Carmen María Montiel - Stolen Identity

Oh My God! How disturbed this is. Even my younger children spent time with a prostitute.

On Tuesday, I was with my lawyers, who had already filed the motion to get my daughter back and to restrict Alejandro’s visitation with the children, when suddenly Alexandra called: “ Mami , you have to withdrew the motion.”

“What motion?”

“The one you filed.”

“How do you know about that?”

“ Papi just sent it to me and is threatening me. If you do not withdraw it, I am leaving and you will not ever see me again.”

She hung up.

I told my lawyers he forced her to make that call and called her back. She did not answer. I called the maid and she said Alexandra had left. I went home with my lawyer and called her again. No answer. My lawyer told me to call the police.

I texted her: “Alexandra, the police are going to be looking for you. Come home, please.”

The police came and completed a report, but said there was nothing they could do about it until 48 hours after she was gone. My lawyer left and I prayed: “God please don’t let her do anything irrational.”

She finally came back crying and apologized after three hours.

On November 20, 2013, we went to court to legally get my daughter back and have Alejandro’s visitation with the children supervised. My lawyers had requested a drug test since Alexandra saw him using.

Alejandro drank water at the courthouse worse than a fish. This was very rare because he does not drink water; he usually drinks Coke. My lawyers were making fun of it.

I testified about what I saw when my daughter came back to me. However, Alejandro’s lawyers diverted the court’s attention by asking me about the plane incident, accusing me of being an alcoholic and a drug addict.

“After all, she takes after her mother.”

With this, Alejandro had managed to accuse me of his ways. He is the drug addict and alcoholic, but now the tables were turned. The psychiatrist who saw Alexandra testified and gave an explicit account of what Alexandra had told him: drugs, prostitutes and sleeping in the streets. At lunchtime, my lawyers told Alejandro’s lawyers to have him take a drug test. His lawyers refused, saying they had to work with their client. Work or go do another treatment to get him clean? I thought to myself.

The lab sent the technician to the court. It was a female. Alejandro refused to be tested by a woman. He said he preferred to wait for the male technician. Suddenly, he was all modesty. A man that walked naked around the house where all the maids, workers and children saw him.

When Alejandro got on the stand, he lied. He said none of it was true. After a full day, the associate judge dictated that I was to get my daughter back; Alejandro had to pay 100% of the medical bills, Kamee’s horseback riding lessons and Juan Diego’s tutoring; and we all had to attend a class of families in divorce, but Alejandro’s visitation stayed as it was.

Alejandro never paid for anything or attended the class. We, my children and I, did. We were punished, not him. I was devastated, and so were my children. They did not want to go back to visit him.

After a week we got the results from the drug test back… negative! My daughter looked at me with tears rolling down her cheeks: “ Mami , I saw him! I saw him! Believe me, he uses.”

“I know, mi amor . I believe you. I have seen also.”

Two and a half years later, Alejandro proudly told me how a dinner with a judge from another court helped him get on the good side of the judge in our court. That is how he got away with this.

As had become our tradition, we spent Christmas and New Year’s in Colorado at our apartment in Beaver Creek. The kids are now 15, 12 and 6 years of age. Juan Diego is still in ski school but the girls ski with us. All in the family are great skiers and we enjoy the sport. It was our first day of skiing and Alejandro, as usual, had a red face, as he does not use sunblock.

On Christmas Eve, we went to have drinks with friends before Christmas dinner with the children at the Hyatt Hotel. We sat in a space close to the bar and a bartender was taking care of us.

However, Alejandro went to the bar himself and got our drinks. I could not understand why. When he came back with the drinks, I said: “Why didn’t you ask the waiter for them?”

“Ah! He was taking too long,” he responded.

I thought he was being extra nice because we were not living together then. He should not have come on this trip.

After our friends left, we stayed a little longer and Alejandro went back to the bar for a second set of drinks. As usual, we started fighting. The therapist had recommended that we put distance between ourselves when fights started.

I left to get our car with the valet and noticed I could hardly walk. Why? What was happening to me?

When I got to the apartment, the children were walking out. Why? We had dinner reservations. Alejandro got there right behind me and started screaming: “Why did you leave me?”

“The therapist said to put distance between us when problems start, plus we have to get ready for dinner,” I said.

“What dinner? You ruined everything.”

“How? What did I ruin?”

I was dizzy. I could not understand what was he talking about. He came close and started hitting me. I already had bruises from a previous day. Once again, I decided to leave, to put distance between us.

I did not know where to go. It was Christmas Eve. Everybody was having family time. We had dinner reservations with the children; now we did not. I decided to get on I-70 toward Vail.

That was the night Alejandro called the police and told them I was driving drunk in a blue Hummer 3 with Texas license plates. This was his first success in getting me in trouble with the authorities. And that became his golden card. After this I was at his mercy.

I was scared and knew I was not well. I only remember having less than two glasses of wine. I did not finish the second glass, so why did I feel so bad and start to lose consciousness after the first drink? Alejandro even exaggerated this story knowing he had drugged me that day and purposely put me in that position, something he had been doing for a while I came to find out later.

When I went to court, I could not believe when I read the police report. Besides calling the police to report I was driving drunk and giving them the description of the car so they would get me, he told them I had hit him and used his “red” cheeks as evidence!

We just started to ski so, of course, his cheeks were red. He furthered his accusations by saying I had a history of mental problems, more of his lies.

What? I thought to myself. How could he come up with all these lies? And then act with me like he had done nothing? How could he ever imagine that I would never read this report? I realized then the power that doctors have. People take their word as if it was incorruptible, even if what he was saying sounded unreasonable. Who are you going to believe: the doctor or the beauty queen? Yes, he always told the authorities I was just a beauty queen and failed to mention that I was also a journalist who had graduated magna cum laude . Once he realized he had that power, he went on manipulating the authorities.

What was worse was to read the reaction I had. I could hardly remember what happened. But in the last months, I could not remember what happened on so many of occasions.

Alejandro arranged with the lawyer to get a deal for me. As a first offense, a lawyer could have fought the charge and had everything completely dropped. But that was not Alejandro’s intention.

I was trapped in this situation.