I am from Escondido, Ca and am looking for major advice and I suppose a second opinion on. My ex-husband and I filed for divorce back Feb of 2018 with it being final of Nov of 2018. At that time, we both felt we could handle our divorce without 3rd parties and my ex used a divorce writing service to do so. The first draft was presented by my ex and I objected for personal reasons of being the petitioner. My ex agreed to switch this but nothing else was changed as I have found out including a very important section that on the first draft had me with 80 and him 20. Now that it was flipped, this should have been as well but was not. We did not input any thing in for an actual schedule and only put that he and I would have joint custody.
I moved (with consent from my ex) to Escondido in May of 2018 and it was agreed that our at the time 7 year old daughter would move with me. However, once the school year came around it was discovered that the school I had intended for her to attend due to the high rating did not have enough room as it was an interdistrict transfer. The school nearest my ex was better rated and so it was decided for her education that she would live with him for the 2018-19 school and then she would re-join me for the 2019/20 school year as I would be able to start the transfer process much sooner.
After the 2018/19 school was complete, my ex and I agreed on a schedule going forward for the 2019/20 school in which I would have her full time except for every other weekend (my e stated he only wanted 2 weekends to focus on his new relationship). This worked great until Covid-19. I made the decision to keep my travel plans to see my friend in PA on April 9th to April 12th. I asked my ex if he would like her that weekend to which he declined. Her aunt said she would love to have her and that is where I dropped her off on April 8th. In the meantime, all precautions were being taking in terms of Covid-19 such as masks, social distancing, and lots of hand sanitizer. These continued while I was on my trip to PA.
On the evening of April 11th, I started to receive a slew of texts from ex as he had discovered I was in PA. He told me that he would be going to the aunts house and retrieving out daughter as I had just killed his entire house by allowing her there and not to mention my trip. There were hours of intense back and forth but in the end, he arrived at 10:30 on April 12th at the aunts house and removed her. I had contacted a lawyer and send a copy of our divorce papers and he was the first one to point out that even though there was a verbal agreement of custody, we did not have anything legally to go by. It was decided I would pursue going to court to get that revised.
Once I arrived back home, I was withheld from daughter from the period of April 12th until he finally allowed me to pick her up at 5pm on April 24th. After speaking with my lawyer, he advised me to inform my ex that we would be returning to our normal established schedule and provided the Admin Order that outlined custody in relations to Covid-19 and my ex had violated 2 out of the 4 orders. I advised him on April 26th of this and he soon called to demand that I return her to him. He made a verbal threat which I made aware to my lawyer. My lawyer recommended we try to get a restraining order the following day. On April 27th, I received an email from my ex stating that he had contacted the police who took a report and based on this one section with the child support area deemed that my ex had full authority to take her from me. I was told that the police said they were more than happy to go across county lines to get her back for him and he said they told him to proceed with criminal charges. My lawyer and I had already started the paper work for the restraining order prior to the email that my ex sent. The following day, the order was denied in my case as my ex had presented his side (to which I have found multiple out right lies and I have the documentation to show that).
My lawyer has proposed a schedule but my ex still refuses and has told me I have until 7pm tonight to return her.
I need advice on what my rights are since it will be a long while before this actually goes to court. Should I also contact the police? Would that one tiny section out weigh the fact that legally we have no schedule and have verbally established our own that has been in place for nearly a year. Any advice would be great!
I moved (with consent from my ex) to Escondido in May of 2018 and it was agreed that our at the time 7 year old daughter would move with me. However, once the school year came around it was discovered that the school I had intended for her to attend due to the high rating did not have enough room as it was an interdistrict transfer. The school nearest my ex was better rated and so it was decided for her education that she would live with him for the 2018-19 school and then she would re-join me for the 2019/20 school year as I would be able to start the transfer process much sooner.
After the 2018/19 school was complete, my ex and I agreed on a schedule going forward for the 2019/20 school in which I would have her full time except for every other weekend (my e stated he only wanted 2 weekends to focus on his new relationship). This worked great until Covid-19. I made the decision to keep my travel plans to see my friend in PA on April 9th to April 12th. I asked my ex if he would like her that weekend to which he declined. Her aunt said she would love to have her and that is where I dropped her off on April 8th. In the meantime, all precautions were being taking in terms of Covid-19 such as masks, social distancing, and lots of hand sanitizer. These continued while I was on my trip to PA.
On the evening of April 11th, I started to receive a slew of texts from ex as he had discovered I was in PA. He told me that he would be going to the aunts house and retrieving out daughter as I had just killed his entire house by allowing her there and not to mention my trip. There were hours of intense back and forth but in the end, he arrived at 10:30 on April 12th at the aunts house and removed her. I had contacted a lawyer and send a copy of our divorce papers and he was the first one to point out that even though there was a verbal agreement of custody, we did not have anything legally to go by. It was decided I would pursue going to court to get that revised.
Once I arrived back home, I was withheld from daughter from the period of April 12th until he finally allowed me to pick her up at 5pm on April 24th. After speaking with my lawyer, he advised me to inform my ex that we would be returning to our normal established schedule and provided the Admin Order that outlined custody in relations to Covid-19 and my ex had violated 2 out of the 4 orders. I advised him on April 26th of this and he soon called to demand that I return her to him. He made a verbal threat which I made aware to my lawyer. My lawyer recommended we try to get a restraining order the following day. On April 27th, I received an email from my ex stating that he had contacted the police who took a report and based on this one section with the child support area deemed that my ex had full authority to take her from me. I was told that the police said they were more than happy to go across county lines to get her back for him and he said they told him to proceed with criminal charges. My lawyer and I had already started the paper work for the restraining order prior to the email that my ex sent. The following day, the order was denied in my case as my ex had presented his side (to which I have found multiple out right lies and I have the documentation to show that).
My lawyer has proposed a schedule but my ex still refuses and has told me I have until 7pm tonight to return her.
I need advice on what my rights are since it will be a long while before this actually goes to court. Should I also contact the police? Would that one tiny section out weigh the fact that legally we have no schedule and have verbally established our own that has been in place for nearly a year. Any advice would be great!