Can You Keep the Child at the End of Visitation if the Custodial Parent Has an Active

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

My ex has primary physical custody of our daughter and is also running from the law due to a warrant for a drug-related issue. I petitioned for emergency relief and am wondering if I would be able to be charged with contempt if I do not return her at the end of my custody period as I have not heard from the Court regarding the petition, due to the weekend I am assuming. Since he is at an unknown location and has her staying with his dad while he's hiding, I have no idea what I can do. Thanks in advance for any help.

you can be charged with contempt, yes because you would be violating the courts order. There is always a chance of being charged with contempt if you violate a court's order./

Unless you believe the child would be endangered, you would have a tough time arguing you had a valid reason for not returning the child but of course, for the other parent to seek a contempt charge, they would have to file a motion seeking the court charge you and they would have to show up at any ensuing hearing. Not the best place to visit if there is a warrant for your arrest.

Especially given you would be returning the child to the grandfather, it pretty much removes the argument of endangerment.


Is there a right of first refusal in your court order? If so, as it is written do you believe it would apply to you retaining the children rather than sending them to the grandfather's home?

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Quoting raynejoe

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

My ex has primary physical custody of our daughter and is also running from the law due to a warrant for a drug-related issue. I petitioned for emergency relief and am wondering if I would be able to be charged with contempt if I do not return her at the end of my custody period as I have not heard from the Court regarding the petition, due to the weekend I am assuming. Since he is at an unknown location and has her staying with his dad while he's hiding, I have no idea what I can do. Thanks in advance for any help.

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I have two questions for you.

1. Are you saying his Dad knows his location but won't tell you?

2. Do you know exactly what the warrant is about? Are we talking felony charges? Selling? What?

3. Is there anything in your history which might complicate an emergency order?

Right this second I don't entirely agree with jk - but I'd like some clarification before I go further.

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Edit: He has quite the substance abuse background, doesn't he?

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Quoting raynejoe

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

My ex has primary physical custody of our daughter and is also running from the law due to a warrant for a drug-related issue. I petitioned for emergency relief and am wondering if I would be able to be charged with contempt if I do not return her at the end of my custody period as I have not heard from the Court regarding the petition, due to the weekend I am assuming. Since he is at an unknown location and has her staying with his dad while he's hiding, I have no idea what I can do. Thanks in advance for any help.

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I do not agree with JK. You have properly filed an emergency petition, dad is in hiding from the law, and you would be turning the child over to a grandparent, not the parent.

If you eventually get turned down for your emergency petition, then you might want to rethink the matter, but I think that you are safe keeping the child as long as dad is in hiding.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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I have two questions for you.

1. Are you saying his Dad knows his location but won't tell you?

2. Do you know exactly what the warrant is about? Are we talking felony charges? Selling? What?

3. Is there anything in your history which might complicate an emergency order?

Right this second I don't entirely agree with jk - but I'd like some clarification before I go further.

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Edit: He has quite the substance abuse background, doesn't he?

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Hi Dogmatique -

His father is aware of the warrant and has been in touch with him since it was issued and publicized on the local news since Wednesday, but is unaware of his location. The charges that were filed are felony charge of manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver as a felony, and intentional possession of a controlled substance as a misdemeanor. I am unsure of the narcotic that is involved, but he does have a history - he was charged with a misdemeanor possession in Florida in 2008, and in PA he had a drug related warrant for heroin (2011/2012) and he spent time in rehab for meth in 2014. There is nothing in my history that would cause problems with the order ... I have only ever had one traffic violation and a case of harassment that was dropped by the Complainant a couple of days later.

Also, CYS was called by the school due to our daughter telling them that she was homeless, didn't eat except when here and at school, and seeing him with "little packets of white powder again". CYS took her into custody in October 2014, thanks to a power trip by the initial caseworker based upon an unfounded case against me (referral of lies by MT that I removed from case due to not fulfilling her job requirements - same referral made on numerous occasions by same MT on numerous different individuals). We got a new caseworker in January 2015 and I was told this should have never happened due to the case being unfounded. Our daughter was returned to my ex - without a hearing or notification to me - in March 2015 because "she wanted to live with him" according to the caseworker. At the final dependency hearing in April 2015, the judge terminated the dependency and allowed the custody order that I was basically forced to agree upon so that CYS could get off the case due to it "being unnecessary from the beginning".

After talking with my daughter, she informed me that she was basically forced to tell everyone what he told her to so that she "could see her friends" and not to tell me anything or I would take her away from him. I am totally jacked about this, and plan to address this with the Court Monday morning when I go to check on this emergency order.

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Quoting jk

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you can be charged with contempt, yes because you would be violating the courts order. There is always a chance of being charged with contempt if you violate a court's order./

Unless you believe the child would be endangered, you would have a tough time arguing you had a valid reason for not returning the child but of course, for the other parent to seek a contempt charge, they would have to file a motion seeking the court charge you and they would have to show up at any ensuing hearing. Not the best place to visit if there is a warrant for your arrest.

Especially given you would be returning the child to the grandfather, it pretty much removes the argument of endangerment.


Is there a right of first refusal in your court order? If so, as it is written do you believe it would apply to you retaining the children rather than sending them to the grandfather's home?

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JK -

There is no right to first refusal in our order. Returning her to her grandfather does remove the endangerment, but also does not return her to her father as is stated in the order. That's where I am having the issue.

Okay - but you have unsupervised parenting time, yes? No restrictions?

IF the order is written so the grandfather can substitute for the father I think you might risk contempt IF the father were to file and stand in front of the judge to have his say.

If it isn't and since the father's location is not known, there is simply no way to return the child.


and just to make it clear:

while you run the risk of contempt anytime you do not comply with an order, in your situation, (and I have said it twice now) I would say the risk is extremely low since the father (the one with the arrest warrant) would have to file to have the court find you in contempt and he would have to show up in court to make his case. I can't see that happening given the situation.

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Our daughter was returned to my ex - without a hearing or notification to me - in March 2015 because "she wanted to live with him" according to the caseworker.

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Um, no. the child's choice is given some weight as they age but it is not a basis for the actual determination. This suggests there are more problems involved that you may not be disclosing here.

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Quoting jk

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IF the order is written so the grandfather can substitute for the father I think you might risk contempt IF the father were to file and stand in front of the judge to have his say.

If it isn't and since the father's location is not known, there is simply no way to return the child.


and just to make it clear:

while you run the risk of contempt anytime you do not comply with an order, in your situation, (and I have said it twice now) I would say the risk is extremely low since the father (the one with the arrest warrant) would have to file to have the court find you in contempt and he would have to show up in court to make his case. I can't see that happening given the situation.




Um, no. the child's choice is given some weight as they age but it is not a basis for the actual determination. This suggests there are more problems involved that you may not be disclosing here.

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Or just a rotten caseworker...that does sometimes happen. I have seen some caseworkers do some REALLY off things.

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Quoting llworking

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Or just a rotten caseworker...that does sometimes happen. I have seen some caseworkers do some REALLY off things.

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I suppose so but given the rest of the statements, I do wonder if there isn't something not being said like;


why does the parent with all of these proven drug issues have custody of the child at all?

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Quoting jk

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I suppose so but given the rest of the statements, I do wonder if there isn't something not being said like;


why does the parent with all of these proven drug issues have custody of the child at all?

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Again, based on my reading of the thread, a bad caseworker with a grudge.