I've previously taken the position that CJP has a good chance of complete exoneration. Let me explain why. Start with the statement by CJP's attorney:
...As the Complaint explains, it was Mr. Bell – not Ms. Pendley – who first alleged that Josh assaulted Ms. Pendley. Since filing the Complaint, we learned of an Oro Valley Police Department Report from last year showing that the police investigated concerns that Mr. Bell was abusing Ms. Pendley and keeping her from leaving the home they share. The police response was prompted by friends of Ms. Pendley who reported Ms. Pendley told them she was “in fear of her life” and that Mr. Bell “is physically and verbally abusive.” According to the Report, Ms. Pendley told police that she had not been fully free to leave the home when she wanted. The Report also states that Ms. Pendley told the police Mr. Bell doesn’t always let her speak to her family. A copy of the Report is attached.
As the Complaint shows, Mr. Bell has a long history of abusive, manipulative and controlling behavior toward women. Mr. Bell’s ex-wife sought a protective order because Mr. Bell “threatened to have [her] beat up to the point of drinking through a straw for 6 mos.” A former girlfriend of Mr. Bell resorted to calling friends to rescue her from the house she shared with Mr. Bell because Mr. Bell would not let her leave.
We are confident evidence will show Mr. Bell has been similarly abusive, manipulative and controlling of Ms. Pendley, and the truth about the abusive and dysfunctional relationship between Mr. Bell and Ms. Pendley, and the nefarious reasons for their malicious lies about Josh, will be fully revealed in court and before a jury....We’ve been told Ms. Pendley’s family has effectively stopped communicating with her and we understand her family fully supports Josh’s lawsuit against Ms. Pendley.
So, JP's abuser and tormentor is safely locked up in the Tuscon jail and in another week will be 1,800 miles away in Marietta. A couple of months after that there is a very good chance he will be a guest of the state of Georgia penal system. She is no longer under his thumb. I'll bet with him locked up JP's family and friends have already started communicating with her again. She is slowly but surely being deprogrammed from Ron.
With Ron gone, look at the lawsuit from JP's perspective. There is no upside. The allegations that CJP sexually assaulted her are factually preposterous and she knows it. A jury would look at the fact that for almost 2 years after she says she was attacked she remained close friends with CJP and his wife, bought gifts for his children and texted and emailed them regularly, and laugh her counterclaim out of court. She stands a pretty good chance of having a judgment rendered against her that would financially devastate her. You can't bankrupt against a judgment based upon intentional acts; CJP could turn over any judgment to a collection agency that would literally hound her for the rest of her life.
JP has not reached the point of no return. She hasn't testified under oath in a deposition and perjured herself. Moreover CJP's attorneys very cleverly gave her a huge out, by painting her as more of a victim of Ron than a co-conspirator. If JP tells the truth and agrees to not harass CJP in the future, she can almost assuredly walk away from the lawsuit without owing him any money. CJP gets his exoneration and JP gets her life back. With Ron gone and JP's family and friends back in her life, she will come to the realization that she's involved in a lawsuit with virtually no upside, tremendous potential downside and walk (or run) away from it. It may not happen right away but I firmly believe it's going to happen.
