Q: Is there no law that protects me from a verbally, emotionally abusive ex husband?
My ex husband of almost 2 years is constantly sending me verbally abusive texts and emails. Calling me a whore, pathetic, an idiot uneducated, stupid... I can go on and on. I have all his emails and texts from at least 2013 until present to show pattern. He has also recently threatened to call DFAS (military pay) and have my retirement stopped (which he can not do) if I did not give him $5000 that he said he paid on a student loan from 2007. It was never paid and the account was charged off and closed in 2010. Does extortion not come into play with those texts? He was physically and verbally abusive during the marriage. Do I not have the right not to be abused? What happened to domestic abuse, harassment and defamation of character? Is there anything I can do to protect myself from this kind of abuse? Is it pointless for women to get out of an abusive situation if the abuser can still be able to attack them?
A: There is a statute in Tennessee that prohibits telephone harassment. Contact the phone company and tell them you wan this stopped. Also, report it to the police. You can get an order of protection in any of the threats rise to the level of an imminent threat of bodily harm. If nothing works, consider blocking his calls and getting a new phone number.
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