered? How are people with personality disorders diagnosed?

I address all of these topics — and more — in a wide-ranging conversation with Megan Lyons on her Transcending the Trauma of the Human Experience podcast.

Megan is an attorney who thoroughly understands what happens when someone is involved with a sociopath. She presents two Lovefraud webinars:

How to Navigate a Court Proceeding when the Opposing Party is a Sociopath or Cluster-B Disordered Individual

Obtaining Injunctions Against a Sociopath

But because Megan had her own traumatizing experience, she understands that dealing with the legal issues is only part of the recovery process. … Read more

Posted in: Events and announcements, Laws and courts, Lovefraud Continuing Education, Recovery from a sociopath

Upcoming webinar: Friend or foe in your custody battle? Understanding court-appointed professionals

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Check out this webinar!

Friend or foe in your custody battle? Understanding best interest attorneys, custody evaluators and parenting coordinators
Presented by Susan Shofer, the Divorce Consultant
Wed., Sept. 5, 8-9 pm ET • $25

More info

If you’re divorcing a sociopath, and you have children with this person, the chances are good that you’ll end up in a custody battle.

It’s not that your soon-to-be-ex really cares about the children and wants to be in their lives. In reality, the sociopath wants to punish you, and the most painful way to do that is through the children.

So he or she won’t cooperate, won’t pay the children’s expenses as ordered and won’t pick up or drop off … Read more

Posted in: Events and announcements, Laws and courts, Lovefraud Continuing Education, Sociopaths and family

No clear motives in Las Vegas and Aurora, Colorado mass shootings

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James Holmes, convicted of killing 12 people in Colorado.

James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 others during the midnight showing of a Batman movie in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater.

Steven Paddock killed 58 people and wounded 800 who were attending a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Both of these cases were in the news recently as experts said they do not have a clear motive in either of the two mass shootings.

Holmes is serving a life sentence for the shooting, which took place on July 20, 2012. One of the court-appointed psychiatrists who interviewed him has just come out with a book, A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the … Read more

Posted in: Laws and courts, Media sociopaths

Kiley White, 26, allegedly claims brain cancer to con people into caring for her

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Kiley White (Egg Harbor Township Police)

Linda and Steve Evans, of Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey offered their love, support and home to Kiley White, 26, who they believed was battling brain, kidney, liver and bone cancer. White lived with them for five weeks, moaning all night, supposedly in pain. It was all a ruse.

She’d pulled the scam before. But this time, White was arrested and charged wit theft by deception and harassment. In court a few days ago, she smirked and laughed at the family she conned.

Can anyone say psychopath?

EHT family opens up home to woman who allegedly lied about her illness, on PressOfAtlanticCity.com.

Woman faked brain cancer, stayed with South Jersey family … Read more

Posted in: Female sociopaths, Laws and courts

Truly scary: Australian grandmother, a love fraud victim, sentenced to death for drug smuggling

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Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto.

Online dating is dangerous. Just ask Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54, of Sydney, Australia, who may hang because of a romance scam.

For two years, she communicated an online boyfriend, who claimed to be “Captain Daniel Smith,” a US soldier stationed in Afghanistan. The online boyfriend eventually proposed to her. Maria flew to Shanghai to meet him. He didn’t show up. Instead, she was given two bags to bring back to Melbourne.

At a layover in Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia, the bags were searched. Drugs were stitched into the linings. Maria had no idea.

Maria was convicted of drug smuggling. She was acquitted in December 2017 — the judge ruled she had … Read more

Posted in: Laws and courts, Media sociopaths