Dear Queenie,
My young adult daughter was among several witnesses that were summoned to give a statement on her boyfriend of two months. Now he is in prison, his mother and the rest of the family hate her, and it is tearing her apart.
Queenie, should she have continued to hide the truth from the detectives, and do you think that honesty is really the best policy?—Caught in a complicated situation
Dear Caught,
Yes, I believe honesty is the best policy, but that does not mean you have to blurt out the whole unvarnished, unpleasant truth when it might hurt someone’s feelings. In a situation like that, “If you cannot say something nice, do not say anything at all.”
However, that opinion does not apply to your daughter’s situation. It is never a good idea to lie to the police, and to lie when giving a sworn statement is to commit perjury, for which your daughter could have gone to prison too. In that case, it was a matter of “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” If you do not believe me, ask a lawyer.
As for her boyfriend’s family (and probably her boyfriend too) hating her, she may be better off without such people in her life. And if you think they may actually pose a threat to her, file a report with the same police who demanded her testimony.
