This post is just...wow. Yesterday I got an email from my son's father. I sent him a copy of the final judgment revoking temporary custody from my mother and giving m sole custody. Turns out he had a child support hearing yesterday. My mother showed up, pretending to still have custody of my son. When his father mentioned she no longer had custody she denied that, but luckily he had printed the order to bring with him. She claimed to "not know about that hearing or the order revoking her custody", which is funny because I only got the order because she filed a motion withdrawing any objection to me revoking temporary custody so even if she didn't know about the order yet (although a copy was provided to her attorney on Monday, same as mine) she DID know that she had filed withdrawing her objections, so why was she in support court demanding my ex give her more money or go to jail when she knew she had essentially relinquished custody anyway?
I'm happy to say she was unsuccessful at getting him thrown in jail, or at getting more money out of him. In fact, she'll get less now since she gets no current support from him moving forward, and will only be getting $25/week towards arrears for at least a while.
This makes me reflect to about 4 years ago. I was still near the beginning of this long drawn out legal battle, and I found a document while searching at the records building. I was adopted by my maternal grandmother in 4th grade. In 5th grade I moved back with my mother and she tried to take my father to court for child support. He came with the adoption papers and she left with nothing. So I am not really surprised that she tried this, but I am extremely disappointed in a system that doesn't do anything punitive to someone so obviously trying to defraud the system.
Penalties would discourage others from lying moving forward. Letting her get away with it encourages the idea that you can do whatever you want and get away with it, even defrauding the system. If even one person is getting away with this kind of activity completely consequence-free, then there is a serious need for both family law reform in Seminole County, and child support reform in the state of Florida.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Wait...what?
So what just happened? It's been a crazy week, that's for sure! I have to write this out now, just in case it gets crazier!
For those of you just tuning in, I have been in high conflict family court litigation with my biological mother for over 5 years in Seminole County, Florida. We went through several judges, including the "facebook judge" Linda Schoonover, who gave me custody 2 years ago but then vacated her order when my lawyer presented her with a final judgment revoking my mother's temporary custody that opposing counsel (Vicki Levy Eskin) had "no objections to" (I suspect that she did, and that she voiced those objections to judge Schoonover in ex parte communications outside the courtroom, but I will never be able to prove that, so they get away with it)
ANYWAY, The judge vacated her order and my son ran away to my mother's home (on the same day, but that's just a Coincidence) and every visit and family therapy session since then has been difficult to schedule or enforce. I haven't seen him outside of therapy in over a year, and I haven't seen him in therapy since right before last Christmas. I email him that I love him and he emails me to fuck off.
Last week, out of nowhere, my lawyer called and told me that my mother had withdrawn all of her objections to my motion to revoke her temporary custody. THEN I was told that my son had actually run away from her home 3 1/2 weeks ago (yet nobody bothered to tell me? I know there is more to the story than I was told) and was refusing to return, even after she threatened to stop fighting me for custody if he didn't return. Supposedly he told her to go ahead, so she did.
I still wasn't buying after 5 years of "almost over"s. This morning I got a copy of my final judgment, and I am STILL having a hard time believing it. I have custody of a child who is missing, my mother supposedly knows where he is staying (with a friend from school and his parents) but instead of just telling me where that actually IS, she says "the school has the information"
It all seems so crazy. What am I supposed to do next? I'll need to go to the courthouse and get a certified copy of the order so that I can go to the school and change his info in the system and see if they actually have the address where he is staying and if they do, if they will tell me what the address is. And then what? THIS is what Seminole County finally gives me, and my son, after YEARS of turmoil? An essentially non-enforceable judgment for a child I can't even locate that has less than two years until he's 18. I began court proceedings asking for assistance with visitation when he was TEN. I find this to be completely unacceptable. And if they'll do it to me, they'll do it to others. How many other lives has Seminole County ruined in the past 5 years?
For those of you just tuning in, I have been in high conflict family court litigation with my biological mother for over 5 years in Seminole County, Florida. We went through several judges, including the "facebook judge" Linda Schoonover, who gave me custody 2 years ago but then vacated her order when my lawyer presented her with a final judgment revoking my mother's temporary custody that opposing counsel (Vicki Levy Eskin) had "no objections to" (I suspect that she did, and that she voiced those objections to judge Schoonover in ex parte communications outside the courtroom, but I will never be able to prove that, so they get away with it)
ANYWAY, The judge vacated her order and my son ran away to my mother's home (on the same day, but that's just a Coincidence) and every visit and family therapy session since then has been difficult to schedule or enforce. I haven't seen him outside of therapy in over a year, and I haven't seen him in therapy since right before last Christmas. I email him that I love him and he emails me to fuck off.
Last week, out of nowhere, my lawyer called and told me that my mother had withdrawn all of her objections to my motion to revoke her temporary custody. THEN I was told that my son had actually run away from her home 3 1/2 weeks ago (yet nobody bothered to tell me? I know there is more to the story than I was told) and was refusing to return, even after she threatened to stop fighting me for custody if he didn't return. Supposedly he told her to go ahead, so she did.
I still wasn't buying after 5 years of "almost over"s. This morning I got a copy of my final judgment, and I am STILL having a hard time believing it. I have custody of a child who is missing, my mother supposedly knows where he is staying (with a friend from school and his parents) but instead of just telling me where that actually IS, she says "the school has the information"
It all seems so crazy. What am I supposed to do next? I'll need to go to the courthouse and get a certified copy of the order so that I can go to the school and change his info in the system and see if they actually have the address where he is staying and if they do, if they will tell me what the address is. And then what? THIS is what Seminole County finally gives me, and my son, after YEARS of turmoil? An essentially non-enforceable judgment for a child I can't even locate that has less than two years until he's 18. I began court proceedings asking for assistance with visitation when he was TEN. I find this to be completely unacceptable. And if they'll do it to me, they'll do it to others. How many other lives has Seminole County ruined in the past 5 years?
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