The Politician

Treva is a politician and an accomplished public speaker. She has an interesting relationship with the truth, and she says whatever she believes will benefit her the most in any given situation.

Do I have to move to Charlestown to benefit from some of that “unwavering honesty”? Do her callous lies about being a victim of domestic violence demonstrate “empathy” for the women and men who really do suffer from spousal abuse? Does she “respect” herself enough to tell the truth?

Unfortunately, she can’t tell the truth. By making these claims in such a public way, it’s a part of her fabricated story now. The truth undermines her credibility. Former Mayor Hall learned of her “interesting relationship with the truth” shortly after she took office and publicly accused him of improperly shredding documents to prevent a smooth transition of power. How did that turn out? ISP finds no evidence of wrongdoing after Charlestown mayor claims previous administration left nothing behind

Wait... "Unwavering" honesty?

That's what she claims, yes. The reality is something else entirely. As these pages have demonstrated, the video was full of lies. But why did she post the video in the first place?

This guy

John Rogers was a supporter of the incumbent. He didn't like what he perceived to be an ultra-liberal carpetbagger who sought to destroy his conservative little town! So he ran a background check on her, discovered she had a legal judgement against her, and filed public records requests with the court to find out what that was all about.

He learned that, in 2017, I had to take Treva to court over unpaid child support.

It didn't start that way. It started because the original support order required her to pay up to $300 per month in extracurricular activities. This was in addition to a $50 monthly amount that was subject to an Income Withholding Order. I asked her to apply the $300 amount to our daughter's class trip to New York City for four consecutive months, based on the fact that she had paid for two other class trips and I knew what the definition of "extracurricular" was.

She refused. She wrote, "The New York trip is not an extracurricular activity and is optional. I paid for the DC trip. This one I cannot cover." Well, yes. Extracurricular activites are, by definition, optional. If they weren't, they would have to call them "curricular activities". The fact that words mean things was lost on her, so I thought I would have a better chance explaining it to a judge.

The case took a year to resolve. The judge ordered us into mediation very quickly, and Treva understood that she should be paying more in child support than $50 per month. $50 per month, total, is a rounding error in any household budget that needs to feed and clothe teenagers! She didn't volunteer to pay more, of course. She seemed to believe that the judge wouldn't back-date the support order to the filing date. The kids were in their mid-teens at this point. The longer she could drag the case out, the less she might have to pay in support. The chance that she might not have to pay was worth rolling the dice!

To this end, she filed a false police report with the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Department accusing me of the contents of her video.

In late April, I received a call from the Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Department. I was told that my name came up in a matter they were investigating. The detective seemed eager to get me in before the weekend, but Tuscaloosa was at least an hour away from where the kids and I lived. I couldn't just pick up in the middle of the week and drive to a different town to be interviewed for some mysterious matter! However, we had a court date scheduled for the very next Monday, and the courthouse is right next door to the Sheriff's Office. I asked if I could come in after court on Monday instead.

He hemmed and hawed a bit, but ultimately agreed. I could come in after court on Monday.

But when Monday arrived, court didn't happen! Everyone was present. There wasn't a scheduling error or anything of the sort. It just... didn't happen. So my lawyer and I went next door for the interview. The detective asked me about the events that surrounded the end of my marriage and I responded with a timeline that was as accurate as I could remember on the spot. (I later checked my emails and personal journaling and provided the detective with the corrected information once I had more context.) I admitted that we had sex on the night she claimed she was raped, but I also provided crucial information that the only thing she wanted me to work on in our marriage was my low sex drive. She wanted me to "meet her needs" by instigating for a change. As I covered elsewhere on this site, that's exactly what I did. And I gave her at least three opportunities to say "no".

Rapists don't ask for consent.

Three harrowing weeks later, I received a call from the investigator. He told me the criminal case has been closed and wouldn't be put before a grand jury. He spoke with the DA and said they agreed there's not enough to go on. He also said he spoke with Treva and she had been informed of the same. This was May 7th, 2018. In the video, Treva claims that she contacted the police in the "weeks after" the alleged rape. The sheriff's department could find no evidence of a phone call between Treva and the Tuscaloosa Police Department. If they had, the investigation might have gone a different way.

This wasn't the only lie, though. After her attempt to manipulate the courts with a false police report failed, she perjured herself! When asked for proof that she paid child support as directed, she offered the following exhibit:

Notice the entries for November 2016 and January through March of 2017. See how the entries exist in the document she provided to the court?

Here's what the Alabama Central Disbursement Division records for the same time period:

So what?

Does anything I’ve written prevent her from being a good mayor? Not by itself, no. If you believe that she has done good things for Charlestown, by all means vote for her. My problems with Treva begin and end with the lies she spread about me to avoid the consequences of her actions. Former Mayor Hall has experienced some of that, and I suspect that as she continues in politics and finds herself facing off against those who would oppose her, more people will as well.

Her lies against me continue, though. Most recently (as far as I’m aware), she claimed in a filing with the court that I’m trying to drag her through endless litigation in a futile attempt to stay inserted in her life, now that the conclusion of our “custody battle” is imminent. There was never a custody battle, and I wouldn’t have had to deal with her at all after the conclusion of the child support case if she hadn’t defamed me in an attempt to deflect attention from that case!

For what it’s worth, her speech suggests she wants to be seen as a good mother, but the same court filings claim that she has only had “minimal and sporadic contacts” with the state where her own children have lived since she moved to Charlestown. Being a good parent isn’t necessary for being a good politician, but don’t be fooled.

What’s Next?

When the divorce and all the accompanying fallout was still raw, I shared my story on Quora with people in similar situations. I’ve always kept anything that could personally identify her out of it, though. “My ex-wife” was nothing more than background — a framing device to explain how I became a single parent. Not because I was saying anything demonstrably untrue. This website shows the receipts. I kept her name out of it for the same reason she wanted to keep my last name: “The Deans are good people.”

To this day, she stalks my social media to make sure I don’t say anything “out of line”.

I want to be done. She can’t (and won’t) admit she lied, but I won’t be bullied any longer. I created this website to tell my side of the story to people who wouldn’t otherwise hear it, and I will keep it running as long as she maintains a political career.

If you have any comments, questions, or just want more perspective on anything Treva has said about events that may or may not have transpired more than a decade ago, please feel free to contact me through email.