There are no lengths that some high conflict parents will go to in order to gain an upper hand in divorce and child custody proceedings. In what has to rank high on the list of heinous things a parent can do – it’s the false allegations of sexual abuse against one’s own child. However, Tiffany Marie Petrossi has allegedly taken even that to despicable new lows, reportedly sexually abusing her own daughter and then blaming the child’s father in order to eliminate him from the child’s life and see him incarcerated for a very, very long time.
From the Daily Herald article – Police: woman abuses daughter, blames father to gain custody
According to a police affidavit, Tiffany Marie Petrossi admitted to using a jagged fingernail to injure her daughter in 2009. At the time, she allegedly accused the child’s father, Jesse Huffaker, of committing the sexual abuse. The affidavit states that Petrossi told police she had found injuries on the child immediately after a custody exchange with Huffaker in August 2009.
Tiffany Marie Petrossi’s allegation against Jesse Huffaker came in the aftermath of a child custody exchange. Petrossi reported that she found blood in the child’s diaper. Jesse Huffaker was arrested and held on charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child by Utah authorities.
However, an investigation by the very same authorities yielded no evidence of any male DNA on the child victim. It was the father, Jesse Huffaker who tipped off police to the possibility that Tiffany Marie Petrossi may have injured the child in an effort to implicate him and secure custody of their daughter. Once Petrossi was questioned and the story began to unravel, she admitted to injuring the child herself and falsely accusing the father of child sexual abuse. More from the article:
Petrossi was then arrested and held on charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and giving false or inconsistent material statements. Grunander said that the case has not yet made its way to his office, but he added that if prosecutors decide to pursue a first degree aggravated sexual abuse of a child charge, Petrossi potentially could face life in prison.
Well, a child was sexually assaulted by her mother. One would hope that the prosecutors and the district attorney might find that reason enough to pursue a case against Tiffany Petrossi.
In this instance, Jesse Huffaker was able to get out from under these false allegations of child sexual abuse rather quickly by normal standards, but there is no doubt that both his life and the life of the child will forever be adversely affected by the actions of the mother in this child custody case.
Time will tell if this hostile aggressive mother will be punished appropriately given the gravity of the charges against her.
See also:
The charges against this woman were dropped, and DNA evidence did not match the mother. It is the new wife of the father that should really be looked at at this point. You should really check your information before you publish things like this as fact.
If you had bothered to follow up on the very sloppy reporting by the Provo Herald you would have discovered almost immediately that all charges against Tiffany Petrossi were dropped without prejudice. It is irresponsible and dishonest to publish something like this, blackening the name of a young woman who has done everything in her power to raise her daughter singlehandedly when Jesse Huffaker abandoned her and his child before the child was born. It’s interesting that it didn’t occur to him to “tip off police” for more than a year after he was arrested . . . coincidentally, he suddenly “saw the light” right after she announced her engagement to someone else.
If you have any integrity you will check your facts and publish a retraction of this article.
Mary – I have no problem acknowledging that the sexual abuse charges against her were dropped “without prejudice” after a claim of the injury to the child being accidental. However, the fact remains that according to all reports I read, she admitted to injuring the child in that area (if not actually sexually abusing her) and I’ve seen no reports that whatever it is that Tiffany did report at the time resulted in Jessie Huffaker being arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing his daughter.
If that did not happen, please feel free to provide me with a link and I’ll gladly post about the erroneous information we followed on this particular case. Thank you for bringing the update to our attention.