Hearing Yesterday for Emergency Orders

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2004
Hearing Yesterday for Emergency Orders
1
Thu, 01-12-2006 - 8:17pm

Well we had the due process hearing for the emergency temporary custody orders. I did pretty good this time (only teared up a little bit, not full out crying like I did the last time). I also had more time of not talking to him because of the OoP, so I'm stronger. He did have to make sure he got eye contact from me as he was going into the courtroom ahead of us. That's one of the times I did tear up, but I was strong.

His lawyer had requested a change of judges (don't know why) so there was a bit of a delay before we got in to discuss the temp orders. The new judge decided she didn't want to hear testimony at this point because she didn't have time and she was going to error on the side of protecting the children anyway. She upheld the orders giving me sole custody with supervised vistation for him, sort of. The first judge only gave him visitation 1 time per week for 2 hours. This judge decided that as long as the visitation was supervised and he could afford it, he could basically have as many visits as he wants. She agreed with us that it should be a professional, not just a friend. His lawyer requested 3 days with minimum of 2 hours up to 4 hours (my lawyer pushed for a limit). He will likely get them every Saturday (judge's suggestion) so now my weekends are all screwed up (especially if I want to go out of town). I've asked if it can be every other weekend or every 3rd weekend I get them so I can go out of town, but haven't heard back yet. I also have to pay for 1 hour of each visit since we haven't proven our case yet (um, if she had let us testify we could have). My lawyer said we can request for it all back if she does find that he did molest them and really did need to have supervised visitation, but I have to put out the money now.

The supervisor is supposed to be a female (to take the girls to the bathroom and change diapers (wonder how they're going to like that one) so he doesn't) and a licensed counselor familiar with child abuse so they know what to look for and can stop him from touching either one of them inappropriately. I'm also hoping she's familiar with DV so she can stop any manipulation he may try. They've both been doing so good with not seeing him and I'm concerned that seeing him 3 times a week will really mess them up. Especially when he starts the crying, "I miss you" and "I want to get back together with your mommy" stuff. I also have to arrange for transportation for each of these visits. Considering I work full time, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this. I can have my dad who is self employed do it most of the time, but he will be going out of town for weeks at a time and I'm not sure how it will work out then. I'm hoping that the supervisor won't be available 3 times a week or every Saturday.

The judge also ordered a custody evaluation again by someone familiar with child abuse. I'm fairly sure that they will figure out that he isn't safe, but not sure the process for the evaluation. Has anyone had to go through a custody evaluation?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Sat, 01-14-2006 - 2:07am

Can you get put in the temp orders that nothing can br discussed or said to or in front of the kids about thedivorce, etc???

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