Evynne Fair: False Allegations, CPS, and Coached Interviews

Text the accuser. Call your family. Get ahead of it before the story spreads. Evynne Fair has both investigated these reports and defended against them, and she says those first few hours are where people talk themselves into a far worse position than the accusation itself ever put them in.

Our guest is attorney Evynne Fair of Oakmont Law Group in Englewood, Colorado. Her background is unusual for this subject: two years as a caseworker with Washoe County Child Protective Services in Reno, Nevada, investigating allegations of abuse and neglect, eight years as a part-time reserve deputy sheriff in Carson City, a clerkship with Denver juvenile court, and practice in criminal defense, juvenile law, and family law before she moved to personal injury. She was trained to conduct forensic interviews with children, which is why her critique of how they are often run carries weight.

Evynne walks through what she saw change once she was inside the system: reports made by a parent or a relative in the middle of a custody fight, filed because the stakes are a child rather than money. She talks about accusations against fathers, stepfathers, and in one of her cases a grandfather, and about the restraining-order tactic some attorneys apparently recommend as leverage. Lisa adds the pattern from the coaching side, where clients of every gender arrive accused of things they say they did not do.

The rest of the conversation is about evidence and procedure. How a forensic interview with a child should be set up, why someone should be observing it live or reviewing the recording before charges are filed, and what borrowed scenarios sound like when a child uses vocabulary that is not their own. Why a child who recalls nothing about this morning but everything about an event seven years ago is a reason to investigate further rather than to charge. Why reports come back unfounded, including legitimate ones. What recourse exists for repeated false reporting, and why the reporting party's identity stays sealed. And what Evynne tells people to do from the moment child protective services arrives.

As always, this is strategic education, not legal or mental-health advice for your specific situation.

🎓 What you'll learn

• Why an allegation raised during a divorce gets flagged as possibly vindictive, and the catch-22 that leaves honest reporters looking opportunistic
• What panic makes people do in the first hours, and why contacting the accuser backfires
• The restraining-order tactic some attorneys coach clients to use for custody leverage
• How a child's forensic interview should be structured, and who should be watching it
• Borrowed scenarios and memory testing: what a coached interview actually sounds like
• Why vivid recall of a seven-year-old event alongside a blank about this morning is a reason to keep investigating, not to file
• Why reports come back unfounded, and where care standards and legal standards part ways
• What to do from the moment a caseworker knocks on your door

⏱️ Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:00 How common vindictive reporting really is, and Evynne's background
5:00 Fathers, stepfathers, and allegations raised mid-custody-fight
7:00 The restraining order used as leverage at the start of a case
10:00 Negative advocates, and attorneys who mirror their client's emotions
13:00 What fear and panic make people do in the first hours
18:00 Mandated reporters, and AI-doctored recordings as evidence
20:00 Inside a forensic interview that should have stopped the charges
26:00 Borrowed scenarios, memory testing, and body language
30:00 Why reports come back unfounded, and what legally counts as neglect
33:00 Repeated false reports, the sealed reporting party, and access-time bind
37:00 What to do the day child protective services knocks

Keep going 💜
Book a free 30-minute discovery call and we'll help you map your next steps: https://beentheregotout.com/call
📘 Been There Got Out: Toxic Relationships, High-Conflict Divorce, and How to Stay Sane Under Insane Circumstances — https://www.amazon.com/dp/194627495X
📘 Been There Got Out: When Your Ex Turns the Kids Against You (our parental-alienation book) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1967674183
🔗 Evynne Fair at Fair Squared Injury Law: https://fair2law.com/evynne-fair/

About Been There Got Out
Chris Barry and Lisa Johnson are high-conflict divorce, custody, and co-parenting strategists, and the founders of Been There Got Out. They know these cases from the inside: both have successfully represented themselves in family court. Few attorneys have a playbook for a case like this — Chris and Lisa write yours with you, so you and your kids can get through it as unscathed as possible.