Legal Fees for Farren - Custody
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Please consider helping fund my daughter Farren's custody fight.
Last year, her estranged husband shot and nearly killed a man that Farren was seeing. They were separated but not yet divorced. He put the loaded gun to Farren's head and then turned it on himself, after threatening both Farren and the other man. He shot the other man in the throat. This happened 20 feet away from their sleeping children, who were 4 and 2 years old, at the time. Her ex-husband was charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Felonious Pointing of a Firearm. He is out on $100K bail and living with his parents in Oklahoma. The man he shot is now paralyzed from the neck down.
Farren had no support system in Oklahoma - she moved there when she married. A few months after the incident, she made plans to move back to Arkansas and put her life back together. On the weekend she was scheduled to move, her ex's parents had her older daughter, Faith, and the younger was home with Farren. When we tried to pick Faith up, they refused to give her to us, and kept her from Farren for weeks, until we were able to have a hearing to establish temporary custody. The attorney we had believed we retained did not return our calls the day before the hearing and we hired the first attorney who could take her case. The next day, after a quick 45 minute hearing, the judge decided to award temporary custody to her ex's parents, and declared that neither parent would be allowed to be with the girls unsupervised. Clearly we were not expecting or prepared for such a decision. Heartbroken, we returned to Arkansas. That was last November. Since then, Farren has worked hard to establish her life here in preparation for the full custody hearing. She has a full-time job, she has a car (she was not "allowed" to drive when married) and she has been making trips to Oklahoma and back as frequently as she (and I) can manage. We recently obtained some solid evidence that we believe warrants an emergency hearing for a change of custody. We fired the attorney we initially hired, the day before the temporary trial. He had not filed one single document, and regularly ignored emails and phone calls. We found another, have had a consultation with him, and he is prepared to go to battle and file the emergency motion to get the girls back. We just need the funds to retain him so that he can begin working on her case. We have explored the options of legal aid, and because of the nature of the case (with the criminal trial pending) and because it spans two states, we have not been able to get anyone to do pro-bono work for us. So I'm reaching out.
As it stands, the girls are living in a single-wide trailer with her ex and his parents. They do not have a bedroom of their own. There is a known drug dealer in the family who frequently visits the home. The father, who shot someone 20 feet from them, lives with them and sees them every day. They refuse to allow Farren to have video calls with the girls. They refuse to notify her about events at her older daughter's school, and the school refuses to share the info because we have not had an attorney advocate for her right to it. Farren loves her children more than anything. Please, please help us to get her babies back with their mom. They are so confused and they miss their mom so much.
Last year, her estranged husband shot and nearly killed a man that Farren was seeing. They were separated but not yet divorced. He put the loaded gun to Farren's head and then turned it on himself, after threatening both Farren and the other man. He shot the other man in the throat. This happened 20 feet away from their sleeping children, who were 4 and 2 years old, at the time. Her ex-husband was charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Felonious Pointing of a Firearm. He is out on $100K bail and living with his parents in Oklahoma. The man he shot is now paralyzed from the neck down.
Farren had no support system in Oklahoma - she moved there when she married. A few months after the incident, she made plans to move back to Arkansas and put her life back together. On the weekend she was scheduled to move, her ex's parents had her older daughter, Faith, and the younger was home with Farren. When we tried to pick Faith up, they refused to give her to us, and kept her from Farren for weeks, until we were able to have a hearing to establish temporary custody. The attorney we had believed we retained did not return our calls the day before the hearing and we hired the first attorney who could take her case. The next day, after a quick 45 minute hearing, the judge decided to award temporary custody to her ex's parents, and declared that neither parent would be allowed to be with the girls unsupervised. Clearly we were not expecting or prepared for such a decision. Heartbroken, we returned to Arkansas. That was last November. Since then, Farren has worked hard to establish her life here in preparation for the full custody hearing. She has a full-time job, she has a car (she was not "allowed" to drive when married) and she has been making trips to Oklahoma and back as frequently as she (and I) can manage. We recently obtained some solid evidence that we believe warrants an emergency hearing for a change of custody. We fired the attorney we initially hired, the day before the temporary trial. He had not filed one single document, and regularly ignored emails and phone calls. We found another, have had a consultation with him, and he is prepared to go to battle and file the emergency motion to get the girls back. We just need the funds to retain him so that he can begin working on her case. We have explored the options of legal aid, and because of the nature of the case (with the criminal trial pending) and because it spans two states, we have not been able to get anyone to do pro-bono work for us. So I'm reaching out.
As it stands, the girls are living in a single-wide trailer with her ex and his parents. They do not have a bedroom of their own. There is a known drug dealer in the family who frequently visits the home. The father, who shot someone 20 feet from them, lives with them and sees them every day. They refuse to allow Farren to have video calls with the girls. They refuse to notify her about events at her older daughter's school, and the school refuses to share the info because we have not had an attorney advocate for her right to it. Farren loves her children more than anything. Please, please help us to get her babies back with their mom. They are so confused and they miss their mom so much.
Organizer
Fawn Fairchild
Organizer
Cabot, AR