Family Court Fails Again

I am so upset right now I can’t stand it. The family court system has failed again. I’ll try to make a long story as short as possible. My twins have had a friend since kindergarten (they’re now sophomores in HS). His parents are divorced and the father has custody. He has verbally, physically, and mentally abused this boy and his sister for as long as I’ve known them. I don’t know either of his parents very well because they’re not the type of people we socialize with. The father is in the paper all the time he’s on his 4th DWI and I don’t know how many possession charges, assaults (bar room fights) the list goes on.

About three months ago, his other ex was bringing her daughter over to the house for his visitation. She heard yelling and crashing so she called the police and they removed the 16 and 15 year olds from the home and placed them with their mother. She thought the custody battle was over, but he showed up the day before school started with the local police to get them. He had legal custody so the mother had no choice. The kids however refused to go and were given the choice of temporary foster care or returning to their father’s custody. They both chose foster care.

The mother finally had her day in court yesterday, the judge would not entertain the latest assault and possession charges as they are still pending. Nor would he read impact statements from any of the family or neighbors. (The loser’s mother, that they had all lived with up until a year ago, wrote a statement in support of the mother). What really blew my mind is that the judge did not even speak to the 16 and 15 year olds to get their side of the story. He said that they were “too young”. He ordered them out of the foster care system and back into their father’s custody.

Is there any appeal process?

I really don't know. I'm just so amazed that the judge wouldn't talk to the boy who is going to be 17 in a couple of months and he was the one that the father was throwing around the place when the police came. What happens when the boy finally has enough and defends himself or his sister?

I've got custody but it took me four years to get it. The mom has document everything. Also, I don't know what state you are in but you can ask for another judge in CA. You won't get to pick the new judge so you risk getting someone worse but you can do it. The courts discourage this and someone will try to talk out of it.

This has been an ongoing process here too. Frankly I cannot even imagine what the mom did to lose custody to begin with as the father has been in and out of jail over and over again in the past 10 years.

Maybe he'll kill his father. When I was in the fifth grade (over 50 years ago)there was a boy that was always quiet and sullen until a cat they had had kittens. Everyday he talked about those kittens and how cute they were. One day he stopped and a few days later I asked one of his friends what happened. He said his father took the kittens and smashed them up against a brick wall.

One day that "boy" at the age of 22 came by his parents house to see his mother and his father was drunk and slapping her around. The kid snapped and beat him to death. I never did read in the paper what happened to him in court.

I don't know if social services ever had anything to do with this family, but in my state there have been several very young children that have been abused in recent years and instead of putting them in foster care they let the parents have them back, and later the "abusive parents" have killed their babies. Personally I think the judges and the social service workers are just a guilty of murder, if not more so, as the abusers because they had the power to do something and didn't.

naturalgirl

Well there is an update, dad freaked out and beat the crap out of him. The younger sister called the police. The boy took his father to court (his other court cases were now settled and he was found guilty, frankly I don't know why he's not back in jail) and his mother was granted custody FINALLY. Sadly the girl is still there.

I agree with you natural about the legal and social service system being equally responsible. I KNOW that there are many people out there filing false charges to get custody. And that in our system we are innocent until proven guilty, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of common sense being used here.