Posted by Janet Langjahr. Filed under Child Custody and Parental Responsibility, Domestic Violence & Restraining Orders, Visitation and Timesharing.
A Florida Mother relegated to two hours of supervised visitation weekly after alleging that their Daughters’ Father sexually abused them is drawing a fair amount of media attention.
Prior to the divorce, Mother was a stay-at-home mother and primary caregiver for Daughters.
When Daughters were approximately seven and eight years old, their school and Sunday school both are said to have reported that Daughters were acting out, speaking and drawing in a sexually explicit way.
Wealthy Father allegedly admitted to engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior with Daughters, but an expert witness reportedly characterized that behavior as “within normal limits”.
The court appointed custody evaluator (Evaluator) reportedly initially recommended that Mother be awarded primary timesharing with Daughters.
Days before trial, the Evaluator reportedly filed her report – late – in which the Evaluator reportedly did an about-face and now recommended that Father be awarded sole custody of Daughters.
The trial court apparently did not find Mother’s case persuasive and awarded Father almost one hundred percent timesharing with Daughters, limiting Mother to two hours of weekly timesharing … supervised.
It appears that Mother’s evidence and witnesses were largely excluded.
Mother appealed the trial court’s rulings.
On appeal, the intermediate appellate court reversed on one ground, because Mother was denied a continuance based on the late filing of the Evaluator’s report.
The case was remanded for a new trial, before the same judge.
The outcome at the re-trial was the same.
Read more in this Daily Kos article by Mother: Mothers Lose Custody for Reporting Sex Abuse and this intermediate level Florida appellate court opinion and this MomLogic article: Custody Feud: Fair Hearing Denied.
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