I’m sure he had the best of intentions when he separated them from their mother, ran off to Mexico, then eventually came back to another part of the U.S. and got a drivers license using a fake name.
Really? You actually wonder how the court system would take one parent denying access of children to another parent for fifteen years?
You can’t just take the kids away from their parent even before a divorce, though. Mother or father, both parents have a right to see their children.
As Bootis called it, despicable. He left her in pain worrying about her children for fifteen years. That’s disgusting behavior.
The following is not relevant to the particular case at hand, due to the kids presently being in the same country in which they were originally abducted, and due to the kids being 16 or older, but it might be of interest to folks anyway (also, please note that it only deals with family law, not criminal law):
I’ve been very surprised by the number of people giving Dad a total pass for what he did. Would you be as forgiving if it had been the Mom who did it? How can that not be seen as being terribly hurtful and destructive for the kids?
My husband was one of those unusual men who got custody of his children from his first marriage. His ex-wife was a drug-using idiot with extremely poor judgment who is to this day the stupidest person I have ever met. However, we never denied her children their right to know and have contact with their mother. There were times throughout the years when she disappeared from their lives, and there were times when we took steps to limit their availability due to her poor judgment and our concern for their safety and well-being, but no matter what, she was still their mother and they had a right to know her.
I don’t understand people justifying what this man did–no matter what the mother did, or didn’t do (and how does that really have any bearing on this? ) She had a right to know her kids and they had a right to know her. He took that away from the three of them and the fact that resuming that relationship now will be difficult doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands in the air and say “Oh well, what’s done is done.”
No - I was wondering where the courts have drawn the line. If I come home today, and my wife has taken the kids to San Diego without my permission - can I have her arrested?
Do provide us with a cite where your presumption of how a court would rule is illustrated.
If she doesn’t bring them back, you sure as hell can.
I have no idea about family law, but one thing we’ve seen that suggests he probably didn’t have that right is that he is in jail.
But, it must be assumed she only wanted the kids to sell for booze money. It should be assumed that when fathers “kidnap” their children, it is because the mother must have just wanted booze money. Because, man, she must be a bitch for not forgetting about it, and stirring the pot you know? And since she’s a bitch, I just hate her and since I hate her, the father must be the good guy, and if he’s the good guy, then he certainly didn’t do anything wrong.
But that would require a court order - has the mom presented one? The MSNBC article indicated that she might not have even filed for divorce.
This will be an interesting case to follow.
I can’t speak for what y’all do down there in our southern colonies, but here in Ontario there are two ways to deal with a parent who takes his or her child against the will of the other parent without court sanction. The first is to call the police and explain that there is an emergency, e.g. the abducting parent is off his or her nut and might harm the child or permit the child to be harmed. The second, under s. 36(2) of our Children’s Law Reform Act, is to get an order from the court directing that the police locate, apprehend and return the child.
Yes because his past behavior shows he’s so reasonable. He kept her children away for 15 years and would have continued if he could. What makes you believe that he would suddenly be willing to work out a role for her in the kids lives?
Yeah. I have no idea where the whole drug/booze thing came from. It’s like people are trying their best to make her seem as evil as she can be.
And also states that she is married to another person, and that he lived with the kids in a trailer. This has potential to turn into a terrific Jerry Springer show: possible bigamy, international child abduction, poisoned minds of children who will have a say in the custod dispute, and most importatly, a trailer. What’s the bet that someone is already securing the made-for-TV rights?
Here in Ontario, in the absence of a custody order both parents are presumed to share legal custody. One parent cannot without the permission of the other travel out of the province. In fact it’s now recommended that when one parent travels alone withe the children they have a notarized travel letter from the other parent approving of the trip.
When my then 16 and 17 yr old children visited their cousins in the US without their father, stepfather or myself wee drafted a “joint” letter and had all three signatures notarized. Join is in quotes because there was no discussion. I drafted the letter, had my husbands and my signatures notarized and made an appointment for the kids to escort their dad to a notary
So in general your wife taking yournkids for the day without your prior knowledge is not a crime, but if she didn’t come back for 15 years it sure would be.
This case is not really as interesting as you guys are making it (ETA: legally I mean). Under California law, both parents have equal custody to their children (absent a custody agreement). So, sure, you can zip off to Disneyland for a day or two without permission. But things change when you are denying the other access to the children. Especially for a period of years. That’s called child abduction with custodial right (to distinguish it from child abduction without custodial right).
Let’s throw a little pertinent law into the situation: Start at 278.5 PC and keep reading. Especially focus on the section (278.7 PC) that details what you should do if you are taking your child to prevent harm to them. The whole report within a reasonable time thing.
ETA: If you are interested in reading about kidnapping (no quotes) under California law that’s 207 PC.
One joint-custodial parent can travel out of the province with the kids without the permission of the other joint-custodial parent, but if the other joint-custodial parent protests (e.g. police emergency or FLA s. 36(2) court order), the children can be reeled back in. That being said, a signed travel consent is always a very good thing to have, so as to avoid delays en route.
Double gods sake. Do you know what he said? You are speculating.
As **Doctor Who **has noted, have a look at section 278.5 of the the California Penal Code. Note that the length of abduction is an aggravating factor.
I leave it to you to provide a reflective survey of the case law dealing with s. 278.5 and s. 278.6, 'cause I’m a fat lazy bastard at the best of times.
Can we lay this blame upon the State who decides that a woman’s right to custody is greater than a man’s?
As an aside, why is the default for child custody to go with the mother and the father paying child support?
Why is the default not a 50-50 arrangement?