Ugh... the loopholes of court orders - contempt or not?

[DecentDad]

Hi Soc,

We're now entering month 5 of our 730 custody eval with psych tests.  We got our 2 month continuance so that the evaluator could finish.

It's my ex's pattern to try to cause problems while technically following the letter of court orders, but not the spirit.

Example... our court orders on vacation state that each parent will give at least 30 days notice of vacation, and an itinerary will be provided upon confirmation that there is no prior scheduling conflict.  So, whenever I request vacation, she always has a scheduling conflict.

The latest has been that I pick up our four year old daughter at 5pm, and she's fast asleep, obviously exhausted and won't wake up.  This has happened on ten of the last thirteen 5pm pick-ups.  As I have a couple two-hour dinners with her per week (in addition to weekend overnights), making her naptime right at 5pm defeats the whole purpose of quality custodial time with dad.

I have recorded evidence (mostly audio, but some video) of all these exchanges where daughter is asleep upon my pick-up and sleeps for a good 60 to 90 minutes.

Biomom to date refuses to modify custodial time, refuses to modify naptime.

I'm bringing this to the attention of our evaluator (I've told him many times with many documented examples that as soon as one inappropriate behavior is extinguished, she finds another way to try to control/manipulate/defeat daughter's relationship with me).  Evaluator (clinical psychologist with 20 years experience doing evals) came well-recommended to me as being sensitive to alienation tactics and mental illness.

Court has already lectured her a couple times in prior ex parte/OSC hearings.

Biomom was personally served with the orders (i.e., not just her lawyer), so the foundation (i.e., her awareness) is set to pursue contempt when needed.

1.  Though she is technically following the parenting schedule by handing over our daughter at 5pm, is ignoring the spirit and intent of court orders grounds for contempt?

2.  We have custody trial in 2 months; is it worth it to try to further bias the judge with a bad impression of her prior to trial (regardless of outcome of a contempt ruling)... or would one put bets on the evaluator doing sufficient damage to her via his report?  Thoughts on strategy?

Thanks for your thoughts, as always!

DD

[kiddosmom]

but I wanted to add my 2 cents to this one.....

Before we became cp, we had sd from 12 pm to 530 pm m-f ect ect. The bm would complain that sd would fall asleep on our way to drop her off with her. It was not done intentionally, it was just not possible to get her to take a nap before that, then the motion of the car would zonk her out.

[socrateaser]

just log the incidents and let the evaluator know. this isn't worth a contempt motion.

[DecentDad]

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