Arrested for civil contempt of court for passwords

[ArmyNurse21]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Dakota
Let me start my explanation by saying my mother is going through a very contentious divorce involving a business her and her husband own 50:50 shares of.

On Tuesday she was arrested for a Civil Contempt of Court for not providing two passwords. She does not have these two passwords and opposing council have been given instructions on how they could obtain them. I personally do not understand how someone can be arrested and kept in custody for 3 days now over passwords that they do not even have.

She has not been before a judge since she has been in custody. When calling the Clerk of Courts in the county this charge was in I was told, "Nope, she will not see a judge. She sits or gives up the password. It's a court order."

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Dakota
Let me start my explanation by saying my mother is going through a very contentious divorce involving a business her and her husband own 50:50 shares of.

On Tuesday she was arrested for a Civil Contempt of Court for not providing two passwords. She does not have these two passwords and opposing council have been given instructions on how they could obtain them. I personally do not understand how someone can be arrested and kept in custody for 3 days now over passwords that they do not even have.

She was arrested for not following a court order. Did she give instructions to counsel? If yes, why didn't she do it herself?

She has not been before a judge since she has been in custody. When calling the Clerk of Courts in the county this charge was in I was told, "Nope, she will not see a judge. She sits or gives up the password. It's a court order."

She needs an attorney - pronto.

 

[adjusterjack]

I personally do not understand how someone can be arrested and kept in custody for 3 days now over passwords that they do not even have.

I don't understand it either. I'm guessing that there is a lot more to this story than your mother is admitting to because a lot has to happen before somebody gets arrested for contempt.

Generally, the first step is for the petitioner to request that the court issue an Order to Show Cause Why the Respondent Shouldn't be Cited for Contempt. That request gets served on the respondent (your mother) which would have given her a heads-up that she needed to do something to avoid a contempt citation.

The next step is for the court to order her to appear and explain why she shouldn't be held in contempt. That's yet another notice that she needed to do something to avoid the contempt citation.

A reasonable explanation of the difficulty of getting the passwords should have gotten her an opportunity to figure out how to get them and turn them over.

Judges don't like to put people in jail for contempt unless their recalcitrance is egregious so I'm guessing that your mother somehow really pissed off the judge with regard to the passwords and is now enjoying three hots and a cot in durance vile.

If your mother is going through this "very contentious divorce" without an attorney then a lot worse is likely to happen than a few days in jail.