Hello everyone:
This is my second time putting up a GoFundMe page and I am so appreciative of all the donations that I have so graciously received so far. They have been life saving and have allowed me to pay for my legal defense. I have revised my page as much as possible to shorten the reading time of my story. It is not my intention to inconvenience anyone or to take up a lot of your precious time. So here goes....
I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would find myself in this position and that I would have to reach out publicly for help. I am currently facing a very difficult legal situation and I am asking for help to cover the enormous costs of defending myself in a court of law.
My goal is to raise $10,000. If 400 people donate just $25.00 it can happen! From the depth of my heart, I am asking for you to please help me to reach this goal. If, you cannot donate, I understand, but please send me your prayers and best wishes and please, if you are willing to help by sharing my link on your social media platforms; I would be very grateful. I truly need all the help that I can get! I am so grateful for whatever you can do!
I’m fighting a lawsuit that is not only baseless; but it has proven to be deeply hurtful in so many ways and it was filed with the intention to drain me mentally, emotionally and especially financially. What I am about to share with you could happen to anyone, particularly if you are a single person. Be very careful out there please! And to be clear, this is not a story about man bashing or a poor me story.
For all of you that truly know me, you can attest that I have always been an independent, hard-working woman capable of taking care of myself; very self-reliant.
Last August of 2024 my life was turned into a bad dream. In fact, I could say it’s more like a nightmare! In 2022, I ended a personal relationship with a man that had become emotionally unhealthy. Unfortunately, this man, although he presented himself to me to be caring, kind, sweet and loving, responded to my breaking off the relationship by filing a lawsuit against me. This man is demanding repayment for things that he freely gave to me during the relationship. He states that since I broke up with him; now I “owe” him and he wants “restitution”. He claims that I begged him for money and that he loaned me money. These are completely false claims. I never asked him to loan me money nor by any means did I ever beg him for anything. Because he “love bombed” me, and insisted on doing certain things for me, I took my walls down and gave in to his charms.
There was never any agreement for repayment for anything that he freely insisted on doing for me. There is no legal basis for this lawsuit.
This lawsuit is a mean-spirited attack. It’s about intimidation and revenge to cause me emotional and financial harm not to mention all the additional harassment that he has subjected on me over the course of this past year.
Unfortunately, even unfounded lawsuits come with very real costs. I’ve already spent huge sums of money for legal representation; all on zero percent credit cards I may add; which some will begin to reach the end of that 0% beginning in mid-October.
During the 5 ½ months that I dated this man, he literally “Love Bombed” me. At first, I was very uncomfortable with him lavishing me with gifts but as time went on, I gave in to his charming manner and I allowed myself to be pursued thinking how romantic all of this was. I began to feel more comfortable and started to take down my walls. There were gifts of flowers, candy, cards, perfume, dinners, concerts, and he even threw me a huge birthday party in which he insisted on paying for everything.
When he suggested that I take time off from my work and spend more time with him and that he would provide me with funds to pay some of my expenses I was very reluctant and I said, “no”. But he insisted and pleaded with me, saying, “please let me do this for you”; and so, I gave in; (but it was only for one month that I did that because again), I was always (and I still am) an independent woman that took care of myself but his charm and sweetness convinced me to let him be my “Hero” as he referred to himself. He also gave me money as gifts for shopping, travel and groceries. I love to cook and I cooked for him almost every night. In only 5 ½ short months he gave me over 35 greeting cards and insisted that he take care of me.
Unfortunately, as time went on, I began to get the sense that he thought he was buying me. He became very pushy and consuming and at times displayed anger towards me. I started to feel overwhelmed and smothered. He began to verbally demean me and not honor my boundaries. I no longer saw a sweet caring man and I began to realize that this man was not giving from his heart at all but only to fulfill his own obsessive intentions; determined to get what he wanted. He was extremely needy and he was pushing marriage on me saying things like, “just marry me and you will never have to work again.”
But it did not feel good or right to me and I began to pull away. I had started to feel very uncomfortable with many of his behaviors and finding out some very unpleasant things about him which I am not able to share in this format.
When I broke off the relationship with him, I wished him the very best and thanked him from my heart with the greatest expression of appreciation for all that he had given to me. I gave him a big hug and I truly felt sadness because as we all are when we enter into a relationship, we have that hope that this is “the one”. However, it takes time to get to know someone and as awful as it is to break off a relationship, I knew that it was not healthy for me to be with this man. This took place at the very end of December, 2022.
In February of 2023 he sent me a certified letter and he sent a copy of this letter to both of my adult sons. The letter was 7 pages long and full of false accusations and threats. It was an obvious attempt to cause me emotional harm and to humiliate me to my grown kids, one of which he had never even met. I took the letter to an attorney to respond and later my attorney received a phone call from his attorney threatening a lawsuit if I didn’t pay him back the “loans” that he had made to me. After discussion between the attorneys, he went away and I never heard another word until….
Fast forward to August 2024 as I was backing out of my driveway, a man approached my car and threw papers at me telling me that I had been “served”. This man, who presented himself to be a sweet, caring, generous man filed a lawsuit in circuit court based on complete lies, accusations and attempts to discredit me in every way possible. It gets even worse, he wants to put a lien on my house, claiming that he paid for and did home improvements in my home and that I hired him to be a handy man but I did not pay him for his labor and blah, blah, blah……it goes on and on. None of his accusations are the truth! Not one single one!
To my surprise, as frivolous as this lawsuit is, I have learned that in the judicial system, anyone can file a lawsuit and say whatever the heck they want. Lies, false claims, accusations, etc. etc. etc. And guess what, if you do not defend yourself then you automatically lose and a default judgment is filed against you and the Plaintiff gets whatever they are asking for. Again, his case states that since I broke up with him; he now considers everything that he did for me as “loans” and he wants restitution; although he admits in his deposition that there was never any repayment agreement for anything and he has nothing legally to back up his claims.
I’m not asking for help lightly. I have to absolutely stand up for myself and for anyone who has ever been demeaned, bullied or dragged into legal trouble they didn’t deserve; I know you can feel my pain and at the very least relate to what I am going through. I have to fight for my rights and to be punished for exercising my choice to break off a relationship is just plain wrong!
This man knows that I do not have the means to pay for a lawsuit. It is crucial that I reach out because I simply and truly need help! Again, I have to stand up for myself and defend this unfounded lawsuit.
It is often said that it takes a village and oh my gosh from the bottom of my heart, I need a village right now. With my most humble heart, and with the deepest gratitude that I can express, I am asking, please consider donating to my cause.
If you are able to contribute even a small amount like $25.00 or $50.00, it would make a world of difference. Many small donations will add up but if you are able to donate more obviously it would help to reach my goal much faster. The stress and the pressure of the financial burden is extremely difficult.
If there are any angels out there, please, please help and send tons of prayers as well. I am truly going through a most dark time. Please, also consider; this is especially where the “it takes a village” part comes in to play because reaching out to as many people as possible will really make a huge difference. If you would share my story with your network of contacts and any community that you may be involved in such as golfing leagues, bowling leagues, organizations of any kind, poker leagues, card playing groups, book clubs, cooking groups, women’s advocate groups, what have you…..anything or anyone you can possibly think of that may be willing to help a woman in great need.
Your support in any form means the world to me right now. Please know that your donations will go directly toward the attorney’s fees and court costs. I am not attempting in any way to “profit” from this plea for help. I am simply trying to stand up for my rights without being financially broken by someone using the legal system as a tool for revenge.
Thank you for standing with me.
In Humble Gratitude,
Barbara Jean
Legal Disclaimer: This fundraiser is solely intended to help cover the legal expenses associated with defending myself in a civil lawsuit. Donations will be used exclusively for attorney’s fees, court costs and any other legal fees associated with this lawsuit. This GoFundMe campaign is not intended to harass, defame, or retaliate against any individual. All descriptions of events reflect my personal experience and are provided for context only. I will not receive any personal financial profit from this fundraiser beyond covering the actual costs of legal defense.
Once again, thank you so kindly for your time and consideration to help!
Organizer
Barbara Jean Harris
Organizer
Plymouth, MI

