My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Mississippi
My husband and his ex wife divorced when their daughter was less than 2 years old (shes now 9). My husband was granted primary physical custody and they shared joint legal custody. My stepdaughter has lived with her dad and me only since this time. In 2010 his ex wife moved 4 hours away and made no new schedule for visitation (prior visitation was set up as standard Farese). The ex wife only had visits with the child 3-4x (due to her choice and schedule, not due to any withholding on my husbands part) a YEAR from 2010-2014 and MOST of those visits were in the grandmother's home. Last year my husband sought full physical and legal custody due to his ex being so far away and not being active in his daughter's life and not maintaining any kind of routine visitation as well as for neglectful and immoral behaviors the child was exposed to on the infrequent visits with the mother . It was agreed with the attorneys and mother signed papers before the court date that: the mother would see child for a weekend every 6 weeks, 1 week in June, 1 week in July, 1 week during Christmas holidays, even years she would get child for Thanksgiving. In the 10 months since the Modification, the mother has missed 3 visits and has failed to pay her portion of medical expenses on the child (both parents are responsible for 50% of ALL medical) and has violated the court order for appointed drop off times.
On the 1st 3 visits with the child after the Modification, child returned home sick and had to be carried to dr and treated for 1.strep, 2. pharyngitis and upper respiratory infection, and 3. flu. Mother was aware she and/or her boyfriend were sick when she picked child up each time and did not disclose this information until the child was returned sick each time. Even when we asked mother why she didnt disclose this information and make other visitation arrangements when there wasnt sickness in the home, her reply was "it was her weekend and she could do what she wanted..it was none of our business and we were responsible for taking the kid to the doctor when she was sick". We did not send the child to her sick, she RETURNED sick after exposure
After the 1 week visit in June (which the mother scheduled for June 26-July 5 bc she did not want 2 separate weeks of summer visitation) the child returned home and stated that during her visit she was not given meals and when she told her mom she was hungry she was told there wasnt any food and she was broke. Child stated she ate left over dipping dots for supper that night. She stated it was normal for her to not be given breakfast and to have to be hungry and miss meals when she visited in the mother's home. She said they did not keep food in the house so they had to eat out most times and if there wasnt enough money to eat out, they did without. (this is not the 1st time this matter has been brought up when the child visited in mother's home) She also stated her mother and her new husband screamed, argued and cussed in front of her all the time and she told them it made her nervous when they did that and her mother told her it only happened when she was around. She also stated the home was filthy with cat and dog vomit and feces in the floor not being cleaned up, leading to people stepping in it. She stated there was roaches in the clothes and that it was generally just filthy and smelly. Child has stated several times that the mom frequently gets angry and screams and cusses which scares her. she said her mom is always saying bad and ugly words about her dad and me (stepmom). she said she agrees with everything her mother says bc she is scared of her mother getting mad at her and cussing her. We sought advice on how to handle this (there is no mediating with the mother as she frequently cusses us out if we speak to her over any concerns the child has, so most communication is futile). We were told to report to Child Protective Services but we were trying to avoid doing so as to not cause a DHS war if no action could be taken on behalf of DHS. We were told to withhold visitation and let the mother sue for Contempt and then us counter sue for new Modification but we did not want to not exhaust any avenue possible and break a court order. We went ahead and reported to Child Protective Services and the mother cancelled her next visitation (which was Aug 14) This case is still open at this time and under investigation. CPS advised us to get an attorney for emergency hearing for supervised visitation and subpeona the dhs records (there are 2). Our attorney has been out of the office since this was reported ( a week and half ago). Our main question is, is the facts in these DHS reports given by my stepdaughter enough to prove the mother is unfit and either deny visitation or set up supervised visitation in the grandmother's home or something of this nature ?
Also prior to the modification that granted my husband full legal and physical custody, on the few visits the child had with the mother that was not in the grandmother's home (abt 1x a year), child was always returned early with the mother stating she could not afford child, child was too loud and messy, child was "trashing" up her vehicle and that she (the mother) needed a break. Also, the mother has a child from a marriage previous to being married to my husband (this child is 13) whom she also lost custody of due to neglect.
My husband and his ex wife divorced when their daughter was less than 2 years old (shes now 9). My husband was granted primary physical custody and they shared joint legal custody. My stepdaughter has lived with her dad and me only since this time. In 2010 his ex wife moved 4 hours away and made no new schedule for visitation (prior visitation was set up as standard Farese). The ex wife only had visits with the child 3-4x (due to her choice and schedule, not due to any withholding on my husbands part) a YEAR from 2010-2014 and MOST of those visits were in the grandmother's home. Last year my husband sought full physical and legal custody due to his ex being so far away and not being active in his daughter's life and not maintaining any kind of routine visitation as well as for neglectful and immoral behaviors the child was exposed to on the infrequent visits with the mother . It was agreed with the attorneys and mother signed papers before the court date that: the mother would see child for a weekend every 6 weeks, 1 week in June, 1 week in July, 1 week during Christmas holidays, even years she would get child for Thanksgiving. In the 10 months since the Modification, the mother has missed 3 visits and has failed to pay her portion of medical expenses on the child (both parents are responsible for 50% of ALL medical) and has violated the court order for appointed drop off times.
On the 1st 3 visits with the child after the Modification, child returned home sick and had to be carried to dr and treated for 1.strep, 2. pharyngitis and upper respiratory infection, and 3. flu. Mother was aware she and/or her boyfriend were sick when she picked child up each time and did not disclose this information until the child was returned sick each time. Even when we asked mother why she didnt disclose this information and make other visitation arrangements when there wasnt sickness in the home, her reply was "it was her weekend and she could do what she wanted..it was none of our business and we were responsible for taking the kid to the doctor when she was sick". We did not send the child to her sick, she RETURNED sick after exposure
After the 1 week visit in June (which the mother scheduled for June 26-July 5 bc she did not want 2 separate weeks of summer visitation) the child returned home and stated that during her visit she was not given meals and when she told her mom she was hungry she was told there wasnt any food and she was broke. Child stated she ate left over dipping dots for supper that night. She stated it was normal for her to not be given breakfast and to have to be hungry and miss meals when she visited in the mother's home. She said they did not keep food in the house so they had to eat out most times and if there wasnt enough money to eat out, they did without. (this is not the 1st time this matter has been brought up when the child visited in mother's home) She also stated her mother and her new husband screamed, argued and cussed in front of her all the time and she told them it made her nervous when they did that and her mother told her it only happened when she was around. She also stated the home was filthy with cat and dog vomit and feces in the floor not being cleaned up, leading to people stepping in it. She stated there was roaches in the clothes and that it was generally just filthy and smelly. Child has stated several times that the mom frequently gets angry and screams and cusses which scares her. she said her mom is always saying bad and ugly words about her dad and me (stepmom). she said she agrees with everything her mother says bc she is scared of her mother getting mad at her and cussing her. We sought advice on how to handle this (there is no mediating with the mother as she frequently cusses us out if we speak to her over any concerns the child has, so most communication is futile). We were told to report to Child Protective Services but we were trying to avoid doing so as to not cause a DHS war if no action could be taken on behalf of DHS. We were told to withhold visitation and let the mother sue for Contempt and then us counter sue for new Modification but we did not want to not exhaust any avenue possible and break a court order. We went ahead and reported to Child Protective Services and the mother cancelled her next visitation (which was Aug 14) This case is still open at this time and under investigation. CPS advised us to get an attorney for emergency hearing for supervised visitation and subpeona the dhs records (there are 2). Our attorney has been out of the office since this was reported ( a week and half ago). Our main question is, is the facts in these DHS reports given by my stepdaughter enough to prove the mother is unfit and either deny visitation or set up supervised visitation in the grandmother's home or something of this nature ?
Also prior to the modification that granted my husband full legal and physical custody, on the few visits the child had with the mother that was not in the grandmother's home (abt 1x a year), child was always returned early with the mother stating she could not afford child, child was too loud and messy, child was "trashing" up her vehicle and that she (the mother) needed a break. Also, the mother has a child from a marriage previous to being married to my husband (this child is 13) whom she also lost custody of due to neglect.
Modification of Custody: Emergency Hearing for Supervised Visitation
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire