My question involves child abuse or neglect in the State of: New York, County of Fulton.
I the biological father have shared physical custody and joint legal custody of my 3 year daughter.
Here is the story, my daughter was fine when I dropped her off to her mothers Sunday 3pm. Wednesday at 11:30am (Christmas day) the mother dropped my daughter off back to my house not even 3 days later, and the mother tells me my daughter has a cold soar (one spot is bad on her lip, and another spot down towards her chin totally off the lip) which I said ok and we went inside and started opening presents. Then within 30 minutes I ask my daughter what happened to her lip, and she says "frankie burned me with his cigarette" and that is the mother boyfriend frankie. I asked my daughter if she picked up the cigarette and she says no he burned me, hes bad. I know she was burned so I take her into the ER and they could not tell if it was a burn or cold soar, but to put ointment on it and follow up with her doctor which im doing, but my daughter tells the RN when she took her aside same thing, Frankie burned me with his cigarette. The ER made a report to child protective hotline at that time who accepted it they told me and to expect to hear from them. So no one showed up from CPS for over 24 hours so I went into the sheriff dept and filed a report and they got ahold of cps and gave me the name of the lady who had my case, my daughter also told the sheriff deputy she was burned with the cigarette, the sheriff deputy told me they should be at my house after 2pm or I should just stop over there so I did. I talked to the woman from CPS who has the case, and she talked to my daughter, and my daughter told her the same thing frankie burned her with his cigarette. Long story short they are not going to do anything yet but I have a follow up doctor appointment tomorrow and I signed a release to release information to CPS. I again today just before asked the mother what happened, and she says its a cold soar she just wants to lie so it seems to me like its more than just some accident which was my worst fear. The boyfriend that burned my daughter lives at the mothers house with my daughter on the mothers half of the time.
My question now is what do I do. Im pretty sure im going to keep my daughter and not give her back on Sunday to her mother like normal and risk being violated. The CPS put it to me like this, do I want to risk violation or something happening to my daughter if I gave her back so i decided to keep her. My question now is what do I do, do I wait to be violated and deal with that, or file something in family court myself like order of protection and custody? Please any advice on what someone in my situation would be best to do I would appreciated, I do not need to be told what to do just what is best at this point for me and my daughter. I would like to take full custody if possible after this, but should I wait to see if it is confirmed by CPS or if the Sheriff dept does anything first? I cant get an attorney its not an option right now, but I can get a public defender after I file a petition and appear but right now im on my own and I would appreciate if someone could help me out on this.
Thanks

