What to Do About My Daughter's Baby

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

My daughter is pregnant and the father deserted her as soon as he found out. She was living in New Mexico and he stayed completely out of her life for the first 7 months and I went down and moved her up here to Montana. He then somehow found her phone number and started phoning and texting her and saying he wants her to come back and be a family with him. He's got a prison record and we really don't want him involved with this baby. He's got a drug and alcohol problem as well and has a hard time keeping a job. The state of Montana already has his information to try to get child support out of him, but my daughter doesn't want to even put his name on the birth certificate if there is any way that this felon can gain custody of this baby.

My question is what do we do? If we file a protection order will he have to stop phoning and texting? How do we protect this baby from the father?

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Quoting Lanakila

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

My daughter is pregnant and the father deserted her as soon as he found out. She was living in New Mexico and he stayed completely out of her life for the first 7 months and I went down and moved her up here to Montana. He then somehow found her phone number and started phoning and texting her and saying he wants her to come back and be a family with him. He's got a prison record and we really don't want him involved with this baby. He's got a drug and alcohol problem as well and has a hard time keeping a job. The state of Montana already has his information to try to get child support out of him, but my daughter doesn't want to even put his name on the birth certificate if there is any way that this felon can gain custody of this baby.

My question is what do we do? If we file a protection order will he have to stop phoning and texting? How do we protect this baby from the father?

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Actually you don't as you are not a LEGAL party to this situation. After the child is born and IF he is found to be the father, he will have the constitutional right to parent this child, unless he is found to be a danger to the child. His criminal record will likely be irrelevant as your daughter found his criminal history irrelevant when deciding to make him the father of her child.

And your daughter should really be on here posting for herself...it is her legal issue and she should investigate custody/support/paternity for herself so that she is prepared.

My daughter is right here but asked me to find some answers for her. She doesn't want to have anything to do with the father and wants him to leave her alone. She's thinking of filing a protection order to get him to leave her alone as she's asked and he keeps calling/texting.

She has every legal right to have nothing to do with the father. She can ask a court for a restraining order making him leave HER alone...HOWEVER, he'll STILL be able to petition for paternity and visitation. And, even if she gets the order, unless he's been shown to be a danger to the baby, she can still anticipate that he'll be given visitation with his child once he establishes paternity (which WILL put his name on the birth certificate). Having a protection order in place just means that the exchange of the child might have to happen in a supervised setting where they won't have to meet face to face. Being a felon and drug user don't in and of themselves meet the standard to show he's a danger to the child, unless his felony crimes were committed against or in the presence of the child. Could he gain custody? The odds aren't in his favor to become the custodial parent (though it's technically possible, yes), BUT if he shows an interest in being a parent to his child, the time to start planning to split up summers and holidays and expenses for camp and braces and other such items for the next 18 years is NOW. In other words, when she chose to give him the honor of being a father, she told the court that he had SOME level of redeeming qualities - (she wasn't hating his guts when creating this child with him) and the court, in the spirit of honoring the choices of the individual, will consider him fit due to her CHOICE of him as a parent until and unless there is substantial and COMPELLING reason to act otherwise - something strong enough for the court to override her choice. If he was already a felon when she chose to tap him as babymaker, it'll have no bearing (again, unless his felony had some DIRECT bearing on him being with a child).

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Quoting Lanakila

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My daughter is right here but asked me to find some answers for her. She doesn't want to have anything to do with the father and wants him to leave her alone. She's thinking of filing a protection order to get him to leave her alone as she's asked and he keeps calling/texting.

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Have your daughter join with her own user name. Time for her to put on her big girl panties and deal with the legal ramifications of her choices. When this goes to court you will not be allowed to speak for her...she needs to do this herself.