Help With Legal Fees
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For the safety of the individuals involved I am keeping this anonymous. In May 2017 a close friend of mine began a difficult custody battle in order to get sole custody of her 7 year old daughter. Prior to this battle the mother had maintained sole physical custody of her daughter with the father only having sporadic involvement in the child’s life. Mom never pushed visits since the father had an extensive history of drug, alcohol, psychiatric and anger issues.
In May 2017 she filed to move out of state, and because of this the father suddenly decided he wanted to be involved. His family has an extensive amount of money at their disposal to fight this issue. As a result the father, who previously had minimal contact, was temporarily awarded 50/50 parenting time stating that it was the mother hindering his parenting time. This lead to the child being forced to spend half her time with her father despite her wishes to remain at home with mom.
As a result of this temporary order, this child was witness to multiple episodes of domestic violence, violent outbursts with destruction of property and witnessing drug and alcohol abuse. The mom was forced to pursue emergency sole custody in order to stop the visits and DCF was called and an investigation supported allegations of neglect. The father was arrested for strangulation and suffocation, 2 counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and 3 counts of assault and battery. The father was let off on these charges because the victim did not want to speak in court.
Some of these instances were witnessed by the child and as a result the child has been diagnosed with PTSD. Despite all these horrific events the father was allowed visitation again with the child. Simply put the child is now petrified of her father and regardless of this fact was being forced to continue with visitation.
Update: I want to share an update on our friend who continues to need our support. Her legal fees have now risen to over $20,000 as she continues to fight for custody. Her custody fight has been a long one for a multitude of reasons.
The most recent reason being that the father is now being held in jail for up to 2 months for another arrest related to domestic violence. Every time our friends needs to have paperwork filed, such as a restraining order, or needed to be grated emergency custody she has to use her lawyer to ensure things are done correctly and legally to protect herself and her child.
In May 2017 she filed to move out of state, and because of this the father suddenly decided he wanted to be involved. His family has an extensive amount of money at their disposal to fight this issue. As a result the father, who previously had minimal contact, was temporarily awarded 50/50 parenting time stating that it was the mother hindering his parenting time. This lead to the child being forced to spend half her time with her father despite her wishes to remain at home with mom.
As a result of this temporary order, this child was witness to multiple episodes of domestic violence, violent outbursts with destruction of property and witnessing drug and alcohol abuse. The mom was forced to pursue emergency sole custody in order to stop the visits and DCF was called and an investigation supported allegations of neglect. The father was arrested for strangulation and suffocation, 2 counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and 3 counts of assault and battery. The father was let off on these charges because the victim did not want to speak in court.
Some of these instances were witnessed by the child and as a result the child has been diagnosed with PTSD. Despite all these horrific events the father was allowed visitation again with the child. Simply put the child is now petrified of her father and regardless of this fact was being forced to continue with visitation.
Update: I want to share an update on our friend who continues to need our support. Her legal fees have now risen to over $20,000 as she continues to fight for custody. Her custody fight has been a long one for a multitude of reasons.
The most recent reason being that the father is now being held in jail for up to 2 months for another arrest related to domestic violence. Every time our friends needs to have paperwork filed, such as a restraining order, or needed to be grated emergency custody she has to use her lawyer to ensure things are done correctly and legally to protect herself and her child.
Organizer and beneficiary
Robyn Gogue
Organizer
Moreno Valley, CA
Anon Ymous
Beneficiary
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