Q: My wife claims to be in another relationship with a man, but were still married. What can I do?
I'm a US Soldier who's currently serving overseas. Before I left for my deployment, I had gotten married. During my deployment, my wife had taken over $17,000 out of our joint account, had slept with another man, currently claims to be in a relationship with another man, and is still affecting my finances even though I have a new bank account. I had my wife download the divorce paperwork off of the Ohio Supreme Court website because initially we were going about the divorce civilly, however she has refused to send the paperwork to me for over three months now claiming shes worried that i would change the documents in my favor. Also she has driven our account into the negatives by -$2800, and is claiming back home that i was abusive, manipulative, and a cheater. Can I get her for slander and defamation of character since these accusations aren't true? The legal representation here claims they cannot help due to it being an Ohio matter, and im not sure where else to look for help.
A: Use the Find a Lawyer tab to consult and retain an attorney in the OH county where your wife lives to represent you in the divorce. The attorney can review what she has filed, if anything, and advise you about division of property and other issues that will be resolved in the divorce including any debts she incurred. Best wishes.
A:
Statements made in court are largely protected from claims of slander or defamation. If she is making these same claims outside of court, then you could have a case. You could seek and injunction against her, but it may be difficult to establish damages, particularly if no one believes her allegations (or the effect on your reputation is minor).
There is an advantage to having you just file for divorce, however. Using the SCRA, you can file, obtain temporary orders to keep her out of the account and out of your property, and then seek a stay under the SCRA until you can get back into the county.
Do NOT try to do this yourself. Obtain an Ohio attorney to do this. There are jurisdictional hangups here, especially if you have children (your question didn't mention those, so I assume that there are no children).
A nearly identical situation happened to my Army officer brother when he was in Afghanistan. He decided to wait it out until he got back home. Don't do that.
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