The following is a statement made by Ms. Patricia Driscoll in regards to the Protection From Abuse order that she sought against Kurt Busch: “What really upsets me about this whole process is that there are many women out there who are seeing the hell I am being put through for being brave enough to come forward and file criminal charges and ask for a protective order. How many women will be scared away now from doing the right thing because they don’t want their life turned upside down like mine has been?” she said in last month’s statement. “The accused is innocent until proven guilty, but the accuser is guilty until a judge says otherwise. The only thing I am guilty of is bad taste in men.”

Ms. Driscoll, I do not know if your petition for a Protection order is just or unjust, if you are committing perjury or you are indeed a victim of domestic violence. But, I will tell you this – typically, in a Protection From Abuse hearing, what occurs is the petitioner’s (predominantly female) mere allegation, whether true or false, will constitute a preponderance of evidence needed to find that the respondent (accused) has committed an act(s) of domestic violence. Now, with all due respect, thankfully, what you are experiencing is to the contrary. You are experiencing the neutral search for the truth, a meticulous review of evidence, with an adherence to the rule of law, an anomaly in the “typical” PFA Hearing. In essence, the way a judicial proceeding should go that seeks to determine the guilt or innocence of someone accused of domestic violence.

“How many women will be scared away now from doing the right thing because they don’t want their life turned upside down like mine has been?” An entire culture has been brainwashed by the Domestic Violence industry into accepting the beliefs that:

a) all women should be believed without any scrutiny of their stories;

b) if their stories are found to be, let’s say ... less than truthful, they should not be prosecuted for perjury/false police reports because (drum roll, please) ... it will cause other women to not come forward.

In fact, the two tenets that I listed have become the de facto public policy. It is reiterated from every facet of our judicial and criminal-justice system. It seems — even with story after story in which we see this perversion of due process, i.e., University of Virginia Fraternity Rape Hoax, Duke University Lacrosse Team Rape Hoax, the great Super Bowl Domestic Violence Hoax, the Brian Banks Story — the system continues to perpetuate myth over fact and witch hunt over due process.

Over the past 20 or so years, it has been the cause of hundreds, if not thousands, of fraudulent PFA being granted, the alienating of fathers from their children, a vast waste of police and court resources that could be used to help true victims of domestic violence, and has a mockery of the system, with its blessings, I might add.

Ironically, I hope the high-profile exposure of this particular case will make this inconvenient truth undeniable and will somehow be a catalyst for change.

Gordon Smith

Delaware Domestic Violence Legislative Project

Felton