You may remember our story....
Our custody trial is set to begin next week. It has been a very long year with 2 false arrests (the 2nd we proved in court), false CPS allegations (we proved that too), tons and tons of other false allegations forcing DH to go for 2 drug testings and the entire family to take part in a forensics evaluation. The evaluation came back totally and completey in DH's favor stating the children were coerced into saying they don't want to be with their father; BM was deceitful on all the tests and throughout the evaluation and BM and SF are severly psychologically unstable, i.e., sociopathic, etc. etc. etc. He stated full sole custody should go to the father who is not OCD as BM stated but has a high level of anxiety and is in a very stable relationship/marriage with me.
If it means anything the evaluator is a police psychologist and has taught in 8ish different countries for the FBI.
BM's lawyer requested this evaluation and this particular neutral evaluator in court in February. Now they have hired an expert to discredit the report and the evaluator they chose.
Will the judge allow this? Will we have to go for more testing just because they do not like the outcome?
Seems to me that their request is going to look mighty fishy to the judge! I imagine he's gonna pepper them with questions as to why they want to discredit a report done by an expert THEY chose in the first place!
But then I don't know the judge, either. Have you discussed this with your atty. and asked him how he feels the judge will react to this? Regardless, it's a crap shoot. BUT, the thing to keep in mind (you will have that evaluator at the trial, won't you?) is that regardless of how hard they try, they will already have one strike against them for asking for this particular guy, then wasting the court's time in trying to discredit him. It's very possible that the judge will reprimand on that reason alone.
But if this evaluator is all that you say he is (and sounds like one tough cookie!), I don't think you have a lot to worry about. I think he can probably stand up to about anyone who tries to pick him or his reports apart!
I hope your right! This lawyer has been very fishy from the beginning...
He subpeoned DH's medical records 3 weeks after the judge told him not too! We have a sanction motion against him. He requested a hair follicle drug test, submitted the order to us and not to the judge. We took it anyway but BM didn't take the test for 4-5 months because the lawyer said it wasn't signed by the judge. He requested this evaluation in February but never submitted the order. My lawyer submitted in June. I have records of all this in the transcript. He's been allowed to skirt around these issues and I'm afraid he'll be aloud to get away with this as well.
The evaluator knows the judge and the law guardian. He says they like to get the job done and don't like to waste time. The judge he says is nonesense. But I haven't seen that yet as this trial has dragged on and on and on so far due to this lawyers dancing around.
I'm confident the evaluator will be able to stand his ground, he's not new to this and according to himself, his websites, his background he must be a tough cookie. But this new expert is already on the witness list; can he still be overlooked? I mean even if he meets wiht BM, he is doing so under a different context. How can this expert be considered neutral?
We meet with our lawyer tomorrow evening but there is SO MANY issues they certainly will not all be brought up.
What scares me the most is BM and her lawyer are still so cocky after all this, they're not budging one bit with us, with the law guardian. I mean if you heard what this report had to say, my god......
In some states, the Court will allow a second custody evaluation even if the evaluator is privately retained. It is standard operating procedure in Minnesota and may result in testimony of the custody evaluator and the privately retained expert at trial Certainly the testimony will be allowed and weighed accordingly.
Apparently the evaluator against her met with all of you. Her evaluator obviously has met with only them, and is not seeing the entire picture. Likely the judge will possibly hear his testimony, but what good is it when he hasn't talked to you....and do a research on his credentials...does he just hire out to bb's that will pay $ for testimony, etc? I believe the trial in NYC earlier this year (the twin girls if you remember) were given to their father due to PAS...and the mom had "her own" evaluator because she didn't like what the other said about her. The judges comments are on line somewhere...perhaps your attorney can use that as a defense in your case.Here is the site:
http://www.shanahanlaw.com/cases.htm#MARKS
Look thru everything, print out stuff...may help your attorney, good luck!
Well, I DO know one thing for certain. Just because a witness is asked to testify doesn't mean the judge will allow it. Cuz it happened to me.
In our first round of custody hearings, DS's dad reported me for abuse and I ended up being assigned a SW and on probation for 6 months. The report was eventually completely unfounded. This was a tactic of his, any time his case wasn't going his way.
BUT, during this process, we had a hearing and I was shocked to see my SW enter the court room! I knew we hadn't asked her to testify, so I asked her what she was doing there. (Mind you, she had by that time become one of my biggest allies and saw thru to what he was doing). She sat down beside me and told me that his atty. had subpoenaed her!
As it turned out, she never did testify, tho since it was over 10 years ago, the reasons for that escape my memory at the moment (a senior one!) But in the hallway afterward, as my SW, atty. and I were talking, his atty. came up to the SW and told her she still wanted a statement from the SW. The SW said 'Fine, I'll give you one, but you and your client may not like what I have to say!' The atty. walked away in a huff and as far as I know, she never did get her statement!
Your BM is delusional and has an idiot for an atty.! THAT is why they appear 'so cocky'! Don't let it fool you!
Our lawyer is friends with the judge in the Marks case, so she is very familiar with it. I am very interested in reading about it, thank you!
The thought that a new evaluation can possibly take place just kills me. More $$, more time, more aggravation, come on. BM moved some 90 miles away from DH so everything is ordered from out there and we and our lawyer must travel some 3+ hours in each direction everytime we must meet with the evaluator (6-7X), the law guardian, the various courts she has made allegations in. The police precincts when she claims dv. Over the past year we have proven each and every allegation to be a lie to NJ family court, NY family court, criminal court, the law guardian and now the evaluator. I have letters she rights to one court and a week later a completley different view to another court. This is continuous.
The court keeps this going because BM says the children are affected by DH's neatness but SF has been in and out of state prison his entire life for violent crimes, he visits with prostitutes. BM was diagnosed by evaluator with being a sociopath, psychopath, anti-social, bpd, is a threat to society, yada, yada, yada, (30 pages of this)
My heads ready to blow! There is no more fate. We are ready to give up if the court doesn't start standing up and doing the right thing
Well, if your atty is friends with that judge...you will be smiling by the end of your "reading assignment"!
I guess I just needed someone on the outside to confirm their delusions. Thanks that one little word helped immensely.
I can't imagine this lawyer is legit , I can't imagine he's even giving BM good advise.
Once the trial is over I will be filing a grievance agianst this m***n . According to the grievance committee I am not entitled to find out his background.
I hope God is watching out for you. Sociopaths seem to get away with everything.
Who doesn't have a high level of anxiety, when faced with this kind of situation?
My anxiety level is throught he roof. We are so discouraged
I recieved a copy of the experts Curriculum Vitae and I must say it's very long and impressive. But of course he's testifing on her behalf. Can this expert see the children and testify on their feelings? l also just found out they are going to let the children 7 and 5(today) be interviewed in camera even thought the neutral forensics evaluator said they were coached.
She filed an amended petition requesting that all the NJ (contempt)orders be made ineffective because the children were living in NY for over 6 months when each were issued on 3/26, 6/4 and 1/9.
BM wants DH's time reduced because she filed bogus charges against him and we proved most of this.
Will the neutral forensics evaluation carry no weight?
arrrggghh! I just want to cry!