Lawyers and frauds
The next seven months were miserable. My lawyer Rifan reassured me that all would be well; Artini and Nyoman Sudana and Wayan Dharma would all provide testimony in court, and I had documents and photos to back up the California marriage.
But still I worried. Rifan urged that I not attend the hearings—some of the judges might be biased against bules—Westerners—he said. But when Made Artini came back from court she told me that Rifan had not prepared her and hardly asked her anything important.
In the meantime home life was terrible, with Made frequently exploding in rage at our sons or at the pembantus. I moved to our new house down the road and the boys were back and forth, one week with me and one week with Made. She still refused a single word with me, and she sent messages through the boys or pembantus.
Made Artini and Nyoman Sudana were already uneasy; Made's practices had changed. She had never made the daily offerings and always let the pembantus do it, but she suddenly began going to the temple late at night, though not with normal offerings, and there were rumors of other things.
Almost every Indonesian I have ever known believes in black magic. When in Bali I suspend Western disbelief because the reality is the belief. Regardless how I felt about black magic, everyone else was in fear of it.
Made kicked Made Artini out from her house in a fit of anger that she had dared to give testimony in court that the claims of a 1996 marriage in Kuta were false. At our house we began to find odd things left on the doorstep. Sometimes Made sent food for the boys which we threw away. Made Artini made more offerings and Nyoman Sudana sought help from a Pemangku.
At one point Made sent an unusally large branch of bananas with the message that she had bought too many at the market. Any kind of generosity from Made to me was completely out of character. We sent it back with the message that no more gifts would be accepted at my house.
And there were more physical fears, which later turned out to be well founded. We took extra precautions locking doors and gates.
My problem in 2006 after losing in the High Court was what to do about it? There were clear indications of multiple crimes by multiple persons: False Documents, Perjury, Fraud, Collusion.
On the other hand, most friends with long experience in Indonesia advised me to abandon my children and flee Bali.
For a foreigner - or bule - to oppose a fraud in Bali, they told me, was hopeless.
The ruling of the court
In November the court issued its ruling. Rifan called me to his office and translated it to me. The judges had accepted Made’s false marriage documents and the false testimony from Made’s witnesses, they declared the 1996 marriage as legal, they granted a divorce of the marriage that took place in Sanur (or Kuta, or Tabanan) in 1994 or 1996 depending on which document you read.
I was dumbfounded. Rifan had assured me that all was well. He shrugged that it was just unlucky, the kind of thing that happens sometimes. "I guess they didn't believe us. But we can always appeal, and everything remains status quo for now." I drove home in a daze.
The boys were at Made's house that week. On Saturday when they were scheduled to return to my home, Made sent a pembantu instead with a message that the boys would never again be coming to my house because they were hers now.
I immediately jumped in my car and drove the 30 seconds down the road. Made came screaming out as I walked into the boys' room, and in front of the children she shrieked that she had won the court decision, that the children were no longer my children, and I was no longer their father.
The children were crying in terror. I said nothing to Made, only asked the boys as calmly as I could manage whether they wanted to go home with me, and as they nodded yes I guided them out with my arms around their shoulders. Made grabbed at them and tried to pull them away. I was not going to get in a tug-of-war with her. I let them go as she tried to drag them back to the house, but they squirmed away.
"Call your lawyer, or I will call him," I said. "You don't have the right to them.'
Wikantara was there in minutes. The boys and Made and I were still out in the drive where she was failing to herd them to the house. "Made, please," Wikantara said as he calmed her. "Michael is right, they have appealed so it is still status quo."
Her mouth dropped open. "Stat.. what?" she yelled. "What is 'stat-o'?"
As Wikantara explained she turned her new rage on him. He had never told her about appeals or stat-o, she said. He told her that she would win and would have sole custody of the children.
So he had lied to her. Well, maybe not technically or actively. It was just that she had never asked him "then what?" or about appeals. Probably never hear of them. So now Wikantara was deeply in a case with huge money and property values at stake, and probably with a long series of court actions ahead. His future looked good.
The boys were back to one week at Made's house, one week at mine. My heart ached for what they were going through.
What To Do Next?
It was indeed desperate for a bule to fight an apparent fraud backed by documents prepared over fourteen years and targeting millions of dollars worth of assets - particularly now that those assets were already in the hands of Made Jati's family.
If I gave in, however, I would lose my children and they would lose their birthrights. Their U.S. citizenship status would be thrown into legal chaos which could take years to sort out through complex court cases in both Indonesia and the U.S.
There were clear indications of multiple crimes by multiple persons: False Documents, Perjury, Fraud, Collusion. Surely I could take these to the police for investigation, I thought.
On the other hand, most friends with long experience in Indonesia advised me to abandon my children and flee Bali.
For a foreigner - or bule - to oppose a fraud in Bali, they told me, was hopeless.
Poring over the documents Made Jati had presented to the court and trying to understand my loss, I discovered:
• Just seven months after our marriage Made Jati established a secret unmarried identity for herself in Tabanan while maintaining a separate married identity with me in Sanur. She used this secret identity to acquire many more documents as a single woman over the next 12 years.
• Throughout our marriage, Made Jati and her family presented numerous documents to me in Indonesian for my signature. They explained that they were necessary for immigration or business or our family Hindu religious ceremonies, and I signed them based on trust for my wife despite being unable to read them.
• Made Jati acquired a new Marriage Certificate at the Civil Records Office in Denpasar in 1996 without my knowledge, using documents she assembled starting over ten years earlier in 1986.
• Made Jati’s two witnesses in the trial, her sister Nyoman Suti and Uluwatu manager Heru Widiyanto, apparently committed perjury by swearing they had witnessed the fictitious 1996 ceremony.
• The testimony of my witnesses was falsified and reversed in the court records so that they appeared to deny the actual 1994 Bali ceremony.
• My lawyers, Rifan SH and Fajar Harini SH, of Austrindo Law Office, aside from failing to enter available evidence to the National Court, did not enter a Memo of Appeal to the High Court despite telling me they had done so. Without a declaration of appeal to the court, my chances of winning on appeal were zero.
Confronted with growing evidence that Austrindo Law Office had colluded with Made Jati, I eventually hired new attorneys, Maharidzal SH and Mangasi Simangunsong SH. They entered an appeal to the Supreme Court. As long as my case was under consideration I regained parental rights to my children during the appeal, but Made Jati kept control of our family assets.
But with Made Jati refusing any discussion or settlement or mediation, I had no choice but to report the suspected crimes to the police at Polda Bali.
