Hopeless, or what!?!

[FL_48603]

Hello:

I am presently involved in a court case involving
custody and child support issues in Red Bluff (Tehama
County) Northern California.

To preface the case: I married the daughter of a
divorce attorney.  She's got psychological problems
involving addiction to gambling and drugs, and in 1999
she kidnapped my daughter.

When I tried to enforce my rights and protect my
daughter ( who was at that time 2 years old ) by
filing child kidnapping charges pursuant Civil Code
Section 278 & 278.5, my father-in-law caught wind of
it and prepared, filed and faxed divorce papers to the
detective who was working on my missing persons case.

The detective then served these on me and from this
point until today (5 years later) the meter has been
running.

My opposing party has caused the court to revoke my
parental rights 3 times, once in 1999, once in 2001
and once in 2003 and in each instance I have been able
to cause the court to give me back my parental rights
with my daughter and in so doing I gained more time
with my daughter in each instance.

In October of 2004 I was forced to file for
modification of custody of my daughter because my
ex-wife has returned to the use of corporal punishment
in violation of our existing order of the court.

My daughter complained of a sore wrist and when I took
my daughter to the doctor, she told him the wrist
first started hurting her when "mommy was hitting me".

Three weeks later the child broke her wrist and was
then sent by the mother to her grandmother's home
rather than the hospital.

I found out about this when the child was sent home by
the child's school who noted that the child's wrist
was swollen, bruised and her hand was immobile.

I believe this might have been to keep the child from
reporting possible abuse to the medical staff.

I have also discovered that the child has only been
taken to the dentist by the mother once in seven years
and when I finally began taking the child to the
dentist on my private insurance, I discovered that the
child has 8 cavities, needs two root canals and last
month I had to have her molar extracted.

The mother has enrolled herself full time in college,
and reports having had to scale back her work schedule
-  although, in actuality she works several part time
jobs.  So she is doing college full time, working as
many as five part time jobs, she involves herself
exhaustively in the child's school (mainly to block me
from involvement).

This brings to light the issue of "The First Right of
Refusal" which they deny me, leaving my daughter to
stay with ANYONE but me whenever not ordered in the
court's order.

Subsequently my daughter has been sent with the
maternal grandmother to a weird "fire and brimstone"
church where they have been demonizing me and my faith
to my daughter.

I have not asked the court to eliminate my ex-wife's
parental rights, but rather to make me the custodial
parent until such time as the mother completes her
schooling.

In her responsive declaration, however, the mother
asks the court to make her the sole parent AGAIN
trying to deny me the right to father my daughter.

The lawyer that I hired I paid an initial $2,500.00
retainer to.  Following this I paid another $1,600.00
and just paid another $1,00.00.  However, the lawyer
now tells me I owe her $6,000.00.

She brought this up to me when I told her that I
wanted her to file contempt charges due to my
ex-wife's admissions in her responsive declaration
submitted to the court under penalty of perjury
wherein my ex-wife admits to violating the order of
the court by returning to the use of corporal
punishment - AND - by her telling my daughter that
they would be moving out of state (to complete my
ex-wife's graduate studies).

My attorney told me: "You are already into me for
$6,000.00 and after the evidencing hearing you'll be
up to $11,000.00 - so how can we afford to file
contempt when you can't even afford what we've already
done".

ALTHOUGH SHE HAS NOT ACCOMPLISHED ANYTHING
ADVANTAGEOUS TO MY CASE.

Now, my lawyer tells me that it is my ex-wife's
constitutional right to spank my daughter. I reminded
my layer that my ex-wife agreed with me to make the
"no-spank" clause a part of our "Agreement" when we
met with the mediator, this was then reviewed by my
ex-wife's lawyer and they entered it to the court
which then made it the order of the court.

So, basically, it looks like I have paid $5,100.00 to
a lawyer who has stated that I am expected to pay her
an additional $6,000.00 WITH NOTHING TO THE ADVANTAGE
OF MY CASE BEING ACCOMPLISHED - and the order of the
court which we have in place is not worth the paper
it's written on because if I try to enforce it - it
appears that my attorney appreciates my opposition's
constitutional rights more than she appreciates my
daughter's rights not to be abused or my rights to
protect my daughter.

What the hell do I do now!?!

[email protected]