Alcohol Consumption

[SoWorthIt]

Hey guys, I am new to this board. Honestly I am here in hopes I can find something more for my mind to grasp on being truthful about court. I live in the state of Texas and I just a little over two months ago completed court with my ex. My ex and I were never married, unfortunately, we had our son very young coming out of high school. We haven't been together since he was one year old. He is now 4 and a half years old.

We went to court last year revolving around the fact that my wife and I went to pick him up from her residence and him, and his half-brother were left alone in the apartment (he was 3 at the other child was about to be 1 yrs old.) We were apalled that he had been left alone at the residence! The room mate arrived home and opened the door to find this out also, asking me to not bring my son back to his mother that something else had been going on.

I immediately filed for custody. We had never had anything written before about our custody, just had it so it was mostly "joint" like.

Anhow, court was said and done about 2 months ago. The main problem with my ex is she goes out and parties a lot while drinking and has our son. In mediation, pretty much, everyone had not been paid by her and made it work for her and us, and the amicus favored her because "nothing was illegal about alcohol in our court order".

In mediation we worked out an agreement. We had joint custody, and neither of us could drink 24 hours before we had our son, or while we had him in our possesion. We also had the ability to alcohol test each other once every calendar quarter.

Now what you dont know is, we have millions of pictures of her drinking and partying and the dates that established she had our son with her but the judge never saw any of it because we settled in medation.

We've alcohol tested her once this quarterly, she did not show up for the test while she had our son and it is considered counting as a positive (which she admitted to having drinks while having my son). We have pictures with dates on them proving she went out drinking at a family's home, AND to a club for cousin's birthday (in one picture our son is in the background while her, her friends, her cousins friends, and her family are all drinking) AND she went to the Latin Grammies while she had my son, and drank.

My question is. With our court orders saying that she CAN NOT drink while she has him, OR, 24 hours before she has him, and we have all this proof (the club and bday party drinking was only 1 and half weeks after the court order had been implemented by the way).....IS THIS ENOUGH TO GET MY SON FOR MAIN CUSTODY!?

He comes home filthy, a 4 year old should not have acne, when he is taken care of he has a clean face! Comes home tired, hungry, and angry. He screams and cries and will not let go of me or my wife when we try and return him. He tells us that "if he does not see mama he'd be happy, if he does not see us, it's really horrible"...and he's only 4!

She admits to me "I will drink with or without my son, take the alcohol test, and move on". She does not care, she is still young and wants to live her lifestyle but it is not healthy for my son. She leaves him with everyone and anyone while shes at work and goes out to party.

I want to take her back to court to show the judge look, she failed her alcohol test, and I have proof of two other incedents RECENTLY (and this is proof we cant always find since we live an hour apart! so we don't really know if she goes out more than what we find, which she probably does...). In our orders it says if either parent fails the alcohol test or violates these orders it is ground for reversal motion, is this enough to get main custody of my son?

There's a lot more to the story and her alcoholism....I just want to know if this is enough to present to a judge to get main custody of my son, because she will not change and has told me so. She keeps telling me that no matter what, if she didnt do drugs or a prostitute, a judge wont give my son back to me just cuz she violated her "drinking rules".

Is this true?


-A concerned father

[Ref]

I would ask your lawyer. They would know best what your judge is apt to do. Normally it is hard to reverse custody, but if your order says this could be grounds for reversal, then you have a shot.

Good luck and DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!

Ref

[SoWorthIt]

I document everything trust me! I have pictures that can go on for miles with dates times and if shes had my son or not.

My attorney is crap. So I finally looked up a new attorney this morning who WILL fight for my son, especially since I got rail-roaded by my last attorney. This is a long story. I know its hard to get a reversal, but we settled in mediation on specific terms that she would abide by....and now that shes not, it says in our orders we can reverse the agreement if her or I do not follow those rules for primary custody.

I have a consultation with this new attorney, it's been a few weeks since the alcohol test and our attorney has done nothing although she said she wants to go through with it....it's been about 2 weeks for to tell me the "new price" since we have to do other things with our case.

She's not worth any more money. But my friend recommended this attorney that helped him with his divorce and he said that attorney obliterated his ex even when the evidence was partially against him.

I hope this works! I just want my son to be safe, as she lives in the middle of downtown Houston, and she wants him to go to a school there, instead of the nice area we live in....

Thanks for the reply, I will see how this goes! Honestly if a judge looks at this and believes its OK to behaviour, all faith has been lost in the legal system in my eyes.