• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Arrest warrant = no visitation??

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

C

Concerned in AL

Guest
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Alabama

Hello,

I posted on this board in December of last year, concerning the situation with my daughter, who is the custodial parent over my 2 year old grand daughter. More background info can be found at my previous post
(https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=167836) if needed.

Since then, a lot has happened. At the start of the year, the father of the child received 2 years probation from the court of his home county, for drug charges. He also was ordered to submit to random "color-code" drug tests throughout this two year period. In addition, seperate from this, he went to court for domestic violence against my daughter - this was in a neighbouring county, and there he was sentenced to several months of weekly anger management classes.

Since THEN, my daughter has abided by the court-instructed visitation, which is to be supervised by the father's mother. But just today, we found out that he in fact never attended ANY of the anger classes, and that as a result there is currently a warrant out for his arrest in the neighbouring county, for violation of probation. Also,we recently discovered that back in March, he failed to attend several of his color-code drug tests. This resulted in a warrant for his arrest in his home county also, along with a request to revoke his 2 year drug-charge-related probation (seperate from the domestic violence) and put him in jail. We are attempting to find out if this other warrant is still in effect, or otherwise what happened with it. We are thinking that the same situation may be happening as with the warrant in the neighbouring county, ie. that they just haven't been able to pick him up yet.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the father's mother is listed in the visitation order as the supervisor of the visitation. Due to this, what is actually occuring is that SHE, not the father, is receiving the visitation (he doesn't even turn up most of the time, or even care about his daughter - he already has been held in contempt for not paying child support, and DHR are about to take him to court again for further non-payment. But his mother is basically using him just to keep her own time with my granddaughter). Due to the way the visitation order is set out, my daughter is basically forced to deliver my granddaughter to the father's mother every other weekend, under threat of being held in contempt (something the other grandmother has attempted in the past), while there is nothing actually requiring the child's father to be present for any of this visitation.

So, to finally cut a very long story short (and thanks to anyone who has made it this far!), my question is this...shouldn't the fact that the father has an outstanding warrant for his arrest (in ANY county, not necessarily just his home county), be sufficient grounds by itself to deny him his visitation?

Thank you in advance for any help or advice you may be able to give.
 


snostar

Senior Member
The proper way to go about this is to file for a modification, if the mother does not obey the order she does risk being found in contempt. If you type in the EXACT wording of the order in regards to the visitation we may be able to help you further.
 
C

Concerned in AL

Guest
snostar said:
The proper way to go about this is to file for a modification, if the mother does not obey the order she does risk being found in contempt. If you type in the EXACT wording of the order in regards to the visitation we may be able to help you further.
Thanks for the response. We ARE currently in the process of filing for a modified, permanent visitation order...this has nothing to do with the recent information we just discovered about the arrest warrant, but was ongoing anyways. The current visitation order is a temporary one, and expires in several months. Also, we, including my daughter and grand daughter, have relocated from AL to NC in the interim, where we have hired a lawyer and are filing the required papers.

Sorry I don't have the current order to hand, but the rulings are as follows:

1) Father was granted standard non-custodial visitation (every other weekend, holidays etc.)
2) This visitation must be under the supervision of his mother, and must take place at her home.
3) Transportation of the child to and/or from visitation must be provided by his mother only. He is not allowed to drive a vehicle with the child present. If residing in the same state, they pick the child up for visitation, we collect her afterwards. If out of state (which it now is), this is reversed - my daughter must take her there, they (the mother) must bring her back.
4) The child may not be present in the father's home at any time.
5) We have a protection order against the father, towards my daughter (the child's mother), due to the domestic violence.

These are the orders which, while reasonable in theory and designed to protect my grand daughter, actually combine to give the other grandmother what we feel is unfair power over the situation. My daughter must hand her child over to this woman under threat of contempt charges, while having no way of knowing if the father even shows up (and in fact know that he rarely does). Also, my daughter and her husband are forced to make a 10+ hour drive each way (NC to AL and back) to deliver the child for this visitation every other weekend (a ridiculous situation which we are looking to get changed), in effect simply for the benefit of the child's GRANDMOTHER, not her father.

This situation has frustrated us all year, and is something we are working towards hopefully getting changed. But in the meantime, shouldn't the fact the father of the child has a warrant out for his arrest, with definite jail time attached, be sufficient grounds for not having to deliver the child for visitation at this time? After all, he is the one legally receiving the visition, even if in reality it's his mother.

We feel he is a legitimate threat to the safety of our grand daughter - he has anger issues (which he has failed to attend court-ordered classes for, following a domestic violence conviction), and is a drug user (he has a recent conviction for possession, and is ordered to take random drug tests, some of which he has missed, violating his probation. Drugs taken include crystal meth).
 

snostar

Senior Member
Concerned in AL said:
But in the meantime, shouldn't the fact the father of the child has a warrant out for his arrest, with definite jail time attached, be sufficient grounds for not having to deliver the child for visitation at this time? After all, he is the one legally receiving the visition, even if in reality it's his mother.
This is not for you or your daughter to decide, and I can also understand your daughter’s frustration. Since there are recent facts that created a change of circumstance she can file an ex parte petition presenting these facts to the judge and requesting a change in the visitation order. This can be done NOW, even though she in the middle of an ongoing proceeding. Criminals and probation violators can get visitation, but a judge may definitely be interested in knowing the father has failed to take court ordered drug tests, anger management classes and now faces probation violations.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
snostar said:
This is not for you or your daughter to decide, and I can also understand your daughter’s frustration. Since there are recent facts that created a change of circumstance she can file an ex parte petition presenting these facts to the judge and requesting a change in the visitation order. This can be done NOW, even though she in the middle of an ongoing proceeding. Criminals and probation violators can get visitation, but a judge may definitely be interested in knowing the father has failed to take court ordered drug tests, anger management classes and now faces probation violations.
Actually...an ex-parte might not be the way to go here. If she files a regular motion to modify the visitation the ex will have to show up in court (or lose by default) If the ex shows up in court...and someone has notified the authorities in both counties with arrest warrants that he will be in the courtroom at that time on that date (hint hint)....her problem might just end up being over.
 

snostar

Senior Member
LdiJ said:
Actually...an ex-parte might not be the way to go here. If she files a regular motion to modify the visitation the ex will have to show up in court (or lose by default) If the ex shows up in court...and someone has notified the authorities in both counties with arrest warrants that he will be in the courtroom at that time on that date (hint hint)....her problem might just end up being over.
That's good thinking!
 
C

Concerned in AL

Guest
First of all, my apologies for not replying to this thread for several days. We have had some computer problems, and there has also been a few more things going on, in regards to discoving more information on the father's behavior, and also finding out that some of the previous information we'd received wasn't in fact one hundred percent accurate.

The good news (at last!) is that just yesterday, we applied for and were granted an ex-parte order, that stated due to his actions, behavior and prior record, the father is to have no contact with our grand daughter at all until he has come into full compliance with all the terms of his probation, and proves as much to the court here in NC.

I want to thank everyone who replied to this thread, for the advice you all have given. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they try something else against us, but we're glad that something has finally gone our way, and finally someone is looking out for the safety our our grand daughter.

Thanks again.
 
Hey I'm not sure but I know there are people on here that are, did you file the ex parte in NC? I think you ave to have the case transferred because AL has jurisdiction. Just wondering because my fiance was told he couldn't file an exparte in his county because another county had jurisdiction I just don't want you to have a false sense of security if NC doesn't have any jurisdiction to grant what was granted.
 
C

Concerned in AL

Guest
Yes we did file the ex-parte in NC, and the question of jurisdiction has come up in the past. Our lawyer here in NC looked up the AL laws, and also consulted an experienced AL family law lawyer (who is a former judge in AL also). Both agreed that under AL law, a temporary custody order entered as part of a protection order (due to the abuse by the father against my daughter) does not by itself confer exclusive jurisdiction over our grand daughter to the AL courts. Unlike in NC, where any order that involves the child automatically claims jurisdiction for the NC courts. So we're pretty confident that this ex-parte order (and before that, simply the fact that we filed permanent custody papers from NC before the father's family filed anything from AL) should grant us NC jurisdiction.

We do know that there IS the possibility the AL judge will attempt to go against this anyways and try to claim jurisdiction due to the protection order, but if that happens then we will fight that in AL, and our lawyer is confident that the law is on our side there.

Thanks for your reply, and your concern for our situation, we all appreciate it and the advice we have received here. Right now, we're just glad we have this ex-parte in place, and are praying things continue to work out for us and our grand daughter remains safe.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top