SPARC Forums

Dear Socrateser,

I've been on the board since April of this year and have been very pleased with your advice as well as the other parents in the various forums.

I was granted temp cust back in May of 06 for founded physical abuse by custodial parent. My child and I were allowed to leave the state after school let out this year.

Next, the child was then arrested and charged with battery (beginning of school year)  in state in which we both reside.

The Juvenile court Judge releases child in my custody and places child on house arrest. Until next hearing, after which I placed the child in the following:

Family counseling

Anger mgmt

Community Service

At the next hearing, the judge felt that my wife and I were punished for the child's lashing out at school and wanted to see if the child would make passing grades and stay out of trouble. He knew that my wife and I took it upon ourselves to provide the child with the best defense in such a catastrophe.

The Judge held over his decision until the first report card in which he could possible dismiss the case or ask for jail time for the assault.

Well 2 weeks ago before hearing (Dec 20th), the child gets suspended for making "terroristic threats" to another student and will be permently expelled if physical violence happens again.

My wife and I had a psychological assessment done and received feedback from the teachers. Child has a "B" average, but cusses like a sailor and is sometimes unruly when given instructions by teachers.

Meanwhile, the other parent has taken all of the "anger management" classes and made a deal with social services in order to have "unsupervised" visits.

I had a "telephonic hearing" last week and Judge out of state wants me to pay for a plane ticket to send child to visit other parent.

My fear is that all of the work that I put in with child is going to go down the tubes after the visit. It seems like I'm the one paying a hefty price for having temp physical cust. Other parent has not paid me any support or help out on the child's legal fees for juvenile case. Not to mention, the courts snatched my income tax return "erroneously" for arrears that was already paid to the other parent.

Results from Psychological eval come back next week.

How could these findings help me? Child has documented history of fighting before I gained Temp custody.

Is it possible to get the judge to postpone visitation until juvenile matter is cleared up?

Would I be responsible for paying travels fee's if the case is kicked out of court?

Thanks,

PDX Dad

>Is it possible to get the judge to postpone visitation until
>juvenile matter is cleared up?

Perhaps if a therapist or psychiatrist were to testify that a different course of "treatment" is preferable. Other than that, you're probably wasting your time.

>
>Would I be responsible for paying travels fee's if the case is
>kicked out of court?

I don't know. Depends on the other parent's circumstances.

I wish I had a good answer for you. It sounds to me, as a layperson, like the child has a serious mental disturbance. This may be a stupid question, but has the child had an MRI of his brain?

I'd be checking for possible neurological and endocrinological (hormonal) problems. Sometimes, the psychological issues are just symptomatic of something physiological.