This is because Geraldine Jensen is a liar, or at least practices what is called being economical with the truth. Here is what you will not find portrayed in this Lifetime movie:
Geraldine moved from Nebraska to Ohio, a distance of about 1500 miles, in 1977. She had her ex-husband, Mr. Gerharter, sign an agreement that he would continue to make his child support payments even though she was taking the children out of state, an agreement that was handed to him to sign 5 minutes before her leaving the state. He signed the agreement, without advice of counsel, because she told him if he refused to sign he would never see his children again.
Mr. Gerharter's opportunities to visit with his children became severely limited after the children moved to Toledo partly because of the distance along with the fact that when he was in Toledo, Geraldine would either refuse to let him see the children by stating they had other plans or would only permit him to visit with the children in her home under extremely controlled circumstances. Mr. Gerharter's parents testified that Geraldine had permitted the children to visit with them about once a month on the weekends until June of 1978. After that date she no longer permit them to see the children nor give the children gifts from them or their father. After Christmas of that year, she would would no longer let him talk with his children on the phone or pass along letters he wrote to them.
Mr. Gerharter made $500 in child support payments in June, July and August of 1978 and testified he stopped making payments on advice of counsel. He began sending any extra money he had to his father with the instructions that his father was to spend the money on the children if ever permitted to see the children. The Grandfather testified at the time of the hearing that about $2,100 had been sent and deposited in a savings account. At the hearing, the trial judge refused to admit an affidavit from an attorney in Omaha which supported this testimony. The father had maintained medical insurance and life insurance on the children as required by the dissolution and his (wrongful) refusal to pay support resulted from Geraldine's denial of his visitation rights.
Now, Geraldine remarried April 27, 1979 and those two filed a petition for adoption (to my recollection, none of this is reflected in the film. I believe the film gives the impression that she was a single parent through the entire ordeal and the new husband is non-existent).
With Pell and Title XX grants, she returned to school in 1980 and Bowling Green School of Practical Nursing a year later before going on to supervise other LPNs at a nursing home. She was making it until the end of 1983 when illness put her in intensive care and she was hospitalized for three weeks. In addition, her son needed ear surgery to prevent hearing loss. This is when she decided to go on her vindictive rampage.
All of this is a matter of record through court documents but it obviously doesn't lend well to the victimized woman perception that Lifetime loves to project. She may have (arguably) done the right things as far as child-support legislation is concerned, but she did it through deceptions, exaggerations and outright lies, not least of which is a dispute over the actual amount claimed that he was behind because of a clerical error and one the father didn't even know he owed:
"According to Elaine Anderson, deputy clerk of courts in Dodge County, a mistake was made when the order was moved [between counties].
"I don't know how it slipped through the cracks, but Mr. Gerharter still owed $587.49 from 1976. A law was passed here sometime after that, which allowed the state to charge 14-percent interest on back child support. That means he owes $11,155.25 in interest, too," Anderson said."
An Ex-Post Facto issue, to be sure, and shows where the popular $12,000 figure comes from, and one that Geraldine actually waived voluntarily.
I recall an article some time ago where these facts were supported by her then husband, who's name I can not recall, who went on record stating that he had been lied to about the facts for years and that she actively interfered with Mr. Gerharter's ability to see his children, even down to taking the kids out of the house and staying out when he was in town and would call to let her know he was coming to visit. I believe he eventually filed for divorce from her over the deception, among other things, but I may be wrong there. Unfortunately, many references to this part of the story get buried underneath all the articles that popularize the notion that women are always victims.
I did find one reference from 1995 after the film aired that might lend a different perspective than the one Geraldine and Lifetime portray:
Gerri Stacks The Deck
http://www.israeliteidentity.com/jensen2.htm
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TrumpIsAHump
11 years ago
That's Lifetime for you. Virtually every "true" story is told from the point of view of the woman, no matter how factually inaccurate they have to make it in order to do so.
I know of a radio show host who had terrible (adoptive) parents, and was contacted by Lifetime on the basis of stories he had told on his show. After a few interviews with the potential writer of his story, he was told that Lifetime would never make the movie, because the stories all painted his mother in a bad light, even though that was the truth.
The writer said that the only way Lifetime would be interested in the story is if it could be written so that the mother could be presented in a positive light, and could be the "heroine" of the story.
I guess that why they call Lifetime "Television For Women." Although maybe it should be called "Frequently Factually Altered Television For Women." :)
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