While it might seem my motive is revenge, it is anything but. The last five years since the divorce has been one nightmare after another. She, unfortunately, uses my children as weapons against me. She has contunually ignored our decree when it comes to visitation and has pursued a smear campain against me, going so far as to make false claims to the police. The reason I want procecution is I believe it is the only way to stop her and to make her follow the decree. Basically the only way to stop the nightmare that I have been living is to force a penalty so drastic that she would be a fool to continue doing what she has.
Those are very rare in the US. In most states they’re forbidden by law. And I assume that would be really, really expensive. It could well bankrupt the OP and even if he won there’s no guarantee he’d ever see a cent in court costs or reimbursement by the state.
Ah, I see. Well, I really am sorry to hear that.
In fact, it happened around here and the judge admitted that he and his other colleagues not only had never heard of it actually happening in the area, but weren’t even really sure about how to proceed.
I thought DA’s had wide discretion to decide what cases to pursue? Remember that there are legal principles such as “de minimis non curat lex” which suggest that not all cases where a crime appears to have occurred should be prosecuted. How would you feel if a cop saw you drive over a discarded aluminum can and you got prosecuted for a full “Hit and Run” offense with jail time, probation with mandatory traffic school, a restricted driver’s license, and all that, just for running over a stupid can and not stopping to report that to the police?
I’ve had a similar experience. My ex decided to file for sole custody the day after I remarried to “punish” me for remarrying. After a lengthy and expensive lead in to the court date, I walked in confident, as I had a written recommendation from the guardian ad litem.
I had seen that things were slanted toward the mother, but I greatly underestimated the judge’s own biases. In the end, despite the ad-litem’s recommendation, I was awarded visitation on alternating weekends and holidays only. Shortly afterwards, my ex moved 75 miles away and remarried. It’s an inconvenient drive, but I make the trip for him. Sometimes, I get a call on the day I’m supposed to pick him up and she tells me not to bother, because she let him go with her parents somewhere. There is literally nothing I can do about it, as the police refuse to enforce the visitation and the family courts are useless to fathers.
I wish I had good advice for you. Unfortunately, in my experience, pursuing this may only embolden her if she gets away with it again. Likely you will be throwing good money after bad.
I’m curious in this situation, and have a dumb hypothetical here, which basically asks, if the violation of the law by the ex-wife is too minor for the DA to care, what happens if the OP enforces it himself?
Let’s say the OP has visitation rights for a week every month and his week is long overdue as he has stated. If he flies to Georgia, takes his kids, informs the wife he is doing so after he has them in his possession so there is no doubt they are otherwise safe, and brings them back to Florida against her wishes, can he be prosecuted for kidnapping?
I’m sure the answer is ‘yes’, though I’m not sure why, and I would hope that if the DA thinks the crime of the wife taking the kids is too minor to prosecute, you could argue taking the kids back is equally minor and within your rights from the divorce agreement. In this scenario, I would think he is within his rights to take the kids for a week and then say to the wife she is free to come pick them up after his week is up (at her expense since she chose to take them out of state to begin with). Wash - rinse - repeat the next time he wants to see them after a month has passed.
Again, this is hypothetical and I would never suggest or encourage this, because there is no way this is in any way beneficial to an already ugly situation between the two parties and is definitely not what is best for the kids, but what exact crime is committed in this scenario?
I haven’t heard of this happening a lot, but in one case involving a relative–the mother (part of my family, a cousin’s daughter, or a cousin once removed perhaps) had legal custody and she was not giving the father his appropriate visitation. One day he drove by when the kids were playing in the yard and took all three of the kids away and kept them for a few months. The police were informed and basically said it was a civil matter and they would not get involved. (Without going into details both my relative and the husband were huge pieces of human garbage and they were both doing all kinds of reprehensible things in their war with one another, this actually was one of the least legally significant and others involved actual arrests and criminal charges but that’s totally beside the custody issue.)
in slowly skimming through this thread, i noticed something lacking. before i get to that though, i want to make certain my facts are correct (the pertinent ones to what I am about to say) You and ex live(d) and were divorced in florida where your custody and support orders were decreed by a florida judge, and she has now permanently moved with the kids across state lines to georgia in clear and direct violation of said court order? if thats the case you don’t go to the state da you go to the fbi as it is now a federal kidnapping case. if you know where she physically resides with the kids in georgia, you and your attny contact the fbi and show them the relevant documents and press charges against her. When the feds show up at her door you MIGHT be surprised at how fast you get the kids back in the state etc. Yeah im a divorced dad and yeah my exwife and I explored this in a joint meeting with our attnys present because at the time i was in the military and living in a different state so for visitation I wanted to be very sure I didn’t get myself in trouble. (i was told at the time that the fbi LIKES these custody cases and pursues them with a little more, vehemence i beleive was the word used and that they just don’t care if it was mom or dad)
oh the lack was nobody mentioned the fbi
triple checked, nope not a revnant thread
Hire the A-Team.
If you can find them.
That analogy doesn’t apply to this. The OP has a valid complaint -a crime has been committed. In your scenario, no crime was committed.