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I want convicted felon father to sign away rights!!

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newlife2006

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? North Carolina
My child's father was incarcerated last year on several drug charges and is now going to be in Federal Prison for over 20 years. I want to have have his rights as a parent terminated. He has made several attempts to contact me and has even written my family numerous letters, his family also makes contact to try to see my child. I don't feel safe allowing my child to be around them and I don't want him to come home 20 years from now and try to stalk my child. Can I have his rights terminated, because I'm pretty sure he won't do it voluntarily. He did not sign the birth certificate which is another issue itself (beacuse I'm getting married and trying to change my child's name) so I don't know if that helps the situation any. If so, how could I go about doing this and would it require a lawyer? Thanks so much..have a great day!
 


Neal1421

Senior Member
newlife2006 said:
What is the name of your state? North Carolina
My child's father was incarcerated last year on several drug charges and is now going to be in Federal Prison for over 20 years. I want to have have his rights as a parent terminated. He has made several attempts to contact me and has even written my family numerous letters, his family also makes contact to try to see my child. I don't feel safe allowing my child to be around them and I don't want him to come home 20 years from now and try to stalk my child. Can I have his rights terminated, because I'm pretty sure he won't do it voluntarily. He did not sign the birth certificate which is another issue itself (beacuse I'm getting married and trying to change my child's name) so I don't know if that helps the situation any. If so, how could I go about doing this and would it require a lawyer? Thanks so much..have a great day!
If he didn't sign the birth certificate or anything at the hospital and there has not been a DNA test, he has no rights to the child. Also, when/if he does get out in 20 years your child will be an adult and can make his own decisions as to whether or not he wants to get to know his father.
 

newlife2006

Junior Member
What if??

What if for any reason he comes home sooner (God forbid), can he request a DNA test so that he can have parental rights?? I just wanna be sure that I have everything covered just in case the unthinkable happens, Thanks!
 

Neal1421

Senior Member
newlife2006 said:
What if for any reason he comes home sooner (God forbid), can he request a DNA test so that he can have parental rights?? I just wanna be sure that I have everything covered just in case the unthinkable happens, Thanks!
You can't sign away rights that he doesn't have. You would have to request a DNA test and then ask that his rights be terminated. You may be able to get the judge to let you terminate his rights as he is a convicted felon however it depends on your state TPR guidelines. If that is not one of your state's TPR guidelines, he will have to agree to terminate rights and there will have to be a step parent to adopt the child.
 

newlife2006

Junior Member
Okay

Is there anything I can do to keep him from contacting me, my family?? Or am I stuck with the harrassment as long as he has our addresses and knowledge of where we work??
 

brisgirl825

Senior Member
newlife2006 said:
Is there anything I can do to keep him from contacting me, my family?? Or am I stuck with the harrassment as long as he has our addresses and knowledge of where we work??

Get a restraining order.
 
newlife2006 said:
Is there anything I can do to keep him from contacting me, my family?? Or am I stuck with the harrassment as long as he has our addresses and knowledge of where we work??
How can he possibly be harrassing you from jail?????
 

Nocgirl

Member
He has no legal rights to the child if paternity is not established.

I would ignore them and not take their calls.

Now if they get an attorney involved and wish to file for grandparents rights then they might do that. Paternity would have to be established then.
 

424Smudge

Member
You know, a lot of states are allowing things like paternity to be established even if dad is in jail.
I am going to take the odd stance here because limited info has been provided. You have never done drugs before? A lot of younger people experiment. Chances are good that you knew of his drugs while you were with him and chances are good that you might have tried them. I personally don't condone the use of drugs but it doesn't give you the right for a father to not know his son and a child to not know his father. Do you think that you will really look better if he does get out 20 years down the road and your son realizes that the man he has been calling dad for 20 years is not really his dad? Also, there is a high chance that he will get out early as long as he bahaves himself in jail. I have heard of people doing 1/3 of their ordered time. I would check and see when his chance of paroll is.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
424Smudge said:
You know, a lot of states are allowing things like paternity to be established even if dad is in jail.
I am going to take the odd stance here because limited info has been provided. You have never done drugs before? A lot of younger people experiment. Chances are good that you knew of his drugs while you were with him and chances are good that you might have tried them. I personally don't condone the use of drugs but it doesn't give you the right for a father to not know his son and a child to not know his father. Do you think that you will really look better if he does get out 20 years down the road and your son realizes that the man he has been calling dad for 20 years is not really his dad? Also, there is a high chance that he will get out early as long as he bahaves himself in jail. I have heard of people doing 1/3 of their ordered time. I would check and see when his chance of paroll is.
I am sorry but that is a bit ridiculous. There is a big difference between expermenting or youthful indiscretion and a 20 year sentence for a felony conviction.

However...at this point he doesn't have any parental rights to terminate....and its quite possible that a stepparent adoption could happen sometime down the road without requiring that paternity be legally established first. It happens ALL the time.

However at this point the only thing that the OP needs to do to stop him contacting her and her family is to get restraining orders in place.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
newlife2006 said:
What is the name of your state? North Carolina
My child's father was incarcerated last year on several drug charges and is now going to be in Federal Prison for over 20 years. I want to have have his rights as a parent terminated. He has made several attempts to contact me and has even written my family numerous letters, his family also makes contact to try to see my child. I don't feel safe allowing my child to be around them and I don't want him to come home 20 years from now and try to stalk my child. Can I have his rights terminated, because I'm pretty sure he won't do it voluntarily. He did not sign the birth certificate which is another issue itself (beacuse I'm getting married and trying to change my child's name) so I don't know if that helps the situation any. If so, how could I go about doing this and would it require a lawyer? Thanks so much..have a great day!
Based on your follow up posts he has no parental rights to terminate. If you eventually want your future husband to have the opportunity to adopt your child it probably would be unlikely that you would need to establish bio-dad's paternal rights in order to terminate them.

You can't stop him from possibly stalking your child in 20 years. Terminating his parental rights now won't make any difference at all once your child becomes an adult. At that point...it will become between he and your child.

If you and your family don't want to be contacted by him then simply throw away his letters unopened....and block him from calling your homes (its simple to do)

Yes, he might possibly get released early. If that happens, deal with it then. At the moment he is absolutely no threat to you.
 

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