Forced Absence

Imagine waking up one Saturday morning to the sound of loud banging at your door. You call out to your wife, "Sweetie, answer the door!" But your spouse and the kids are gone. The knocks keep coming. You open the door and see two burly Sheriff's Deputies at your door who inform you that your spouse has filed a Protection From Abuse order against you and that you've got twenty minutes to get your things out of the house and vacate the premises. You are dumbfounded because you've never had a fight with her and violence was never part of the equation for you. You argue that there must be a mistake, but your pleas fall on deaf ears. You realize numbly that, to them, you sound just like the brutes who actually do abuse the ones they love. You get dressed, grab a few things, and frantically make some calls as you watch the Deputies install padlocks on your doors. Eventually you leave and drive to your parents' house, hoping that you'll be back home in a couple of days after the matter has been resolved. Unbeknownst to you, you will never step foot in your home again. The truth is, your spouse has a new love in her life and used a PFA order to get rid of you and move the lover in. Your wife's new lover is now your children's new daddy. Welcome to the life of Tim Olson. Tim was a victim of this scenario, except that Tim wasn't the husband . . . he was the child. when Tim's mother accused his father of abuse that never happened, she drove Tim's father into financial and emotional ruin. When Tim grew up and learned the truth, he didn't just get mad he got even, with tragic results. Through interviews with actual litigants, mental health professionals, lawyers, and victims, we learn about the undercurrent of post-nuptial turmoil now boiling over in family courts across the country in the form of child custody and visitation battles, false allegations of abuse, corrupt judges, and unaffordable child support awards. The system is broken and the results it has on the families who go through it is devastating. The laws of various jurisdictions in the United States encourage and reward greed while discouraging civility and co-parenting. Forced Absence is a story of love and hatred, greed and vengeance, and the effects of a corrupt and inefficient family court system which is being exploited by husbands, wives, and live-in partners seeking to destroy one another. This documentary is an assembly of capsulized true events in the lives of several victims. To the extent possible, the participants are the actual individuals involved. To protect the innocent and their privacy, some re-enactments and technical changes were incorporated. This book, which is written in screenplay format, is a derivative of the feature motion picture.