Frank Parlato
His Daughter’s Sworn Declaration Dismantles His Poverty Claim Point by Point
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, the forensic psychiatrist that Christopher Ambrose sued for diagnosing him with psychopathic traits, has filed a supplemental motion to dismiss his lawsuit with prejudice — not on the merits, but because Ambrose committed fraud on the court to file it.
The her motion, filed January 26, 2026, in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, Dr. Lee argues that Ambrose’s March 2025 in forma pauperis application — the sworn poverty affidavit that allowed him to sue without paying the $405 filing fee — was “rife with material falsehoods and omissions” that constitute “a fraudulent scheme to weaponize poverty.”
Lee asks Judge Sarala V. Nagala to dismiss the case and refer Ambrose to the U.S. Attorney for a criminal investigation into perjury, false statements, and wire fraud.
Attached as Exhibit B is a declaration from the person who knows the truth better than anyone: Ambrose’s 19-year-old daughter, Mia.
The Daughter Speaks
Mia Catherine Ambrose’s declaration, executed January 25, 2026, under penalty of perjury, is a demolition of her father’s sworn representations to the court.
On March 16, 2025, Christopher Ambrose told Judge Nagala: “Our older son Matthew and daughter Mia are 18 but full-time high school students. I provide all their support.”
Mia’s response contradicted her father’s sworn statement:
“I did not reside with Chris Ambrose after August 2024. From that date forward, I lived independently and received no financial, housing, or material support from him.”
Ambrose knew this because when Mia left, he called the Madison Police, demanded they issue a Silver Alert, filed motions in family court claiming she had disappeared, and showed up at her friends’ homes and their parents’ workplaces trying to track her down. He contacted the university that a friend attended.
What he did not do, Mia states, was notify DCF, the state child protection agency, that his minor daughter was supposedly missing. Nor did he tell her high school she had disappeared. He told Daniel Hand High School he was “uncertain when I would return to school.”
The school, despite months of absences, never filed a truancy report with DCF.
When Mia learned the police were looking for her, she (then 17) contacted the Madison Police to let them know she was safe and would not return. Then she left the state and did not resurface until she turned 18.
“Given Chris Ambrose’s documented pattern of using every means available to force our return to his custody, I left the state, cut off all contact with friends and my brothers to keep them out of harm’s way, and did not resurface until I was 18.”
The Madison Police refused Ambrose’s demand for a Silver Alert. The court took no action.
Seven months later, Ambrose swore to a federal judge that she was living with him and attending school full-time.
The Brother Withdrew Before the Affidavit
Mia’s declaration addresses her brother Matthew as well.
Matthew Ambrose withdrew from Daniel Hand High School on March 12, 2025. Mia states she has reviewed the withdrawal form, signed and dated by both Matthew and the school.
Ambrose signed his IFP affidavit four days later, on March 16, swearing that he provided support to Matthew, who was a full-time high school student. Matthew has not been enrolled in any school since.
The Documents He Wouldn’t Return
Mia’s declaration also describes what happened when she turned 18 and tried to reclaim her own identity.
Ambrose had retained her Social Security card, passports, Guatemalan birth information, adoption dossier, and adoption papers. For a young Guatemalan woman in the current political climate, these documents are not keepsakes. They are proof of citizenship and lawful status.
“Chris Ambrose’s refusal to provide my identification documents thwarted my independence; creating significant barriers to housing, employment, education, medical care, and other administrative processes.”
Mia states, “all the while maintaining to this court and government agencies that I am his dependent, reside with him, and attend school full time.”
In February 2025, Mia emailed Ambrose requesting her belongings and identification. He didn’t respond.
She returned to Connecticut and went to the Madison Police Department, which was minutes from Ambrose’s residence. An officer placed a call on speakerphone to facilitate retrieval. Ambrose admitted he had read every email. He refused every option proposed by Mia and the police for returning her property. She was over 18 and legally entitled to her legal identification.
Lee’s motion states:
“Plaintiff even refused to return her clothing, ID, and personal documents, and misrepresented her residency to authorities to continue receiving benefits and bolster his IFP claim.”
The man who told the court, “I provide all their support” wouldn’t give his daughter her Social Security card.
The Beach House and the Poverty Claim
The four bedroom waterfront property on Middle Beach Road overlooks the Fence Creek Estuary and East Wharf Beach Park Ambrose told the court he paid $2450 in rent but the lease lists $3750
Mia’s declaration corroborates what this publication first reported: Ambrose lied about his rent.
On his IFP affidavit, Ambrose listed monthly rent as $2,450, the amount for a prior residence at 381 Horsepond Road. His actual rent, at 153 Middle Beach Road — a furnished beachfront property — is $3,750 per month, a difference of $1,300. Because the property came furnished, Ambrose placed his belongings in storage, incurring additional monthly fees he also did not disclose.
Mia states Ambrose renewed the lease at $3,750 per month for the 2025–2026 year.
Lee’s motion notes the property is valued at over $2.2 million. The motion calls Ambrose’s understated rent part of a broader strategy to “exaggerate his poverty” to the court.
The Hidden Money
Mia’s declaration and Lee’s motion lay out the financial assets Ambrose concealed:
Ambrose told the court he had $294.98 in a checking account. He did not disclose a second checking account under Eyes Above Productions, Inc. — his entertainment industry company registered in California — through which he receives and spends money. Mia states she has seen checks and mail addressed to “Eyes Above Productions, Inc., FSO Chris Ambrose, 151 El Camino Drive, Beverly Hills, CA.”
He checked “no” to owning stocks. He maintains a stock portfolio with Fidelity, holds a 401(k), and has accounts with both Bank of America and Fidelity. Mia states he has “accrued income through account withdrawals, liquidating stocks, and earning dividends.”
He told the federal court he had zero income. He receives regular residual and royalty checks from the Writers Guild of America West, paid to Eyes Above Productions approximately quarterly. These are real income payments for past television writing work and he disclosed none of them.
He omitted an inheritance. Ambrose has been participating in Connecticut Probate Court hearings throughout 2025-2026 regarding his parents’ estate. Lee’s motion estimates his share at over $800,000. Mia confirms he “will receive a substantial inheritance of hundreds of thousands of dollars, which includes the sale of their home in Wethersfield, CT.”
The SNAP Benefits He “Just Learned” About
Ambrose told Judge Nagala: “I just learned I am eligible for SNAP.”
Mia states he had been receiving SNAP benefits in 2024–2025 and had “concealed that he already received thousands of dollars in SNAP benefits.”
Ambrose also told the court, “My kids and I are on Medicaid (Husky Health),” meaning he has Mia listed as a dependent on state benefits applications despite knowing she doesn’t live with him.
As this publication previously reported, for a four-person household with no income in Connecticut, SNAP allotment runs approximately $740 to $770 per month — almost identical to the $750 Ambrose listed as his monthly grocery expense. By omitting SNAP while claiming groceries as an out-of-pocket cost, Ambrose effectively billed the government twice.
Mia states Ambrose also applied for and received an Eversource utility hardship discount, which he did not disclose, while listing utility payments at $750 per month.
“He Has Been Unemployed for Eight Years”
There is another detail in Mia’s declaration worth noting. Ambrose told the court: “I have been unemployed for three years and unable to find work.”
Mia states the truth is eight years, since 2018, “when his professional conduct was discovered and widely reported in several mainstream media outlets, and representation by his Hollywood agents was terminated.”
The professional conduct scandal involved plagiarism on the CBS series Instinct, where Ambrose recycled a Bones script.
In 2018, Plagiarism Today did a detailed analysis.
CBS-owned TV Guide reported the controversy, calling it a “stolen storyline.”
Michael Rauch, “Instinct’s” showrunner, publicly apologized to “Bones” creator Hart Hanson, and Ambrose lost representation, effectively ending his TV career.
Ambrose’s last IMDb credit is the contentious “Instinct” episode, “Secrets and Lies,” which aired ironically on April Fools Day, 2018, which was also Easter Sunday.
He has been unemployed for eight years.
By telling the court he’d been unemployed for three years, Ambrose moved the timeline forward to make it appear that Lee’s online criticism, not his own misconduct, caused his unemployment. That distinction matters in a defamation case, because he’s suing Lee for allegedly damaging a reputation that was destroyed by plagiarism years before Lee ever assessed him.
The Legal Argument: Mandatory Dismissal
Lee’s motion invokes 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(A), which states: “the court shall dismiss the case at any time if the court determines that the allegation of poverty is untrue.”
The word is “shall”— not “may.”
When the poverty claim is false, dismissal is mandatory.
Lee argues that the dismissal should be with prejudice, meaning Ambrose cannot refile, as the fraud was deliberate, not accidental. She cites Mathis v. N.Y. Life Ins. Co. (7th Cir. 1998) and Vann v. Comm’r of N.Y.C. Dep’t of Correction (2d Cir. 2012), both upholding dismissal with prejudice where litigants concealed assets on IFP applications.
Lee also notes that after gaining free filing in her case, Ambrose paid full filing fees in his subsequent lawsuits against blogger Tina Swithin and this writer, proving he had the money all along.
“In other words, Mr. Ambrose had the financial means to litigate, but he chose to misrepresent his finances to avoid the fee in this particular case, thereby abusing the IFP privilege.”
The Criminal Referral
Lee’s motion asks Judge Nagala to refer Ambrose to the U.S. Attorney (David X. Sullivan) for investigation under three federal statutes:
18 U.S.C. § 1621 — Perjury: making willfully false statements under oath in a sworn affidavit.
18 U.S.C. § 1001 — False statements: knowingly making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the federal courts, which Lee argues could extend to false information provided to federal agencies for SNAP and other benefits.
18 U.S.C. § 1343 — Wire fraud: using interstate electronic communications to further a scheme to defraud, including the electronic filing of a false affidavit. The $402 waiver of the filing fee constitutes “property” obtained by fraud.
Lee notes that Ambrose is a former attorney, a fact that, as Lee writes, “heightens the seriousness of his actions — he was certainly aware of the illegality of false statements under oath, yet proceeded regardless.”
The Pattern Mia Confirms
Mia’s declaration concludes with:
“Christopher Ambrose has consistently concealed sources of income and misrepresented the composition of his household both to this Court and to various government agencies. He overstated his expenses and dependents while understating or omitting his assets and income to appear impoverished. His actions were deliberate and documented, not accidental.”
This is a sworn declaration, filed in federal court, from a witness with direct personal knowledge of Ambrose’s household, finances, and conduct — contradicting his sworn statements on virtually every material point.
The Clinical Irony
Dr. Lee assessed Ambrose at 32 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, two points above the clinical threshold. She identified pathological lying, lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility, and a “manipulative and predatory relational style.”
Ambrose sued her for saying it.
Then he filed a sworn affidavit that, if Lee’s motion and Mia’s declaration are credited, demonstrates pathological lying to a federal court, lack of empathy toward his own daughter, failure to accept responsibility for his unemployment, and manipulation of the judicial system to obtain a benefit he didn’t deserve.
Lee’s motion states that Ambrose “constructed a false narrative of indigence to gain an unwarranted litigation advantage.”
The man who sued a psychiatrist for calling him a psychopath may have proved her diagnosis in a sworn federal filing — for $405.
The case is Ambrose v. Lee, No. 3:25-cv-00398-SVN, U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Dr. Lee’s supplemental motion to dismiss was filed January 26, 2026.
Frank Parlato is the publisher of the Frank Report and a defendant in a related defamation action filed by Ambrose, No. 3:25-cv-01151-SVN.
Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.
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