Preventing Sex Offender Father from Seeing Child

[Artix]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Florida

I got pregnant by a sex offender (he never mentioed he was a sex offender I learned the hard way on my own) who is out on parole. I've since had my baby and didn't list him on the birth certificate. I'm now seeking child support. Since he is registered and on parole does that prevent him from seeing my child? If not how could I prevent him from having visitation with her?

Thank you

[Dogmatique]

You can't. If he wants visitation, he'll get it eventually - even if it's only supervised.

Even sex offenders can have visitation with their own kids. Heck, sex offenders can even get CUSTODY of their own kids.

You can request that it's supervised, but unless you can show that he's actually a threat to your mutual child, supervision would likely be short term and then progress to regular visitation.

[Artix]

That makes me sick. He got caught with excessive amounts of child porn and now runs a photography studio...the laws need to be stronger in this case

[aardvarc]

The courts expect YOU to do your due diligence on persons BEFORE you sleep with them - and especially before you get pregnant by them. The courts simply can't UN-do that type of poor decision making. If he's the biological father, he has CONSTITUTIONALLY protected rights regarding HIS child, and the courts would need to find him to be a DANGER to the child before they will deny a parent access to their child.

The only way the law could intervene in situations like this is to have harsher penalties for child porn possession - in which case he'd not be able to see the child while incarcerated in jail or prison. But even then, upon release, he'd be able to seek at least supervised visitation.

[NYI310]

Just a question on my part, but wouldn't the fact that he is not listed on the birth certificate prevent mother from requesting child support and father from access to the child?

Wouldn't paternity need to be established before these things become a factor?

[aardvarc]

She's seeking child support from him, so establishment of paternity is going to be part of the process. By seeking support from him, mom has now named him as the father. So either dad will not contest that claim and the support case moves on quickly, or dad contests that he's the father, and the process waits for DNA to confirm or deny.

Normally, yes, dad would have to get off his keester and establish paternity before seeking a visitation order - but now that mom has started that process on her own, she's saved dad the step. Dad may have been happy to let sleeping dogs lie forever - being happy to not ever consider seeking visitation - but experience suggests that once there is child support being paid, the paying parent wants something in RETURN for that payment, and that's usually to SEE the child. (Not to mention that many think that if they get/use visitation it'll lower their child support payments.)

It's simply unrealistic for mom to think that dad's gonna pay and NOT seek visitation, even if just to spite her - and unless the court deems him an immediate threat to the child, he's likely to get at LEAST supervised visitation.