Police Report / DFCS Question

[spangle1033]

All events take place in GA.

NCP recently learned that during CP's marriage two years ago (marriage lasted 6 weeks) that an "incident" occured in the CP's home while the children were there.

NCP received the police report today which lists CP as the complainant and offender in a Domestic Incident with her husband as the Victim.  CP was arrested on the premises and issued a citation for DOC.

DFCS was called due to the fact that CP and NCP's children were on the premises.  The DFCS representative made the decision that the children could remain in the care of CP due to the fact that Victim was voluntarily leaving the house.

CP made sure to withhold this information from NCP due to the fact that the final custody hearing was taking place the following week.  At that hearing, CP was granted sole physical and legal custody.

1.  At the next court date that occurs, will the judge look unfavorably upon the fact that CP did not reveal this occurence before the final custody hearing?

2.  Will the judge take this incident into account in future decisions concerning custody (i.e. the fact that CP was the offender and was arrested for DOC while children were in the house)?

3.  Will NCP have to go through a lawyer to get the DFCS report of the incident? (At this point, DFCS is refusing NCP the information due to the fact that he wasn't involved.)

4.  Did DFCS follow procedure in not alerting NCP to the occurence?

5. CP was issued a citation concerning the incident.  Does that mean she had to go before a court?  Would her arrest be on record (besides what we have)?  I'm not sure how the citation process works.

Thank You.

[socrateaser]

>1.  At the next court date that occurs, will the judge look
>unfavorably upon the fact that CP did not reveal this
>occurence before the final custody hearing?

Depends on whether or not you requested discovery of any DV incidents during the course of the prior litigation. If so, then CP would have been obliged to update discovery and inform you of the incident, so that you could advise the court.

Legally, this could be grounds to set aside a prior judgment, but because it is so long ago now, unless there is current evidence suggesting that the children are in distress, then the court will likely deem the matter irrelevant for the purposes of determining custody. However, the court might find the incident probative as to determining the credibility of the CP in a subsquent action.

>2.  Will the judge take this incident into account in future
>decisions concerning custody (i.e. the fact that CP was the
>offender and was arrested for DOC while children were in the
>house)?

See above.

>
>3.  Will NCP have to go through a lawyer to get the DFCS
>report of the incident? (At this point, DFCS is refusing NCP
>the information due to the fact that he wasn't involved.)

Yes, unless NCP knows how to fill out and serve a subpoena.

>
>4.  Did DFCS follow procedure in not alerting NCP to the
>occurence?

I don't know -- specific to GA law.

>
>5. CP was issued a citation concerning the incident.  Does
>that mean she had to go before a court?  Would her arrest be
>on record (besides what we have)?  I'm not sure how the
>citation process works.

Citation means court appearance, just like for a traffic ticket, unless the DA chooses to not prosecute, which is possible.