The accusation and evidence against Charles Dyer is made up of one sentence. During a divorce and custody battle in January 2010, Charles Dyer was accused by his estranged spouse of molesting their 7-year-old daughter while she was in his custody. That’s the extent of the prosecution’s evidence. The evidence documenting Dyer’s innocence however, would take a dozen articles. Below is a summary of events, much of which played out on America’s TV screens as the father and former Marine led federal agents on a ten-day multi-state manhunt.
The beginning
Charles Dyer was a US Marine who served two tours fighting in Iraq after the attacks on 9/11. He is one of those patriotic Americans that answered the call to arms. By 2009 however, Dyer began a one-man campaign to expose the hypocrisy of the US federal government. The Marine swore he took an oath to protect and defend the US Constitution and that the US Constitution was under attack by corrupt government officials in Washington DC. He often cited the Patriot Act, the Hurricane Katrina internment camps, and other examples of American tyranny run amok.
While Charles was stationed at his military base in California, his wife Valerie lived in the family’s home in Oklahoma. Around this time in 2009, their marriage was falling apart. Valerie admitted to having a prescription drug problem which caused Charles to miss his rotation back to Iraq and her to leave their daughter unattended at times. They also both admit to having affairs with other people. At the same time, Charles Dyer was escalating his YouTube campaign of videos exposing tyrannical acts by the US government. That wasn’t going over well with his commanding officers and Dyer soon felt the pressure of the very same invisible forces he was warning America about.
False accusation, a familiar scene
In December 2009, Valerie learned of Charles’ affair. Based on recorded phone conversations and internet posts, Valerie was extremely angry, even though she’d been openly having her own affair for some time. One month later in January 2010, five days after their daughter returned from a visit with their father in California, Valerie notified police to tell them that the girl had been sexually assaulted. The mother told them that her daughter was crying and told her that her vagina hurt. She insisted her estranged husband Charles was the perpetrator.
Evidence collected from social media and recorded phone calls demonstrated that Valerie Dyer was waging a full-on slander campaign against her husband over the affair. Some of her re-publishable quotes include threats toward the other woman to, “bust her face in.” Multiple posts from Valerie on MySpace included, “Let’s all pray Charles’ penis falls off, shall we.” It was at this time that a police review found that her personal computer was used to visit websites that instruct women how to win child custody battles by using any means necessary, especially lying and falsely accusing fathers of child molesting and physical violence.
Taped telephone calls, written communications, and court testimony repeatedly show Valerie boasting that she would do anything she had to do to get custody of their daughter, including lying under oath and accusing Charles of horrendous and untrue crimes. Subsequent reviews of court testimony showed Valerie contradicted her own sworn testimony over 40 times.
Cointelpro shows up
Showing that not all government cointelpro operatives are full time counter-insurgency agents, even authorities like police officers, military commanders and judges occasionally get in on the action. Only months prior to the explosive domestic dispute and custody battle with his wife, Charles Dyer went to battle against his own US Marine Corps. The Pentagon could not allow a respected Sergeant currently serving to be posting videos calling the US federal government an evil tyranny. A proud member of the grassroots organization ‘Oath Keepers’, the popular activist and spokesman was rapidly becoming a leader of America’s patriotic and liberty movement. In response, Charles Dyer was brought up on military charges which included making “disloyal” statements. The charges were later dropped and he was discharged with honors.
Immediately after parting ways with the Marine Corps for insisting the US Constitution was under attack, his problems multiplied and got more devastating – another common symptom of an unseen cointelpro operation in action – first they take your job, then your home, then your family, then your spirit, then your freedom. The hard-fighting former Marine wasn’t deterred however. He continued to produce and publish YouTube videos under his popular handle ‘July4Patriot’, no relation to the 4Patriot company selling over-priced items like seeds, MRE’s and other survivalist supplies.
Cointelpro meets the jilted Mrs. Dyer
After one of the many recorded conversations in which Valerie Dyer stated she would “say and do anything” to keep custody of their daughter, she was shown to have contacted her brother and recruited him to call authorities in California and accuse Charles of having threatened to kill Valerie and their child over the phone. She admitted later in court that her husband never made any such threats. Back in Oklahoma, a warrant was issued for Dyer’s arrest for sexually assaulting his daughter.
Authorities raided his house in Oklahoma, but Dyer had already made his escape. Federal agents confiscated a number of weapons from the 2nd Amendment activist’s home, including a military grenade launcher that was traced back to a robbery at a military base years earlier that Charles Dyer wasn’t accused of having anything to do with. But the fact that a known Constitutionalist and survivalist with a growing following had such a deadly piece of military hardware elevated the Marine to public enemy number one. The following day, Dyer’s home was mysteriously burned to the ground, a known tactic of federal agents as reflected by historic examples like Waco, MOVE in Philadelphia, Gordon Kahl in the Dakotas, and countless more.
After failing to show up for his court appearance, Charles Dyer went on to lead US authorities on a ten-day, nationwide manhunt before being captured peacefully and unarmed in Texas. He would go on to be tried three times for assaulting his daughter before prosecutors and the court were able to ban enough evidence to obtain a guilty verdict.
A rigged trial
The government’s first attempt to convict Charles Dyer of molesting his daughter, and silence a popular grassroots defender of the US Constitution, ended with a hung jury. The prosecution’s second attempt to bring him to trial ended in a mistrial. But the third time proved to be the charm. Charles Dyer was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
During testimony, Valerie swore she never made any statements threatening to lie under oath in order to keep Charles from winning custody of their daughter, even though plenty of evidence existed to prove that statement a lie. She was shown to have made those threats well before coming forward with the child abuse accusation. The mother was also shown to have repeatedly denied Charles visitation with his daughter, leading him to file a complaint with local authorities.
The evidence showed that Valerie lied to both the police and the court when she repeatedly stated she contacted the police about the alleged sexual assault the day after the child returned from Charles’ custody. Police records show it wasn’t until five days later. She also testified the child missed a week of school beginning on that first day the accusation was made. But school records showed the girl only missed one day of school, a week after she returned and the same day her mother called the police with the accusation.
With most of the evidence against Valerie Dyer barred from the jury’s view, prosecutors portrayed her as a loving wife and mother, never having posted a derogatory or threatening remark about her husband on social media, never having had an affair, and not addicted to numerous prescription drugs. The mountain of evidence that proved every bit of that untrue was systematically withheld from the jury.
Like many custody battles, Charles was accused in court by his wife of not providing any financial support to her and their child while separated and fighting for custody. In reality, and evidenced by recorded conversations by Valerie and other evidence, he not only paid for her car, he was also paying their monthly rent. In another blatant example, Valerie told the jury that Charles was so crazy, he wouldn’t allow her family into the hospital to see their child when she was born. But Charles’ attorney easily disproved that lie with multiple pictures of her whole family, as well as friends, inside the hospital delivery room in the hours after their baby’s birth.
While Charles Dyer was off fighting in Iraq, Valerie admitted that she was openly having an affair, battling a prescription drug addiction and an obsession with self- mutilation. Often leaving the child unattended to do any combination of the three, she admitted to often cutting herself with razors. She also confirmed that her drugs of choice to battle her depression and suicidal tendencies included Zoloft, Lorazepam, Xanax, and Valium.
The sexual assault accusation
When children stuck in the middle of a custody battle are very young, it’s often the mother’s word against the father’s. And courts almost universally side with the mothers. It’s just a simple fact in America’s biased family court system. But when the child is old enough to be interviewed by court-appointed child psychologists, the truth often comes out. That was case in Charles Dyer’s trial.
First, it’s worth noting that there is no evidence that the 7-year-old child was sexually assaulted. Charles himself admits that there might have been an incident where his daughter was victimized. But if there was, it was perpetrated by someone else, not him. He has insisted since the beginning that he could never do something like that. Who could have done it then? Dyer’s attorney has his own well-substantiated theory.
While Valerie Dyer was off having affairs, buying drugs or being incapacitated, she admittedly often left the 7-year-old victim in the custody of her mother. Also living in the mother’s residence while their daughter was there was Valerie’s uncle, who also happens to be a registered child sex offender. Dyer’s supporters contend that the girl wasn’t molested while in California with her father. As police reports and school records suggest, she was sexually assaulted four days after returning to her mother’s custody in Oklahoma.
The victim speaks
During a recorded court-monitored interview with the 7-year-old victim, the girl was obviously confused and giving signs of being coached. None of her statements were consistent and at one point, the court child psychologist testified that after the conclusion of the interview with the victim, the expert couldn’t tell what abuse, if any, actually occurred.
For example, the child kept repeating the date January 2nd, as if someone had repeatedly implanted that date into her mind. But when describing the rest of the abuse, the dates never matched up. When asked how she remembered the assault happened on that specific date, the child said she didn’t know how she knew that. The psychologist also noted the child claimed 6 times during the interview to having been assaulted, 4 times that she wasn’t assaulted, and 1 time that she didn’t remember. When asked where she was assaulted, the child repeatedly changed her story switching from the bedroom to the couch to she couldn’t remember.
The victim also repeatedly changed her story when asked if she had ever touched her father in a sexual manner. At one point, the young girl told the court psychologist, “I don’t remember the whole story.” That statement suggests the child was only attempting to recount a story she was told, rather than a physical act perpetrated upon her. As far as physical evidence goes, there wasn’t any. DNA samples, physical exams and tests done on the girl’s clothes and everything the father owned failed to turn up any evidence.
In perhaps the most damning evidence against Valerie Dyer, a search of her personal computer records show that the evening before her 7-year-old daughter was scheduled to be interviewed by the court psychologist, Valerie’s computer was used to view 8 straight hours of online pornography. Charles’ supporters insist it is evidence that Valerie showed the child videos of people engaged in sexual acts so the girl knew how to describe her own alleged rape to the interviewer the next morning.
In the end, it didn’t matter how much evidence there was showing that Charles Dyer was framed by his ex-wife and government prosecutors. After failing during the first two trials, the jury in their third trial was systematically blocked from knowing or seeing most of the evidence. Especially the fact that Valerie had committed 45 acts of perjury during the trial, that her babysitting uncle is a convicted child sexual predator, and the dozens of instances where Valerie boasted she would lie in court as many times as she had to in order to keep custody of their daughter. With only the testimony of Valerie Dyer, the jury convicted Charles Dyer of child sexual assault.
Charles Dyer’s supporters speak out
It was only last week that we at Whiteout Press received a heartfelt letter asking us to keep the spotlight on Charles Dyer’s situation. With this author’s own similar horror stories at the hands of the family court system, we were only happy to oblige. ‘After three trials, he was found guilty,’ the letter explains, ‘Even though there is DNA and a multitude of evidence proving his innocence, he remains incarcerated. His family and close friends are exhausting all resources to help regain his freedom and restore his good name.’
Another publication that answered the call was The Daily Paul. ‘A gag order was placed over Sgt. Charles Dyer and he was told he would be arrested if he spoke out about the events that took place during his first trial in Stephens County Oklahoma,’ the Paul family online news outlet wrote, ‘At one point while being held hostage, Charles was offered a deal. He was told, “We can make all this go away, all you have to do is work for us for two years infiltrating the militia movements.” Charles said no way. I want my day in court.’
An expletive laced video posted on YouTube by another supporter stated, “They had to try him three times to find him guilty, three times…They even said in previous reportings, even on the news, they said that you could tell that the little girl was coached by the mother. The prosecutor was asking questions that would make the girl either confused or say something that the prosecutor wanted her to say. And the judge was allowing it.”
The outlet Mother Jones even documented the case of Charles Dyer. They quoted one supporter saying, “He’s our brother and he needs our help!” Another said, “Big brother is very capable of causing conflict and confusion within our cause.” One more added, “This is doubtless a set up.” An additional supporter explained, “This is a guy I’d want on my team…a voice that can motivate and change minds. That makes him a threat to the powers that be.”
A lengthy online appeal concludes, ‘Holding Charles Dyer in prison is a violation of Oklahoma state laws and the due process guarantees of the Oklahoma Constitution and the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the US Constitution. His incarceration is a miscarriage of justice and he should be released immediately.’
The Facebook page Justice for Charles Dyer contains a quote saying, “History will be written to recognize those that are falsely accused and imprisoned in the fight against tyranny. This will be one chapter.”
For more information, visit Operation Floodlight.
