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Obtaining Sealed Psychological Evaluation from Criminal Court to Use in Family Court.

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Mike M

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am involved in a custody/time sharing dispute with my ex wife who has a penchant for making false abuse allegations. She was previously prosecuted for parental kidnapping, and I now have sole responsibility and she is under an order of supervised time sharing.

She was given 5 years probation which included a requirement that she submit to psychiatric therapy/counseling. She voluntarily withdrew from the therapy prior to its completion and was charged with a violation of probation. The Criminal Court ordered that she submit to a psychological evaluation in order to determine her competency for required counseling. The report came back saying that "there is no therapy that would be of benefit" to her, which basically amounts to a personality disorder. I know this via a court transcript.

The Appellate court has now overturned her conviction and she has motioned the civil court for unsupervised time sharing. I am putting together a supplemental petition to make her time sharing permanently supervised because it is a certainty that she will flee with my son again (her allegations against me have intensified since the initial custody order). As part of this supplemental petition, I want to include the psychological evaluation that was completed and sealed by the Criminal Court and have the previously court-appointed psychologist review this evaluation and identify what risk the child would be in if she is afforded unsupervised time sharing. (He previously testified that she should be supervised until she undergoes therapy and resolves her psychological issues...the court rule against the psychologist's recommendations.)

To this end, no one seems to know what the proper procedure is, as there does not seem to be any precedence for the victim of a crime filing pro se motions in the case. The State Attorney tells me something different from what the Clerk tells me who tells me something different from what the judicial assistant tells me. I have filed a motion with the criminal court to Unseal the Psychological Evaluation for a Limited Purpose, and I have a hearing on the motion on June 29. I know that the public defender will object to my motion since I am a third party (not the state or the public defender). The judicial assistant told me as much when I was trying to get the hearing moved up, as she said that it was weird for me to file the motion and they don't know what to do about it at this point, but the judge will let me speak on it at that hearing. My position is that I am a party to the case and justified in filing the motion since it was my son who she was convicted of taking off with and it is a matter of his welfare that the evaluation be released to use in the Family Law case.

Is there some other remedy to obtain this report should the criminal judge refuse my motion on procedural grounds (that I have no grounds to make the motion as a third party). Can I ask the Civil/Family Law court to issue a subpoena for this evaluation to serve on the Criminal Court?

Thanks.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am involved in a custody/time sharing dispute with my ex wife who has a penchant for making false abuse allegations. She was previously prosecuted for parental kidnapping, and I now have sole responsibility and she is under an order of supervised time sharing.

She was given 5 years probation which included a requirement that she submit to psychiatric therapy/counseling. She voluntarily withdrew from the therapy prior to its completion and was charged with a violation of probation. The Criminal Court ordered that she submit to a psychological evaluation in order to determine her competency for required counseling. The report came back saying that "there is no therapy that would be of benefit" to her, which basically amounts to a personality disorder. I know this via a court transcript.

The Appellate court has now overturned her conviction and she has motioned the civil court for unsupervised time sharing. I am putting together a supplemental petition to make her time sharing permanently supervised because it is a certainty that she will flee with my son again (her allegations against me have intensified since the initial custody order). As part of this supplemental petition, I want to include the psychological evaluation that was completed and sealed by the Criminal Court and have the previously court-appointed psychologist review this evaluation and identify what risk the child would be in if she is afforded unsupervised time sharing. (He previously testified that she should be supervised until she undergoes therapy and resolves her psychological issues...the court rule against the psychologist's recommendations.)

To this end, no one seems to know what the proper procedure is, as there does not seem to be any precedence for the victim of a crime filing pro se motions in the case. The State Attorney tells me something different from what the Clerk tells me who tells me something different from what the judicial assistant tells me. I have filed a motion with the criminal court to Unseal the Psychological Evaluation for a Limited Purpose, and I have a hearing on the motion on June 29. I know that the public defender will object to my motion since I am a third party (not the state or the public defender). The judicial assistant told me as much when I was trying to get the hearing moved up, as she said that it was weird for me to file the motion and they don't know what to do about it at this point, but the judge will let me speak on it at that hearing. My position is that I am a party to the case and justified in filing the motion since it was my son who she was convicted of taking off with and it is a matter of his welfare that the evaluation be released to use in the Family Law case.

Is there some other remedy to obtain this report should the criminal judge refuse my motion on procedural grounds (that I have no grounds to make the motion as a third party). Can I ask the Civil/Family Law court to issue a subpoena for this evaluation to serve on the Criminal Court?

Thanks.
No, she wasn't convicted of it. (It was overturned.)

Why not request the civil court to order psych evals for BOTH of you (at your expense)?
 

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