News Flash! Joal and Sarah Henke Lie Under Oath! (Not That Channel 9 Would Report It)

Tuesday's hearing in Judge Marie Williams' courtroom was about what I expected it to be. Joal Henke and his pregnant wife Sarah lied a lot. They lied under oath, and their friends (including a former minister at Eastwood Church) covered for them. In other words, it was business as usual with the Henkes and the Eastwood crowd. Don't forget that the Eastwood bunch tried to convince everyone Tonya Craft was a child molester, even though the evidence clearly showed otherwise.

Now, if you watched only Channel 9's coverage, you would think that Joal and Sarah are honest, God-fearing people who care only about the welfare of their children. You would have no idea that Tonya's attorneys caught Joal in lie after lie, and that the guy who "suddenly remembered" all sorts of scandalous things about Tonya at her criminal trial had severe memory lapse all through today's session. (Channel 3 has more accurate coverage, not surprisingly, given that Channel 9 worked hand-in-glove with the prosecution in the criminal trial, even giving sympathetic on-camera interviews with prosecutors Chris Arnt and Len Gregor after the acquittal.)

It is hard to know where to begin, but I will begin at one of the lies told by Joal, that being his falsification of his address in order to pull Tonya's children from the school where they were attending and enroll them in Westview School. Once again, as she had in her conversation with Eric Echols, principal Margo Williams denied telling Joal to do it -- which he continues to claim.

Mortgage Fraud, Henke Style

In Tuesday's testimony, we found that Joal's father purchased the house where he and Sarah live, as Joal apparently could not qualify for a loan. (Smart people, those mortgage lenders.)

The problem is that Joal's father got a VA loan, which requires the borrower to live in the residence, and the borrower is required to state that on the application. That Henke's father did NOT live in the house or even intend to live in the house is mortgage fraud, which is a felony punishable by several years in prison.

So, if federal prosecutors in Southeast Tennessee would like a slam-dunk case, they have one right in front of them. Joal Henke's father committed mortgage fraud, and Joal and Sarah Henke were partners-in-crime, and conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud also is a federal felony. Ah! Joal doesn't care where he breaks the law, just as long as he can be a lawbreaker!

Now, as I see it, not only should federal prosecutors be interested in this open fraud, but also the state board of realtors, as licensed real estate agents are not supposed to be committing mortgage fraud. Perhaps someone needs to notify the board of this transgression and let the board take another look at Joal's license.

Here is the Channel 3 tweet on that situation, including the editorial comment:

11:43am Joal's house purchased by his dad, dad lied to get VHA loan, said he would live there, not Joal. (That's a federal offense.)

The Showering Sarah

Before dealing with Sarah Henke's frequent showers with Tonya's daughter, let us deal with another lie that Sarah told under oath Tuesday. Henke told the court that she never tried to "replace" Tonya as the actual mother of Tonya's children.

Yet, all during the trial, Sarah Bass Henke had a Facebook page in which her signature photo showed her holding Tonya's daughter and it was clear on that page (which conveniently was taken down after Tonya's acquittal) that Henke was claiming those children as her own, and she even thanked God for "giving" her those children. The only reason I did not mention it on my blog -- and I did save what I could from it -- was that what Sarah Henke was doing was so vicious and so evil that I did not want Tonya even to look at a picture of another woman stealing her daughter -- and that is exactly what Sarah Henke was doing.

[Update]: It turns out I was wrong. Sarah Bass Henke has a current Facebook page, and she is pictured cuddling to Tonya's daughter. She also writes a number of things pertaining to Tonya's children (claiming them to be her own), saying things like trying to "be a yes mom today" and saying what a blessing it is to tuck in her children at night.

In other words, even now, even after claiming under oath that she and Joal are not engaged in parental alienation, she continues to claim that the children of Tonya Craft are her own. Folks, it doesn't get any more evil than what Sarah Bass Henke is doing -- and continues to do. [End Update]

So, for Sarah Bass Henke to tell the court under oath that she was not trying to cleverly push Tonya out of the picture is a lie, yet another lie on top of other lies. (For those who still might think Sarah was being naive, remember that after Tonya's acquittal, Sarah stood in the courtroom crying, and somehow I don't think these were tears of joy.)

When asked why she showered with Tonya's daughter, Henke once again went with the same perjury she used in Catoosa County: Tonya's children were dirty; they were unkempt; they had matted hair; they stank. Dear, caring Sarah was just showering with the child because Tonya Craft was such an uncaring, unfit mother that she let her own children be walking pigpens.

However, as I posted a few days ago, when Sarah was questioned by attorneys in a deposition in 2009, she did not use the "stinking children" defense. Instead, she said she was just helping the young girl clean shampoo from her hair and the like. It was only at the criminal trial -- and now at the custody hearing -- that Bass Henke tried to employ that rhetorical device known as the Big Lie.

Here is the Channel 3 tweet for the "shower" nonsense:

2:55pm Scott King asking Sarah Henke about showering with Tonya Craft's daughter. She says girl wasn't clean when they picked her up.

Joal Continues the "Neglect" Theme

Sarah was not the only person to push a false "Tonya neglected her children" theme, as Joal insisted that Tonya was refusing to give them even basic medical care by failing to take the children to the doctor even for checkups for three years. Tonya's attorney, Scott King, made short work of Henke's lies. This is from Channel 3's postings:

11:24am King is challenging Joal's statement that Tonya Craft didn't take kids for well child visits for three years.

11:27am Scott King making Joal Henke read kids' med charts. There was no three year gap in their health care.

11:29am Joal seems confused, trouble reading charts. KING: It's not that complicated. JUDGE: Easy, counselor.

So, picture the scene. Joal Henke tells the court that Tonya Craft did not take her children to the doctor for three years, and when Scott King produces the medical charts of the children that demonstrate conclusively that Henke is lying, Henke pretends he is having trouble reading the charts. It was yet another Gotcha! moment in the life of serial liar and adulterer, Joal Henke.

Joal Can't Recall Anything

During Tonya's criminal trial, Joal was a fount of "I just remembered," including recalling what clearly was a nonexistent lesbian affair Tonya allegedly had with her good friend, Jennifer Sullivan. (Notice that "judge" Brian Outhouse refused to allow Jennifer to testify on her behalf.)

However, in testimony Tuesday, Joal seemed stricken with memory loss. (I thought that a "world-class" athlete -- as Joal describes himself -- was disciplined.) Here are some Channel 3 tweets that demonstrate Joal's Alzheimer's act:

11:15am Scott King asking Joal Henke about his conversation with court-appointed therapist. He can't remember what he told her.

11:59am A lot of Joal Henke's answers include "I don't recall" or "I can't remember".

12:28pm Joal continues being "unable to recall" most of King's questions regarding Craft's parents' access to kids.

Why would Joal suddenly be forgetful? It seems that he openly had been violating the court order that Judge Marie Williams herself had set. Here are some more Channel 3 tweets:

11:34am Joal admits he lied on application to get kids in school they weren't zoned for; left mother's information blank on form. (Emphasis mine)

11:36am Tonya Craft had to get court order to access her kids school records.

11:38am Joal called Catoosa court to see if Tonya Craft violated bond by asking for their kids' school records.

11:52am Joal says he denied Craft visitation with their son on Mothers Day 2009. He can't remember why.

11:53am Joal also denied Craft visitation on Mothers Day 2010.

11:57am Joal also denied Tonya Craft's parents' request for time with kids on Mothers Day this year.

There was nothing in the court order signed by Judge Williams that allowed him to do the things he did, yet he did it with impunity. Furthermore, he lied about what he did and why he did it, and when confronted in a court of law, he suddenly got a bout of Alzheimer's Disease. I only can hope that Judge Williams understands that Henke has given her the middle finger, too, because he believes she will do nothing about it.

Joal's Lack-of-Character Witness

In Dennis Norwood's report in The Chattanoogan, he goes into detail about one of the "character" witnesses for the Henkes, Joshua McGiness, who was a former minister at Eastwood Church. According to The Chattanoogan:

A former minister at Eastwood Baptist Church where the Henkes attend, Joshua McGiness, also testified in support of his friend and former tae kwan do instructor, Joal. When attorney Clancy Covert asked him why he had attended the Craft criminal trial, he answered, “To support Joal and Sarah.”

Mr. McGuiness told the judge that while he respected Mr. Henke now, he had not always. Asked by Ms. Craft’s attorneys what changed his mind, McGuiness said, “It was the way he handled his divorce from Ms. Craft.” He stated he did not attend any of the divorce proceedings, but came to his feelings from hearing what Mr. Henke had to say in their church small group meetings. “We asked Joal some pretty tough questions,” he said.

Addressing both Sarah and Joal as to the issue of Sarah showering with the daughter, both said they found nothing wrong with the practice. Ms. Craft had earlier complained to authorities about this practice. It was only after a psychologist associated with the case told her to stop the practice that it ended, according to trial testimony.

As a former minister, Mr. McGuiness said he didn’t find anything wrong with the practice either, saying there were just too many variables and facets to look at.

I think that readers should know that Tonya was pretty much run out of Eastwood Church because she was divorcing Henke. Now, Tonya did not leave him for someone else; no, she left because Joal was sleeping around, abusing her, and then claiming he was a "changed man."

I'm sure that McGuiness would claim that Joal just wanted to "restore his marriage" or nonsense like that. I would put it much differently, and I think that what I am going to say pretty much describes Joal Henke.

Henke is both tenacious and competitive, but he also is a sociopath, a person who will look a person in the eye and then lie with the most sincere voice one can imagine. If he is caught in a lie, he simply tells another, and then another.

It was not that Joal wanted to keep Tonya as his wife because he loved her; he wanted to keep her around because for her to leave -- and leave with the children -- would be for him to lose, and one thing that Joal Henke cannot accept is losing. He was tenacious throughout the divorce proceedings, but when it was clear that Tonya had a stack of videotapes of him having sex with other women, even Henke realized that he was finished.

The faux child molestation case was just another example of him trying to beat Tonya -- because in his twisted mind, she "beat" him at something she she successfully divorced him and won the child custody rights. True, he could manipulate the people at Eastwood Church, and if McGuiness is typical of the kind of person who attends that "emergent church," then it is not hard to figure what is happening there, and why so many people there still insist beyond all reason that Tonya Craft was and is a child molester.

The Wednesday hearing is closed to the press and public because it will involve psychological reports of the children. I only hope that there is one more psychological report: about a certain sociopath named Joal Henke who is unfit to be anywhere but in a jail cell.