to obey or not to obey**************.....

i live in Texas. my 4 year old great niece has recently begun to scream and cry everytime she is supposed to go with her father. we have all tried to coax her into going, and when she does go on occasion, she comes back cowering like a small whipped puppy. the father was VERY abusive to her mother, but up until the last 2 or 3 months, she loved going with her daddy. should the mother just not force her to go, and risk contempt charges? how can we find out if she is being abused w/o causing more harm than we think has already been done.

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

My response:

It's time for a CPS intervention and investigation to find out what the hell is going on. Call them immediately. Do it NOW !

IAAL