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Getting Sealed Records 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 have cross-posted the Criminal Procedure thread as well since it involves both courts. Perhaps someone in one of the forums has experience with this or would know the proper procedure...

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
Duplicate Post: https://forum.freeadvice.com/arrests-searches-warrants-procedure-26/obtaining-sealed-psychological-evaluation-criminal-court-use-family-court-580379.html
 

Ohiogal

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

I have cross-posted the Criminal Procedure thread as well since it involves both courts. Perhaps someone in one of the forums has experience with this or would know the proper procedure...

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.
You would need to petition the criminal court to unseal the psychological evaluation as you have done. YOu will most likely lose. Why? Because her conviction was overturned and you are NOT entitled to this information. You would have a better chance of having the family court order a psychological evaluation done on both of you that would be up to date. You are NOT a party to that case. You are the father of the victim in the criminal case but that does NOT make you the party so you are completely incorrect in your thinking. Also, since the conviction was overturned, she was never convicted. She is not guilty of the crime and you are wasting your time. The report itself is hearsay -- you would have to subpoena the doctor who actually did the evaluation to testify and be cross-examined. Then you may not get past doctor/client confidentiality.

You have many issues. Family Court cannot subpoena sealed criminal court records. Nor can you.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
You would need to petition the criminal court to unseal the psychological evaluation as you have done. YOu will most likely lose. Why? Because her conviction was overturned and you are NOT entitled to this information. You would have a better chance of having the family court order a psychological evaluation done on both of you that would be up to date. You are NOT a party to that case. You are the father of the victim in the criminal case but that does NOT make you the party so you are completely incorrect in your thinking. Also, since the conviction was overturned, she was never convicted. She is not guilty of the crime and you are wasting your time. The report itself is hearsay -- you would have to subpoena the doctor who actually did the evaluation to testify and be cross-examined. Then you may not get past doctor/client confidentiality.

You have many issues. Family Court cannot subpoena sealed criminal court records. Nor can you.
You said this much better than I did - but I gave similar advice on his other thread, just much more briefly.
 

Mike M

Junior Member
The civil court did do a psychological evaluation of both of us, 4 years ago, which cost a fortune, and the court still did not follow the recommendations of the psychologist.
 
Last edited:

justalayman

Senior Member
The civil court did do a psychological evaluation of both of us, 4 years ago, which cost a fortune, and the court still did not follow the recommendations of the psychologist.
but the records you seek are not available so you need to find another way.
 

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