Stranger approached us with info on mom.....now what do we do?

[United]

Hello,

Background: Mediation report came back recommending dad should have custody with visitation to mom of one night per week and eow.  

Reasons stated were mothers DUI while children were in her custody, many agressive boyfriends, children witnessing abuse, many, many moves, poor choices, etc.  

Mom would not agree to adopt report and has insisted on a trial and has refused all settlement offers.  Judge ordered her to undergo alcohol testing before returning for trial.

Now, like a scene right out of a movie, someone close to mom approached dad out of concern for kids with info that mom has been driving while intoxicated again, but this time with children in vehicle.  

In addition, she has had two small accidents due to drinking (one while children were with her - neither of which were reported to police) and that on one occassion mom forgot to pick up child due to her drinking.  

Prior to this info we had intended to try again to settle prior to trial.  Now we feel that this info is credible, most of it first hand and should be put before the judge and attempts be made to protect the children.

However, we don't have a lot of hard"proof" other than the potential testimony of the parties involved and mom's previous issues with alcohol being noted in mediation report and at recent hearing.  

I know this is a bit of a crystal ball question, but Soc, in your experience:

How likely would it be that the judge might act to make moms visitation supervised, order treatment or otherwise change the mediation report due to the recent events?

How best to use this new information to protect the kids?

Any thoughts around this would be greatly appreciated!!  : )

[socrateaser]

>How likely would it be that the judge might act to make moms
>visitation supervised, order treatment or otherwise change the
>mediation report due to the recent events?

A witness is only as good as the witness's credibility. If this person has no stake in the matter, is not a friend of yours or the mother's, that increases the credibility. If the witness is a friend or otherwise interested in the case, that reduces credibility.

Before subpoenaing a witness to trial, you should have them sign a sworn affidavit setting forth EVERYTHING that they might reasonably be questioned about at trial. You do this to decide if what they will say will actually be useful, and more importantly, you do it because sometimes witnesses CHANGE their minds, and testify differently, and that testimony can actually hurt your case.

In such a situation, you need the sworn affidavit to negate/impeach their damaging testimony on the stand. Like, affidavit: "I will testify that I saw the mother beat the kids." Then on the stand: "I never saw the mother beat the kids, but I did see the father beat them!"

If that were to happen, you would want a sworn statement showing that the witness had either perjured themselves in the affidavit, or on the stand, i.e., in short, that the witness is prone to lying, and the testimony and the affidavit should be disallowed.


>
>How best to use this new information to protect the kids?

Well, I would just present the affidavit to the other parent's attorney and state that you would hate for this to get in front of the judge, and that you would like to settle the matter amicably without a trial.