Legally negligent....?

[dipper]

Soc,

We are in VA.  I have custody of 15 year old son.  

Custody order states that "Neither party shall expose minor child to immoral or illegal influences."

BM is dating a second cousin - which is not illegal to even marry in the state of VA.  She and this cousin usually date about six months per year and this is their fifth round of dating.

BM took son on an overnight stay to this man's house.  She slept with boyfriend and son slept on sofa.  

Various problems have arisen between bm and son.  Among them, bm called early December and accused son of 'stealing' games from her boyfriend.  Son had these games for about 2 months prior to this, said man had let him borrow them.  BM stated they noticed games were missing 3-4 weeks before she called.  Stated that they knew he had them because NO ONE else had been in boyfriends home.  She threatened that her and boyfriend would file charges against son if he did not return games.  NOTE:  son was refusing to visit with her prior to the accusation that he had stole games.

I took son to return games.   Within minutes of our return home, BM (who was not at boyfriends home) called to say that the games were damaged and that if I did not pay $300 within one week, she and boyfriend were going to file charges against son and me.    I havent paid and am not going to unless they do have a court order.....Honestly, I do not know if the boyfriend is involved as I called and left two messages at that time and he would not return calls.

I have told bm that son is not to be going back to her boyfriend's home.  She is vehement that its none of my business and son will be going back.

Soc, I am custodial parent and feel it is unwise for son to be exposed to a situation in which he has already received criminal accusations from.   That would appear to be legal suicide.  I also feel her sleeping with a man she dates over and over and who is blood related in son's presence constitutes 'immoral influences.'

Is there such a thing as legally negligent?  


As custodial parent, do I have the right to contact  this man in writing to inform him of my insistance that son not be at his home?

[socrateaser]

>Is there such a thing as legally negligent?  

Yes, but it's irrelevant to your facts.

>As custodial parent, do I have the right to contact  this man
>in writing to inform him of my insistance that son not be at
>his home?

Yes, but he can ignore your letter, because it's his home and there's no law preventing him from inviting a minor child onto his property.

As for "immoral" influences, unless you and the other parent have expressly defined the scope of this definition in your court order, then the court cannot enforce this language, because morality or the lack thereof has no legal effect, except where there is a law which coincides. Example: abortion may be immoral in most people's opinion, but with very limited exceptions, it is not unlawful, so the court cannot prohibit it.

On the other hand, a very large portion of the population find marijuana use relatively harmless, however its possession is generally unlawful and so the court can prohibit it.