In response to the JW related post on the prior page. My prolonged experience with JW's..... (and apologies in advance if any of it seems jumbled, it is a lot to recall)
My ex-in laws, WA and Virginia Burse, currently located in in South Carolina, are JW. WA was an elder or whatever at his prior kingdom hall. I don't know if he is at the current one. For about 5 years they constantly sided with and helped cover up the abuse my ex and her then husband committed on my kids. They lied in court during our divorce, and to DHS and the police after the divorce. I lived 3 hrs away, and on my weekend visits and summer visits the ex in laws would help clean the kids up and all so everything would look normal when I or my mom picked the kids up.
Only after my ex-wife managed to burn her own house down did my ex-mother in law finally have a change of heart and did what was right, and informed me as to what all was going on mid 2k5 (drug use, physical abuse, burglary).
I took back custody of the kids and started contacting the schools they attended prior to get records and found out from them that school staff reported my ex to DHS often for abuse and neglect (No one ever notified me of this, DHS or otherwise). After a bit of time more details emerged from my kids, they told my family in detail as to what all had happened to them. Way more then what my ex mother in law was evidently aware of.
While I wont get into the gritty details of all of the abuse, needless to say my ex fled the state because the police were contacted, she and her husband failed a polygraph, and warrants were then issued. My ex-inlaws moved out of state to avoid any embarrassment with people they knew, basically leaving my side of the family to be the ones to pick up the pieces. My ex-wifes husband was in jail for something unrelated when he took the poly test and failed, so he was kept in jail and prosecuted successfully fairly quickly.
During the next 6 years or so my ex mother in law and I stayed on what I felt were good/peaceful terms (we didn't argue), and I let the kids visit her during the summer in the spirit of just trying to patch things up and let everyone heal and move on. During this time she did send JW's she knew that were in our area to kinda sorta spy on us. If we didn't return a phone call from her in like 24 hrs, we'd have some JW knocking on our door the next day, or leaving a note on our car asking if things were ok. I just kind of humored it all because it was
mostly harmless.
Over the years I spent time trying to track my ex down. Found out she was in New Jersey. Reported her location but she fled the area quickly. Later on I found out she was staying with family on her fathers side here in the south in 2011. My ex-inlaws did not divulge info to that side of their family about her warrants, etc. until my ex-wife had started some mess there with an aunt or something.
They also did not inform me she was there until after the supposed mess had occurred and my ex was captured (a family member ratted her out after they found out about the warrants). My ex mother in-law told me they did not know she was there until right before she was caught and extradited back to Arkansas in late 2011. I found out much later during trial preparation in winter 2012 that my ex in-laws knew she was there with family for quite a few months. They had been knowing quite a bit more about her whereabouts then they ever let on to law enforcement.
At any given time my ex was there, her mother or father could have called the cops and informed them of her location, or inform me, but didn't. Due to my ex mother in laws reluctance to do the right thing, my ex got to stay on the run for much longer then she should have.
Also, the summer in 2012, before the preparation for the upcoming trial, my kids went to visit my ex-in laws. My son came back depressed and angry from this visit. It took him a few months basically before he opened up as to why. Ended up my ex-mother in law tried to pressure him constantly to stay in Georgia, and also to not testify against his mom, and that my ex mother in-law and my sons aunt had taken great liberties to talk shit about me, all sorts of lies and crap.
I played it cool and tried to just take the high road. I informed the in-laws that the kids would be staying with me next summer, partly due to my daughter having summer school, which was true, but also stated my son wanted to stay this time and look for a summer job (he didn't). Basically just making excuses for why they needed to stay with us the following summer.
My ex mother in-law freaked out and started attacking me verbally via email and to my kids on the phone, lying about me and other shit, so in the end I told her I knew everything she did during the kids last visit and we had quite a bit of words. Her justification for her actions were because "people are not perfect".
Needless to say my son was not allowed to go back and visit them alone until he turned 18 last summer, so that he would not be stuck out there totally in their care during any visit, at their mercy, like a minor would be. He would be legally responsible for himself as an adult. My daughter is under the same restriction, not until she is 18 unless my ex in-laws come here and visit her supervised, which my ex mother in law is not interested in doing.
During the falling out I had offered them to visit the kids as long as it is supervised. Instead of coming here to visit the kids, they went and visited their daughter in prison. Due to that my kids only kept in touch with them fia cell phone until my son turned 18. My ex in-laws and I no longer speak now at all after that mess. All respect has been lost. Regardless, I don't talk about them and their stupidity in front of my kids.
I just kind of moved on from the situation. This is the first time I have really mentioned it to anyone in quite some time since these days I consider it a WA and Virgina Burse family issue. I no longer have to deal with them on any level, nor am I obligated to do so.
Also I should state this, just for the sake of disclosure. My ex opted out of having a trial and plead guilty. She is in prison for a long duration. During preparing for the trial that never happened, my ex was submitted to a mental health screening, because she was going to attempt to plea not guilty by reason of mental defect/insanity. During the interviews held with her, which I have access to the records of, she had stated that she was physically and sexually abused by her father. She stated her mother knew of the abuse:
I should also note my ex wife is a pathological liar who will burn you out of spite, and lie about you for just about any reason, so it is difficult to put much stock into what she said. This is the same ex who lied on the stand saying I beat her all the time when we were divorcing to try to get a sympathetic ear with the judge, so I have a hard time believing anything she says. If what she says is true though, then it kind of goes hand in hand with what you always end up reading about, jehovah witnesses linked with sexual abuse coverups and other issues.
In addition, because I feel like tacking these links on to give some insight into my ex-inlaws way of thinking:
http://www.watchthetower.net/reasons.htmlhttp://www.revealnews.org/article/jehovahs-witnesses-use-1st-amendment-to-hide-child-sex-abuse-claims/http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/12/jehovahs_witnesses_under_fire.htmlAnd for lulz:
http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/quotes/oral-anal-sex.phphttp://masonemerson.freeyellow.com/christianwitnessescom/id90.html