Joint Custody After Aggravated Battery

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: La My ex and i had just custody of our 2 children in 2003. He went to jail the same year charges of attempted murder were dropped to aggravated battery. He shot my husband and 2 other people, in the present of the children. He is now home and is taking my to court for joint custody. The children are 16 about to be 17 and 14 about to be 15 in a few months. What are the chances of him getting it? I am very scared of him and so are the children..

Flat out joint custody - probably not good (more because the violence occurred in the presence of the children than because of the actual act itself, surprisingly). Supervised visitation - probably iffy to good. Whatever you do, don't "settle" for the person doing to supervising be a family member or other friend - if he wants to be around the children fight tooth and nail (or let your attorney fight tooth and nail) to ensure that the supervision happens at a controlled facility or visitation center where there are non-involved parties watching to make sure that there are no attempts (or successes) at removing the children from the safety of observation.

If you haven't already, speak to the parole office and make sure that the terms of his probation include no contact with you, and hopefully with the children too. If it doesn't, then get with your local prosecutor's office or local domestic violence program and get that order in place ASAP. Ask that it cover the children too, in light of their fear and previous violence witnessed. There's not a nice way to say this, but there have been WAY too many cases of children in such circumstances ending up as the "final hurrah" of an ex who just won't stop until they feel they've made their point - too often resulting in dead children, and an ex dead by their own hand or the hand of the police. It's a final, brutal way of giving you the ultimate "finger" and then taking the quick way out themselves. The past behavior you describe makes this ex a huge red flag for such an attempt in the future.

You should also be aware that while a restraining order can be an important piece of a protective plan for your family, in the end, it's only a piece of paper, and it only has any value to you if the ex violates it. Given his past, ANY violation should be taken extremely seriously and reported immediately. If you ever have to make such a report, be sure to let authorities know about the past murder attempt. You should also make yourself, your husband, and your children (to what extent you can do so without overly distressing them) very familiar with a family safety plan.

Remember too that your local domestic violence program and/or advocates with your local law enforcement agency are there to assist you and keep your family safe.

I went to court without a lawyer because I cant afford one. They are saying my husband had a gun. In the court papers the say my husband was armed but that was not the truth. Maybe that was the reason he was only charged with aggravated battery. My children even told me my husband didnt have a gun. Of course my children never went to court during that time. But they will be talking to the judge in family court. He also went to my children's school and stated he needed to check on their grades and requested to speak to my oldest which is 16..But my child stated they didnt want to see him. The school called my house but I was not home. And the children were so scard that they called my aunt to check them out of school. Is there anything I can do about it?