Articles Posted in Child Custody in the News

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THIS%20KID.jpgVirtual visitation is the latest custody-related family law fad. California family law courts are issuing virtual visitation orders in lieu of face-to-face visitations where face-to-face visitations are feasible, albeit inconvenient. This is not good. Virtual visitation orders should only be issued where in-person child visitations are not possible.

Admittedly, virtual visitation helps people like deployed military personnel who have no control over their deployments and work locations keep in touch with their families back home. In some cases it is the only medium through which a very young child is able to know the removed parent at all. In such cases, virtual visitation orders allow non-custodial parents and children to have a “virtual relationship”, which is better than none at all.

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Proposed federal legislation would require state family law judges, including California’s, to automatically re-establish, upon a servicemember’s return from deployment, the custody and visitation schedule in effect at the time the servicemember was deployed. Under current law, many servicemembers lose custody and visitation time when deployed because they cannot be present to defend against requests modifying child custody and visitation orders.

According to this March 19, 2012 “Washington Post” article, if, during specific qualifying types of deployment, custody is temporarily granted to another person, upon the servicemember’s return, the court would be required to re-establish the custody arrangement as it was prior to deployment. Essentially, the court could not consider the servicemember’s deployment in determining what custody arrangement is in the best interests of the child.

Qualifying deployments would include such deployments as those that prohibit the accompaniment of family members (e.g., combat assignments)l Also, deployments must be between 60 days and 180 months in duration.

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A five year-old kindergartener’s hands and feet were hand-cuffed with zip ties by a Stockton, California police officer who then arrested the five year-old ADHD sufferer for battery on an officer for kicking the officer in the knee. Lieutenant Frank Gordo was apparently victimized by five year-old Michael Davis. As an American, it is embarrassing to read articles like this November 2011 KCRA news article http://www.kcra.com/r/29847063/detail.html. As is unfortunately typical of articles like this, this article only hints at the real story and raises more questions than it answers.

Why were the five year-old’s parents not told for two weeks that their son was handcuffed with zip ties?

Why weren’t the parents called as soon as the decision to transport this child to a psychiatric hospital was made? In 2012, do American parents retain any rights to act on behalf of their children or can the State take a minor child into custody at will in much the same way the State can take possession of your dog or cat?

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1381644_kid_picking_raspberries_from_the_bush.jpgState-sponsored child abuse is epidemic in Los Angeles and throughout the United States as evidenced by law enforcement protocols, family and juvenile court proceedings, adoptions, foster care programs and, increasingly, schools. For example, in November 2011, Hawaii’s Child Protective Services, in cooperation with the Honolulu Police Department, traumatized a three-year old girl by taking her into custody to punish her momentarily distracted parents who forgot to pay $5.00 for two sandwiches at a Safeway. Read this Fox New story and ask yourself these questions:

Isn’t abuse, regardless of who commits it, still abuse? Or do you believe that a law enforcement uniform somehow excuses the wearer from responsible, socially accepted norms of behavior?

Who at Safeway was fired?

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