When Can You Get a Court to Order Supervised Visitations
My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Missouri
My daughter is four years old. Her father was there for the birth, but was not been in her life since. A few months ago, he decided he wanted to be in her life. I allowed him and his girlfriend to come to her birthday party, and take her to the movies a few weeks later. They took her to their house a few different times. Each time, my daughter stated that her father slept the whole time and she played with the girlfriends nieces. She told me she didn't want to go back.
After this, I found out about an incident that happened at a local grocery store where my daughter's father and his girlfriend got into a physical altercation and he was arrested. Last week, after not speaking to my daughter or I for a little over a month, he asked if he could pick her up. After telling them it wasn't a good time, his girlfriend attacked me verbally and got very disrespectful. They then threatened to take me to court to get joint custody.
After not being in my daughters life for four years and the things that unfolded when he wanted to try to be, I do NOT feel comfortable with either of them alone with my child. If we go to court, is there anyway to avoid him getting joint custody or possibly only getting supervised visits?
Re: Supervised Visitations
You can request that Dad complies with a graduated visitation plan starting out with a few hours supervised at your house (or choice of venue, as long as you're reasonable). You CAN request that the girlfriend is not present during this getting-to-know-you-again period. Eventually this will lead up to the usual NPC visitation schedule.
You can also request that communication be only between you and Dad. If Dad resists this, or ignores it, ask that the court have him pay for My Family Wizard for both of you.
(On a personal note, I'd ask and pay for that for both parties anyway - it's $99/person/year and while it's sometimes hard to pull out $200 in one shot, it's worth it. Check it out)
He may get joint legal custody, but his chances of getting joint physical - meaning a 50/50 timeshare - are dismal at best.