Frank Parlato
In March 2025, Christopher Ambrose, a disgraced television writer fired for plagiarism and a suspended attorney from Madison, Connecticut, filed a federal defamation lawsuit against Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist.
Dr. Lee had publicly assessed him as displaying psychopathic traits dangerous to his children. Ambrose says that the assessment destroyed his reputation. Lee says she was doing her job.
To file the lawsuit, Ambrose needed $405.
He swore he didn’t have it.
Federal law allows litigants to sue without paying court fees — if they can demonstrate financial hardship. To qualify, applicants must disclose their finances under oath. A false affidavit requires dismissal under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(A) and can trigger a referral for perjury.
Ambrose submitted his affidavit on March 16, 2025. He reported zero income, $294.98 in cash, and no stocks, bonds, or assets of meaningful value. He described himself as unemployed for three years, supporting his children by draining a modest retirement account already depleted by divorce.
Among the expenses Ambrose listed was his monthly rent: $2,450.
Ambrose lives at 153 Middle Beach Road in Madison, Connecticut — a four-bedroom waterfront property overlooking the Fence Creek Estuary, directly across from East Wharf Beach Park. Real estate records estimate the property’s market value at $2.2 million.
His signed lease confirms he has been paying $3,750 per month since September 2024. The discrepancy between what he pays and what he swore in his affidavit is $1,300 per month.
When Bandy Lee filed a motion to dismiss based on the fraudulent affidavit, Ambrose filed an 18-page opposition.
If it weren’t a serious lawsuit, it would be comedy gold.
Here is what he wrote to explain that he told the judge he paid $2450 when he really paid $3750:
“A technical confusion between gross and net rental obligations — specifically, a calculation error regarding the base contractual rent versus the net effective out-of-pocket cost.”
Let’s examine it word by word.
“A technical confusion.”
Technical implies complexity requiring expertise to navigate. There is really nothing terribly technical about rent. The lease says $3,750. That is the only number to get confused about.
“Between gross and net rental obligations.”
Gross and net do not exist in residential rent. Gross means before deductions. Net means after deductions. Nobody withholds anything from your rent payment on its way to the landlord.
“A calculation error.”
What calculation? $3,750 is the rent. You either write it down honestly or you lie.
“Regarding the base contractual rent.”
The base contractual rent is $3,750. It says so in the lease he signed.
“Versus the net effective out-of-pocket cost.”
This phrase does not exist in residential leasing. It exists in commercial real estate, where tenants sometimes pay base rent, taxes, and maintenance separately. In his residential lease, he pays a single amount: $3,750.
To Ambrose, lying on a federal form isn’t the same as lying in the Bible. It’s just numbers. Numbers the judge never checks.
Perhaps the motive is obvious: a man who cannot afford $405 cannot easily explain why he pays $3,750 a month to live in a $2.2 million beachfront home.
His daughter Mia, in a sworn declaration filed with the court, states the $2,450 figure was the rent at his previous address, 381 Horsepond Road where he lived a year before he moved on up to the beachfront
He had a cheaper place before. Ambrose put that number down instead of the real one since it sounds better.
The man suing a psychiatrist for calling him a pathological liar offered some lies to explain away his lying about the rent. They were not the only lies on the affidavit, but due to a technical confusion between gross and net lies — specifically, a calculation error regarding the base truth versus the net effective out-of-pocket consequences — he may find that the net effective outcome is a dismissed lawsuit and a criminal lawyer. He probably never expected the judge to read the lease. She can read. And she can refer him for prosecution. Perjury is a crime in Connecticut and in federal court.
Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.
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