first attempt at a statement
At this time I feel the best interests of the children are met if they are allowed to remain with me until the end of the 2004-2005 school year. At that time the best interests of Child1 and Child2 can be re-addressed and an order issued accordingly.
· Child1 and Child2 share one bedroom in a three-bedroom house that I have lived in with Girlfriend and her two children since May 2003.
· They are currently attending School1 Elementary School, which is about 100 yards away from our house and offers excellence in education.
· They maintain a healthy relationship with Girlfriend’s children who are also attending School1.
· Girlfriend and I have maintained our relationship for several years and do not anticipate any change.
· Girlfriend has been employed by Company1 in Town1 since September, 2002 with a good rate of pay and excellent benefits.
· I have worked for 1 ½ years at a nursing home as a cook and (without lapse of employ) currently work as Lead Cook for and established institution and receive excellent pay and benefits.
· We have substantial ties to family and the community and have maintained stability for quite some time.
· Either of us have the ability to support our entire family independently without the need for government assistance.
At this time I feel the best interests of the children will be in held in high disregard if custody is given to the mother.
· According to every account I have heard, she has moved out of her mother’s house and left the children in the custody of a non-parental third party (the grandmother) without regard to the rights of the father and in direct violation of the parenting plan.
o The parenting plan makes no provision for assignment of custody to anyone outside of the mother and father.
o No attempt was made “to provide addresses and contact telephone numbers to the other parent” or “to maintain free access and unhampered contact between the child and the other parent”.
o I tracked down the whereabouts of the children through School2, the children’s school, in October when I found that the home telephone number for the children had been disconnected. The school did not know anything about what was going on, but allowed me to speak with Child1 who told me they were living with his grandmother.
o I sent a calling card to the school for Child1 and Child2 so they could call me anytime.
o When I called the telephone number given to me by Child1, I was twice hung up on by the grandmother’s husband impairing my contact with the children.
o The grandmother told me that I should have Girlfriend or one of the kids call so I would not get hung up on again.
o Since October 24, 2004, I have had no contact from the mother although substantial change in circumstances have occurred in the children’s lives.
o After losing contact with the children once again, I contacted School2 School to find that they were no longer going there and were expected to have their transcripts sent to North Thurston School District.
o I contacted the school the following week and found that they were now enrolled in the School3 School. I contacted the principal and found out that the grandmother had enrolled them and was considered, by them, as the custodian.
o I asked the principal to contact the grandmother so I might have contact with her and Ex. I was given Ex’s cellular phone number and immediately left a message for her to call me. During the next two weeks I left numerous messages for her to contact me.
o After leaving five messages during Thanksgiving week, the grandmother called me the Saturday after Thanksgiving and asked if I wanted to have the kids the following weekend. We arranged a meeting place and time.
o The grandmother was at the Doty store at 3:45 on Friday, December 3, 2004, when I arrived. The children and I embraced and we were getting ready to go. The grandmother had the distinct smell of alcohol on her breath and was holding two 12 packs of Schmidts beer up to my girlfriends van window asking if she wanted to join her instead of going back home with me.
o Just before leaving, the grandmother informed me that she needed me to bring the children back and that she would not be there Sunday night when I was to bring them back. I was told to leave them with her brother at her house.
o Concerned about leaving my children there and perplexed why the children were living with a third party and not me, I again tried to reach Ex on her cellular phone at 3:30 pm Sunday, December 5. I received no response so I consulted the police who said that the grandmother had no rights to the children and as long as the mother did not show up I had every right to keep my children.
o The mother, as of Sunday, December 5, 2004, did not have a home to have the children live with her. Allegedly she has a job in xxxxx and is looking for a place to live.So begins this action.
. I filed the appropriate modification and restraining order paperwork on Monday, December 6, and had it signed by a Commissioner about 3:30 pm.
· After I made numerous attempts to reach Ex (always leaving messages on her voice mail) to no avail and after well over a month she could have contacted me, I heard nothing from her until the afternoon of Monday, December 6, when the grandmother came to my house, knocked on the door and said she was “here to pick up a couple of kids”, I told her she could not and that there was a court order granting me custody. She said “there is no court order” and forcibly removed Child2 from my house and was forcing him over to her van.
· The mother then came out from the van and shouted something to the affect that she knew I’d do this and said that there could be no order because she was not served. I gave her the modification and restraining order paperwork and said that she was served now. I then ran over to the grandmother and put my arms around my son and, removed him from his grandmother’s grip and returned him to my house. Uncle1, the grandmother’s brother, taped these events on behalf of the mother and grandmother.
. It is highly suspect that this was an abduction attempt due to its timeliness and the speed and force in which the grandmother took my youngest son from my home. He did not even have shoes or a jacket on and made comment to the grandmother that he had no shoes on when she grabbed him.
· The following day I received a call from Detective ##### of the XXXXX County Sheriffs office informing me that the grandmother accused me of intentionally stealing the clarinet she gave to Child1 as a gift. This supposedly took place Friday at the Doty store. The police report speaks for itself and the credibility of the grandmother.
· The mother has a history of disallowing my parenting time with the children and recent events prove that this is an ongoing situation.
· During the early part of our divorce, she fled with the children without notification to me. A note from her begins “Now, look what you made me do…” She denied the children from me from mid-December 2000 until late March 2001 when she was tracked down by my parents. I immediately filed for mediation.
· Again I was denied visitation from September 2001 through the end of December, 2001, because, she states in her response to contempt charges being brought up against her “Parenting time was not allowed for the petitioner with minor children, Child1 and Child2, due to violations of the Parenting Plan by the petitioner.” This implies that she feels she has a right to enforce the parenting plan without due process.
Well?
