PASADENA, Calif., July 31,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- I am Annie Chao's attorney in her divorce case, which
was filed in April 2023.
On Friday, July 26, 2024,
Jeffery Chao was arrested for child
abduction and falsifying a police report by the Monterey Park Police Department. His
arraignment was yesterday, and we learned that the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
decided to file criminal felony and misdemeanor charges against Mr.
Chao.
At issue in the media and social media coverage of this case
have been alleged abuse by my client of her daughter.
All of the abuse allegations made against Annie and her father were
determined to be not credible - both by the Los Angeles County
Superior Court after a 15-day trial and by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
who declined to file any charges against Annie or her father. Both
Annie and her father voluntarily testified and subjected themselves
to cross-examination during the 15-day trial where the court
determined the allegations against them were not credible.
The court's concerns that Alison was living in a harmful
environment with Mr. Chao and that he was undermining Annie's
relationship with Alison, caused Mr. Chao to lose physical custody.
The court awarded Annie sole physical custody of Alison on
July 16, 2024 and Mr. Chao was
ordered by the court to turn over custody of Alison to Annie at
9:00 a.m. on July 17, 2024. Within hours of the court awarding
Annie sole physical custody of Alison, Mr. Chao then reported
Alison as "missing."
Now, thanks to the diligence of the Monterey Park Police Department, we know that
Alison was never missing, but instead, abducted by her father. We
are concerned that this misled the public and allowed thousands of
concerned community members and volunteers from all over the
Southland to search for Alison for days on end. It also permitted
the Monterey Park Police
Department to expend its limited resources over nearly a week on a
search that was not needed.
Of additional concern is a GoFundMe campaign mounted on behalf
of Mr. Chao is seeking $250,000 in
donations and has amassed over $128,000 thus far. Despite public assertions to
the contrary, the court found that Mr. Chao is not in financial
need. The court already determined that he has superior financial
resources to Annie.
Since this case came into the public spotlight, my client and
her family have been subjected to a smear campaign, including the
release of videos of Alison at her most vulnerable moments in an
apparent attempt to portray Annie in a negative light. Annie and
her family have received death threats, been subjected to racist
attacks, and there have even been small businesses who have
suffered from false and defamatory online reviews because social
media users mistakenly believed the businesses were connected to my
client's family. The spread of misinformation online has been
counter to Alison's best interests, as was previously pointed out
by her minor's counsel.
Again, my client and her family want to extend their thanks to
the Monterey Park Police
Department and Los Angeles County
District Attorney's Office for their thorough investigation and
complete examination of the facts of this case. They also want to
thank the many individuals who have given their time to help Alison
and to search for her.
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content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jeffery-chao-child-abduction-arrest-and-charges-statement-from-annie-chaos-attorney-gregory-e-almas-302211641.html
SOURCE Law Offices of Gregory E.
Almas