On March 16, 2025, former Hollywood screenwriter Christopher Ambrose filed a federal defamation suit against psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee. He said her online writings about him prevented him from getting work.

Now he says he is dead broke.

Ambrose submitted an in forma pauperis application stating he cannot afford the $405 filing fee required to bring a lawsuit in federal court.

Psychopathy Report Cited in Lawsuit

Dr. Lee is a national figure in the family court reform movement, who practices psychiatry in NY. She has taught at Yale, written a NY Times best-selling book, and published over 100 peer-reviewed articles.

In May 2023, Dr. Lee applied the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) to assess Ambrose’s traits. According to her report, Ambrose, whose conduct she evaluated through interviews with his children, his ex-wife, others who know him, court filings, and observing him in court, scored 32 out of 40 on the PCL-R. A score of 30 or above signals full-blown psychopathy.

Lee identified the children whom she interviewed as victims of sexual and/or emotional abuse by Ambrose.

A Career in Television — and a Sudden Fall

Ambrose, 63, who is an attorney, left the legal profession more than 20 years ago to embark on a successful career as a television writer and producer on legal and crime shows on network television. He began his TV writing career in 2001 with several episodes of Family Law, a drama about a female attorney trying to rebuild both her law firm and her personal life after a divorce.

He later worked as a story editor and writer on Judging Amy, a series about three generations of women — including a family court judge and her mother, a social worker.

In 2006, Ambrose joined the writing staff of Bones, a popular forensics procedural starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz.

After Bones, Ambrose wrote and produced more than 40 episodes of Law & Order, the long-running crime drama.

The Instinct Controversy and Career Collapse

His last known writing credit came seven years ago with a controversial 2018 episode of the crime procedural Instinct titled “Secrets and Lies.”

Within hours of airing, online fan groups claimed the story was a copycat of a nine-year-old episode of Bones. Media outlets, including Reader’s Digest, The Independent, and Plagiarism Today, reported that the script resembled the earlier Bones episode — one that Ambrose did not get credit for writing, despite having previously worked on the show.

 The Video Evidence That Instinct Ripped Off Bones Is Damning.

After the plagiarism controversy, the showrunner publicly apologized on behalf of the producers, and Ambrose never returned to the show.

His agents reportedly dropped him, and he never worked again on any TV production after 2018.

The Divorce and Custody Battle

Ambrose returned to his home in Connecticut and soon after filed for divorce from his wife, Karen Riordan, a former teacher, who gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mother raising the couple’s three adopted children.

Ambrose, who had been absent from his children’s lives for extended periods, accused Riordan of “parental alienation.” Despite very vocal opposition from the children, Ambrose succeeded in having the family court remove Riordan from their lives – much to the children’s terror. The children were then 13, 13, and nine.

The only life they had known was with their mother, their primary caregiver.

They were suddenly yanked from their home and placed with Ambrose.

Asset Transfers and Financial Maneuvering

During the protracted divorce, Ambrose transferred all marital assets – estimated in court filings at more than $2 million – into accounts under his control, lodging the money, as court documents revealed, with Fidelity Investments in a series of accounts.

In court, before Judge Eddie Rodriguez, Ambrose admitted taking possession of Riordan’s six-figure maternal inheritance, leaving her financially destitute and homeless.

Throughout the proceedings, Ambrose avoided any financial disclosure requirements—refusing to turn over records that could reveal income, holdings, or expenses.

Ironically, Ambrose now claims to be broke. Because he is applying for a fee waiver in federal court to sue Dr. Lee, Ambrose was required to finally disclose details about his financial situation—to save $400 in filing fees.

Judge Denies Bid to Seal Fee-Waiver Filing

When Ambrose submitted his financial disclosure in March, he asked the court to keep his financial affidavit shielded from public view because it would violate his privacy and cause him serious harm. Ambrose argued that his financial information is “private” and that Dr. Lee and her collaborators will likely publish the information online, “exacerbating the humiliation and harm [Ambrose] seeks to address with this lawsuit.”

It did not work.

On April 23, U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala denied Ambrose’s request, ruling that “documents submitted to the Court to influence its decision on a motion or application are judicial documents to which the presumption of public access attaches.”

…”‘[t]he mere fact that some level of discomfort, or even embarrassment, may result from the dissemination of [the particular material] is not in and of itself sufficient’ to justify sealing”, she wrote. “…. The allegations that Plaintiff ‘is being slandered and libeled” and that ‘making [his] information public would magnify the effects of [Defendant’s] wrongdoing rather than right those wrongs’ is insufficient to overcome the ‘higher values’ that underlie the presumption of public access….”

As a result, Christopher Ambrose’s sworn statement concerning his income, assets, expenses, and liabilities is now publicly accessible.

The next in our series will explore what he stated is true.

The Irony and the Coming Investigation

This is interesting because he made his wife destitute, she says, ruined the happiness of his three children, according to them, and now, he claims he is a pauper himself.

Family Court will do that. But there is one little ticklish matter we must also address:

Ambrose made his affidavit under penalty of perjury. We will also explore his statement, something he thought would never become public.

Now it has.

The larger question is “Is It True?”

If he lied on the affidavit, he could face consequences for perjury or fraud under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(A). And if he lied, do consider that he did so to save $400. And if he lied, we might wish to consider further whether Dr. Lee may be right: He is a psychopath.

We must not presume anything. Let us begin part #2 with a fair and neutral analysis of how a millionaire, former TV writer, can say he is so broke he cannot even pay the filing fees to sue a psychiatrist who thinks he is dangerously mentally ill.