My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Ohio.
Long and short of it:
- Fiancee was in a relationship where the EX was physically and emotionally abusive. (10 year period, never married, two children ages 5 and 8)
- Fiancee had CPOs off and on, and even had EX put in jail before.
- Fiancee finally kicked EX out, and got another CPO last August.
- EX was in violation of CPO 5 times.
- Contempt motions denied because Magistrate said she waited too long. Magistrate wouldn't let her provide proof that she tried to file Contempt, but EX kept dodging service, resulting in delays in filing. Magistrate denied motion to extend CPO due to contempt as well.
- Fiancee is tired and sick, misplaced decision, and 14 day period expired and doesn't want to fight any more, amid my objections...
- CPO is up in two weeks.
That's the 1st part.
I have been living with Fiancee a little more than 60% of the time, BTW.
When CPO is up, we have to develop strategy because:
1. There are no Visitation orders in place. (They were attached to CPO)
2. Fiancee has no intent to file Visitation orders. She's leaving it up to him to pursue that.
Question: Good idea for her to leave it up to him to file? Yes or No?
Question: If he doesn't file, but shows up at the house, can I call the Police? (I don't want to hurt this man, as incorrigible though he be)
Question: What rights does he have seeing as she has sole custody, and no Visitation order in place?
3. Because of his abusive behaviors, EX is not and will NEVER be permitted on my property or near my house. Before CPO was in effect last year, he showed up at her house with a Deputy Sheriff trying to see the children. During that time, ironically, she had just filed an EX Parte order for stalking/menacing/harassment, and the Sheriff relented.
If this happens again, I'm writing a letter to the Sheriff and copying the Judge, advising them that this is a potential Civil Rights violation. A custodial parent with a history of domestic violence can't have the cops force the victim to let him see the children, can they?
Question: Do I have the legal right to take such a position?
4. Because of his abusive behaviors, EX will NEVER be permitted to contact her by phone, email, text, in ANY context. His phone and emails have been blocked. We have been using the OurFamilyWizard site for the past 18 months to communicate Visitation Matters (which were part of the soon to expire CPO), and as far as I'm concerned, that's the ONLY way I'm going to allow them to communicate.
Question: Could Juvenile court FORCE her to allow him to contact her via phone or email...or could we request that ALL communication be done on OFW directly. Is this unprecedented?
5. My position is that if he wants to speak to the children outside of his Visitation (which there will be none in a couple of weeks) he can purchase a pre-paid phone and provide it to the children, and we will advise him of the hours (morning, evening, weekends when he can speak to the children on days he doesn't have visitation OR he can email them back and forth on OurFamilyWizard.
Question: Would my positioning compromise the Fiancee?
6. I have no issue with him filing a motion to get Visitation of his children. I was divorced and never had an issue seeing my daughter, I paid my CS, and she and I have been very good friends for 30 years. We just didn't work as a married couple. He, however, is an abuser of women, while the children have escaped his sociopathic tendencies. Still, I think every man should be able to see their children. He can do that just fine as long as he:
a. Picks the children up at school/daycare in the evenings for Visitation.
b. Drops the children back off at the school/daycare when Visitation is over.
There will be no picking up and dropping off at my house - ever. If he shows up, for any reason, I will call the Police and keep calling them every time.
There will be no calling any phones at my house (except the burner phone if he buys it) - ever.
Question: Is the Pick up your children, drop them off - stay away from us - a sound policy - given his past abuses for which she is undergoing therapy - or not?
Question: Could the Juvenile Court say: "screw you', he can come to your house and see the children, and you better give him a phone number and email to contact you - or else! If he was a batterer at any time - prove it!"
One thing I noticed is that the Magistrate appeared to be highly agitated at Fiancee at every turn. Fiancee is not good at public speaking nor is she very good at taking up for herself and the Magistrate seemed to be very impatient and bitchy with her. She (Magistrate) censured her and told her to "be quiet" or "you're not making sense" a lot during the hearings. Very curt and ugly acting. She even refused to allow the Fiancee enter things into evidence. For example, we went to the county commissioners website and printed out the plots in the neighborhood showing the distance from the house to where he came into the neighborhood and tried to lure the children away (he was 274 feet from the house and he was supposed to be 500 feet away). She wrote in her decision that the information was "questionable".
In the future... we will get an attorney. We were SURE that the 5 occurrences of contempt of CPO were a slam dunk. (showing up near house, dropping off shoes on the porch, sticking stuff in the mailbox, having his boss call her and cuss her out..etc) She said that they were NOT egregious as there was no interpersonal conflict.
That's all I can think of now..

