Six years ago, during a child custody matter, my child's mother made allegations of child abuse against me. After 5 years of investigations, evaluations, supervised visitation, & limited time with my child, the Court, in February 2011, found the allegations to be false and "made-up" by my child's mother.
The Court also discredited the Court appointed evaluators testimonies. Furthermore these evaluators currently have charges/accusations of gross negligence, fraud, dishonesty, etc. pending against them by the California Board of Psychology represented by the Attorney General's Office.
For making false allegations that subjected me to extensive and costly defense, investigations by law enforcement, and negligent investigations by CPS as well as negligent, dishonest and bias evaluations by Family Court Services and Court appointed evaluators. This added to significant pain and suffering, including significant financial hardship, by me and my family, as I faced criminal prosecution. For making false accusations of child abuse during a child custody case, is my child's mother subject to criminal sanctions for her actions? If so, then how do I pursue this?
Private persons cannot initiate criminal charges in California. You can make a complaint to the local prosecutor and submit your evidence and request investigation and prosecution. In all but the most extreme factual situations, the prosecutor will decide that the present court (family law court) has adequate powers to punish the offender and make whole the victim. Prosecutors are extremely reluctant to let civil cases spawn criminal actions. But there are exceptions, of course, so if your facts are provable and extreme, there is no downside to submitting evidence to the prosecutor. It may be that the statute of limitations will limit the prosecutor's options, but that is an issue for the prosecutor to grapple with.
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You should look to Family Code Section 3027.1, which discusses knowingly false allegations of child abuse made during custody proceedings and the consequences that can result from this.
The challenge, however, is proving that the allegations were *knowingly* false at the time that they were made.
You really need to seek out a legal specialist in the particular area you want to address. I’m not a criminal lawyer and I have no idea what the statute of limitations would be for you to file charges against your ex and CPS investigator for perjury, lying under oath. While this is not my range of expertise there have been cases where the county and child protective services have civilly convicted for intentionally and illegally taking children from their parents and placing them in foster care without good cause. Your facts involve intentional misconduct so this may provide you a little guiding light and I suggest you find an expert in this area.
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