TESTIMONY FROM FAMILY MEMBERS! WHAT IS IT WORTH?

As I wrote the blog regarding Linda Wiegand and what has been said against her, I think the most troubling information that bothered me were the accusations from family members.  Linda Wiegand's own nephew accuses her of sexually abusing him.  Her MOTHER says she thinks that Linda Wiegand is abusing her own children.  


Of course, we aren't getting a professional collection of information here.  What does it mean that the nephew accused Linda Wiegand sexually abusing him--does that mean she made an off color sexual remark or that she actually did something to him physically?  Also, the same goes for the  report from Linda Wiegand's mother.  What did she mean when she said that Linda Wiegand was abusing the children?  Did she mean actual sexual abuse or did it mean that she felt uncomfortable that the children were talking about sexual matters beyond their age and she just assumed that Linda had something to do with it.  Who knows?  


We don't get much clarification of this point and in order to draw any kinds of conclusions we have to know more specifically what this testimony was.  Otherwise, I have got to say that when it comes to high conflict divorce, even when a family member makes a comment or an observation, it is not clear to me that the remarks can be taken seriously.  


Often, victims of abuse comes from very dysfunctional families--this is why they are such good targets for abusers, because they are not able to read the advanced warning signs and stay away.  


When it comes to abusers, many come from dysfunctional families that created the tendency to abuse anyway and many are to charmed by their own family members they are unable to understand that what they have is an abuser in the family.  They are only too willing to believe the stories they are told that justify what the abusers have done to their victims, many of whom often comes from the families themselves.  


In my situation, my family had no understanding that abuse was going on and when I filed for divorce they took the abusers' side.  They were only too willing to believe that I was unstable and during the time that my custody evaluation took place they were noticeably silent.  It was only as the months went on and what my ex was doing became more obvious that my parents finally woke up and realized what was going on.  Then they stood up for me, perhaps providing me too little too late, but, of course, that was better than nothing at all.  


Ultimately, what I'm saying is, I would be very skeptical of what families have to say.  I do report that this was what investigators reported about Linda Wiegand, but it isn't high up in the scale of evidence as far as I'm concerned.