My question involves restraining orders in the State of: TN
How much proof is needed to get a protective order actually put into place?
Background: Child is 3 and claims that step great-grandfather is touching her privates. Mom lives with great-grandfather and great-grandmother in TN and Dad lives in GA. Parents have joint physical and legal custody, no primary, with 50/50 time split (week on, week off). Child has been taken to the hospital but there were no physical signs of abuse. CPS wrote a letter saying that the child should stay in the care of the father since the mother lives with the alleged perpetrator. Child is also claiming that she told Mom and Mom just told the great-grandfather to not do it any more. Father was able to get a temporary protective order against both the mother and the great-grandfather.
The hearing is in a week. The CPS investigation is still going on but they are taking their time (Mom made false sexual abuse allegations against the Dad about a year ago, so they may not be taking these allegations seriously). Father also just filed contempt against the mother over financial issues so she is probably telling CPS that he is just trying to make her look bad before they go to court. Child has not had a forensic interview but hopefully that will be done this week. Child has brought up the abuse 4 times over the past week so it is highly probably the interview will substantiate the abuse (Dad has not asked child any more questions since the first time because he does not want to interfere with her own recollection).
Mom will probably move in with her mom (grandma) in an attempt to get her visitation back. However, grandma is a known drug abuser and has men in and out of her house all the time, along with a teenage son that has anger issues. So this is not an acceptable alternative, IMO. However, I don't think we can gather any proof of this before the court hearing.
Dad is also concerned about the fact that, according to the child, the mother failed to protect her. He is worried that she will not restrict visitation between child and great-grandfather since great-grandfather is the one who pays all of her bills (Mom doesn't work or go to school). He is also worried about the Mom trying to convince the child that nothing happened.
Will the judge issue the protective order against the Mom based solely on the fact that she could interfere with the investigation by telling the child lies? Dad has requested supervised visitation because he does not think it is good for the child to not see her Mom. What kind of proof do we need? If we do have the forensic interview this week then it shouldn't be a problem getting them to write another letter saying that child should stay with Dad, but will that be enough?
And what if they don't do the interview this week? Will the judge issue the protective order since the investigation is still pending?