clean cut case?

[IceMountain]

I'm asking this for a friend.  Any opionions would be greatly appreciated.  I posted the same a couple months back before paternity was established, but got no response so I'm trying again.

Mother and father never married.  Child is 8 years old.  Father has had no contact with child, ever.  Father claims he could not locate child and mother.

Mother in Arizona.  Father in Iowa.  Paternity recently established on petition of DHS in Arizona.

Mother going to prison for felony charges for a minimum of 5 years.  Father did time in 98 and had a possession charge in 2002.

Father is married but legally separated from his wife.  He has another child with wife and a step-child from wife's first marriage.  He is an OTR truck driver and is home only a handful of nights a month.

The 8 year old child has a 1/2 sibling who is living with grandparents in Arizona.  I don't know if they have interest in custody of 8 year old.

Father is now interested in gaining custody of this child.  He believes that since the mother is in prison that this is an open/shut case and that he will definitely get custody.

What do you think?

[Cookiemomma4]

I think that while the courts would certainly recognize his rights to some sort of custody and visitation rights they may be slow to act in "his favor" the way he would like.  They would be taking the child away from the mother (who should be allowed visitation as well) and placeing the child in a whole new enviornment with someone who is a stranger in the child's eyes.  Also, father would have to have some sort of plan for the child's care.  On the road is hardly the kind of stable life that the courts would be looking for and it is not like he has a spouse who knows the child and can care for the child during his road time.  
That being said, I think in the absence of anyone else to take on custody and fight for it, and with the mother hardly being in the situation to contest his claim, he might just luck out.  
I do hope that he is considering the effect that this could have on the child though...my first gut reaction is that he is looking for a way out of paying child support.  If it were to be more than that he would have contacted his child sooner.  I am pretty confident that any court will see this as BS as well.  A claim that he could not locate the child and mother is BS in my mind (keep in mind that this is from a former SM who's ex-husband's children were found in less than a week of me starting to look for them...they had been "missing" for over 5 years with him claiming that he couldn't find them).
Sounds like a very sad case.

[IceMountain]

I had the exact same opinion/outlook as you did, but the general consensus from people close to the case has been that since the mother is going to prison, the father will automatically get custody.  

Thanks for replying.

[cinb85]

the fact that the father has never had any contact with the child, in my opinion, will probably hurt him.  The mother also may have some kind of Statement of Guardianship already drawn up naming a relative to take the child while she is in prison.

My ex and I (never married) have a 15 year old child.  I wrote up a statement of guardianship when daughter was a baby naming my sister as legal guardian if something should happen to me.  A lawyer told me that my ex could fight it, but since ex wasn't in daughter's life, since ex is an admitted drug abuser, and since ex is a convicted felon, his chances of getting custody would be very slim.

Point I am trying to make is that you need to let your friend know that this case in not a "clean cut case".  He will have to fight for his child and he better be sure that he is doing this for the right reasons.  Not sure how someone with his job that is going through a legal separation from his current wife plans on taking care of an 8 year old child.

Good luck to your friend and their child!!!