Emergency Custody Hearing

[babykitty]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? AZ

My roommate has a unique situation. He has been out of work for a while and owes money in child support. He and his ex girlfriend have joint custody of their 10 year old daughter and 50/50 visitation. The mother of his child is now married to an abusive man. He has a history of domestic violence and his ex wife has sole legal custody of their two minor children ages 3 and 6. The new step father had 49% visitation until his ex-wife took him back to court this week for an emergency order, the judge in their case, a different county, temporarily suspended his vistation until they go back to court Jan 22 for an evidentuary hearing. The mother in that case has evidence of the stepfather emotionally abusing the children. My roommate wants to get his daughter away from her mother and abusive step-father but he has been offered a temp job in CO for the next 6 weeks. The money from the job could pay all the back child support he owes and help him take care of his family for the next several months. The question is can he take the job and have his mother file the emergency order to get his daughter out of her bad situation immediately? She will be staying with his daughter in the home she knows but has not spent any time around her grandchild since she was a baby and she resides overseas. Also the child's mother is emotionally unstable and hates the grandmother with a passion. The child's mother has a history of "brainwashing" the child while the father is not around. The mother sent the child to TX for 3 months and tried to get the child to say that her father was abusive to her at that time. When she came back from TX after the father fought to get her back, she was telling the court that she was scared of her father until she had been with him for several weeks. This is all documented in the concillation reports from 2 years ago.

In AZ the stature says that any family member can take guardian ship in an abuse case and he wants to know if his mother can handle the emergency hearing and get his daughter out while he is working in CO for 6 weeks. The abuse is emotional and there is a great deal of proof and the daughter has relayed her concerns to her father on many occasions over the past 8 months. The father wants to act now but knows that if he accepts the job in CO he will not be able to attend any of the hearings. He will be working nights and will be available telephonically. What are his chances of getting his daughter out through his mother? Should he wait to return from the job in 6 weeks? Or will that look like he is utting money before the best interest of his child?

 

[ecmst12]

Your roommate needs to talk to a lawyer. His mom can't file ANYTHING on his behalf unless she is a lawyer. And she certainly doesn't have standing to file anything on her own behalf, if she has no relationship with the child. A lawyer can represent him while he is out of town and *might* be able to ask that grandma be able to act as temporary guardian but that seems unlikely since the child barely knows her. Lawyer can advise on the best course of action.

But if there is ANY other choice, he should not take this job, but should stay put and make sure his child is safe before he goes anywhere. Unless it's really a choice between starving and paying rent or not.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? AZ

My roommate has a unique situation. He has been out of work for a while and owes money in child support. He and his ex girlfriend have joint custody of their 10 year old daughter and 50/50 visitation. The mother of his child is now married to an abusive man. He has a history of domestic violence and his ex wife has sole legal custody of their two minor children ages 3 and 6. The new step father had 49% visitation until his ex-wife took him back to court this week for an emergency order, the judge in their case, a different county, temporarily suspended his vistation until they go back to court Jan 22 for an evidentuary hearing. The mother in that case has evidence of the stepfather emotionally abusing the children. My roommate wants to get his daughter away from her mother and abusive step-father but he has been offered a temp job in CO for the next 6 weeks. The money from the job could pay all the back child support he owes and help him take care of his family for the next several months. The question is can he take the job and have his mother file the emergency order to get his daughter out of her bad situation immediately? She will be staying with his daughter in the home she knows but has not spent any time around her grandchild since she was a baby and she resides overseas. Also the child's mother is emotionally unstable and hates the grandmother with a passion. The child's mother has a history of "brainwashing" the child while the father is not around. The mother sent the child to TX for 3 months and tried to get the child to say that her father was abusive to her at that time. When she came back from TX after the father fought to get her back, she was telling the court that she was scared of her father until she had been with him for several weeks. This is all documented in the concillation reports from 2 years ago.

In AZ the stature says that any family member can take guardian ship in an abuse case and he wants to know if his mother can handle the emergency hearing and get his daughter out while he is working in CO for 6 weeks. The abuse is emotional and there is a great deal of proof and the daughter has relayed her concerns to her father on many occasions over the past 8 months. The father wants to act now but knows that if he accepts the job in CO he will not be able to attend any of the hearings. He will be working nights and will be available telephonically. What are his chances of getting his daughter out through his mother? Should he wait to return from the job in 6 weeks? Or will that look like he is utting money before the best interest of his child?

Please have your roommate register himself.

This does not concern you.

 

[LdiJ]

If mom and her husband are separated (which would appear to be the case since there is a custody order regarding their children) and if her husband currently doesn't even have visitation with his own children, than how is your roommate's child in an "abusive sitution" requiring emergency action?

 

[babykitty]

Please have your roommate register himself.

This does not concern you.

Actually it does considering I'M the ex wife of the abuser! The child in question is my daughter's stepsister and my son's best friend. I love her too. So please do not make judgements.

 

[babykitty]

If mom and her husband are separated (which would appear to be the case since there is a custody order regarding their children) and if her husband currently doesn't even have visitation with his own children, than how is your roommate's child in an "abusive sitution" requiring emergency action?

To clarify. The mother of the child, my roommates ex GF, married a violent man. They are currently living together and she has her daughter half the week. The other half of the week she is over here with her father. The abuser has had his visitation with his own children suspended for an emergency hearing. But his wife still has her daughter over there.

 

[CJane]

To clarify. The mother of the child, my roommates ex GF, married a violent man. They are currently living together and she has her daughter half the week. The other half of the week she is over here with her father. The abuser has had his visitation with his own children suspended for an emergency hearing. But his wife still has her daughter over there.

Ok, so hold on.

YOU are roommates with your EXHUSBAND'S NEW WIFE'S EX BOYFRIEND?

 

[ecmst12]

We understand that you care about the people involved, but you are LEGALLY a total stranger and have no right to intervene. This is between mom and dad, only.

 

[babykitty]

Ok, so hold on.

YOU are roommates with your EXHUSBAND'S NEW WIFE'S EX BOYFRIEND?

Yes, it's complicated. My roommate worked with my ex husband. When my ex and I split up he got together with his friend's ex. I was also friends with them. A year after the split my roommate lost his job. I was working but not making enough money so could only afford a 2 bedroom apartment for me and my 3 children. My roommate now, was my babysitter while I was working. My roommate had a 5 bedroom house so we moved in together, as roommates/ friends, to help cover the bills and to give my son a room of his own.

I have been to court, in a different county, and was given sole legal custody with my ex having visitation of my 2 young daughters. It was also documented in my case that there was a history of significant domestic violence. In December there was a police report filed for my ex and his new wife regarding domestic violence. There have also been instances when both my 6 year old and my roommate's 10 year old daughter have come home and stated the emotional abuse they are enduring over there. I have been in contact with CPS twice regarding their situation, including once when my 3 year old came back to me with a 2nd degree burn in her diaper area. Since my case was started in a different county before he remarried they are 2 different cases. I went and got an emergency order last week for my own case and I go to court next Friday for a 2 hour evidentuary hearing. My roommate is going to file this week for his own daughter. We have the evidence to back up the situation. It has been getting worse over the past 6 months.

 

[babykitty]

We understand that you care about the people involved, but you are LEGALLY a total stranger and have no right to intervene. This is between mom and dad, only.

Even though I have the evidence about the way her new husband was abusive not only to his own children but also my son from a previous marriage? My ex was court ordered into therapy last year, for our own case, to get help for his abusive nature, which he never did.

I want to keep the two cases seperate. I'm only posting because I'm asking for advice of what my roommate's options are. He has never used a forum before and this advice for him, not me. I'm not intervening, I'll be a witness but he wanted to know what the options were for this. Sorry if you have never posted for a friend before but several people have used forums to post for friends that do not post for themselves. I think that asking for advice here is not legally intervening and that you are being very rude about it.

Oh FYI I signed up for this forum a long time ago for my own advice, it made sense for me to log in to ask a question since I already had a log in and he did not.

 

[CJane]

Your cases WILL remain separate.

And honestly? PREVIOUS behavior (which obviously your roommate knew about prior to the new marriage/relationship) isn't necessarily going to affect CURRENT orders for SOMEONE ELSE'S children.

It MIGHT. But it's not a slam dunk.

And there's a HUGE problem with "Well, you knew he was beating the crap outta your roommate, and that he'd abused his own kids... why didn't you attempt to do anything about it BEFORE?"

 

[babykitty]

Your cases WILL remain separate.

And honestly? PREVIOUS behavior (which obviously your roommate knew about prior to the new marriage/relationship) isn't necessarily going to affect CURRENT orders for SOMEONE ELSE'S children.

It MIGHT. But it's not a slam dunk.

And there's a HUGE problem with "Well, you knew he was beating the crap outta your roommate, and that he'd abused his own kids... why didn't you attempt to do anything about it BEFORE?"

He did. The problem was his custody case was over 9 months before they got married. 9 months before my final orders came out, that my judge said there was a history of domestic violence documented anywhere. His judge had said that unless he had evidence of recent domestic violence against my roommate's ex or the children that they would not consider it. We now have that from the police report and the actions that have occured AFTER they got married. AFTER their custody was already settled. Since they were not married all of their stuff took less than a year. My divorce went on for 1 and a half years. Also at that time my ex and his now wife were saying they were not romantically involved so it was not relevent until they got married. This situation has been going on a little over 2 years. My roommate has been trying to get his daughter out of that situation for the entire time.

It has been difficult to get his judge to listen to my ex's history because they were not married. I'm talking about my ex being abusive to all his prior wives. This is his 4th marriage. I had an order of protection on him for 2 years. He was abusive to our daughters all the way up until the time we split. Yet, my ex was smart enough not to do anything until our court dates were over. His an abusive, violent man but not stupid. At least not completely. His new wife is as crazy as he is. They both verbally assaulted me in front of a police station, in front of not only my 2 young children and her daughter but also my 11 year old son in mid December. Yes I have a police report and witnesses to that incident.