Help Katie with legal fees
Donation protected
My daughter Katie is one of the single most, kind people that I know. She has never met a stranger, has always worn her heart on her sleeve, she is focused and hardworking, she is proud and stubborn. Katie would never ask anyone for help but would also give the shirt off of her back to help someone else in a heartbeat.
Just over 3 years ago now, I recall a day where Katie was driving with me in the passenger seat of her car and saw a young couple on the side of the road with a sign asking for a job. They were holding a baby and I could see her heart sink. Knowing that she was tight on cash, I told her that she couldn’t save the world and she assured me she knew this, but sure enough as soon as she got me out of the car she dashed right back over to where they stood and handed the young couple 100 dollars, never thinking twice about it and told them to take care of their beautiful baby.
My daughter is the girl who made it her mission to befriend a homeless woman who used to sit outside of the coffee shop that we would frequent. Without fail, Katie would always pack something small in her purse to give her for comfort, she would buy her something to eat and once, when she felt that the woman seemed to be feeling sick, she pressed her to seek medical attention and when the lady refused, my daughter went to the pharmacy across the street to get her something over the counter to help her feel better….
This is the kind of person she is, and I am honored that even when life hasn’t been easy, she has always remained positive and seen the importance of giving. She is a positive light, and puts a lot of her faith about the future in God’s hands. It is apparent to me now more than ever that my daughter needs help, and she needs it fast. My hands are tied and so here I am pleading with you to help her just as she has done for so many others countless times…..
My daughter got married young, in June of 2010, she was always focused and determined to find herself a career in law enforcement or criminal justice, but when she welcomed her son in 2011 her plans changed and he became the center of her world.
Her pregnancy with my grandson Noah was something of a nightmare. She was hospitalized multiple times and nearly died at 28 weeks. At the time, her husband was deployed. Shortly after the birth of her son, her husband was Court Martialed from the army for “Assault with a deadly weapon”. In the 2 years following, Katie struggled immensely to make ends meet and care for her young family while her husband remained on Active duty on an inactive status without pay and did nothing to contribute to their household, all support provided to her came from myself, her father, sometimes friends and what she was able to do on her own. During this time her marriage began to slowly decline and she saw a significant decline in her husband. In time she grew fearful of him and he became violent and aggressive, would have periods of being okay followed by outbursts of erratic behavior and violence. This all came to a head in January of 2014 when her husband assaulted her son and was arrested at their home. Katie agreed to not prosecute him if he sought help. Having done so immediately, she asked that the charges be dropped and they were.
At the time, Katie felt that he desperately needed help, and fought to do everything in her power to get him the help he needed. They mutually agreed to move out of state and relocate to be closer to her father’s side of the family where he could begin to assist them as a family and guide them in the healing process. After re-locating, her husband discontinued the treatment that they had agreed upon and several incidents occurred that caused Katie to be significantly concerned for the safety of both her and her son. The situation seemed to become increasingly more violent until ultimately in June it came to another abrupt head. At this point Katie made a decision that she no longer felt safe in the home with him and felt that her and her child were in danger and she in an attempt to ultimately re-locate back home in North Carolina, began coming back more and more frequently for extended periods of time.
Initially, she tried to remain supportive of her husband’s care but was fearful of having herself and her son in the home as the situation became more and more violent she returned home to NC more and more frequently until ultimately she did not leave. From June of 2014 on, Katie began the process of slowly rebuilding the lives of both her and her son. With absolutely no help from her husband, Katie relied a lot on friends and family to get back on her feet. She stayed with me briefly, and then a friend kindly opened their home to her and her son and she ultimately moved back into the home that her and her husband had bought in 2010. Her son began counseling and started making significant progress in his therapy; he was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism and PTSD and has spent the last year in her sole care. During this time, her husband had little contact with her and her son has not provided them with any form of assistance and Noah has not seen so much as a birthday or Christmas card from his father. She began a new relationship and everything in her life slowly began to fall back into place. In the initial months that she was back in NC, she seemed to have had this huge weight lifted from her shoulders, and for the first time in years, I saw my beautiful and confident daughter begin to heal and become very much alive again. Katie started working and it seemed as though her life was finally beginning to come together.
At first Katie was very fearful. She would be jumpy and nervous, she was always afraid that he would show up somewhere or that she was in danger for having left, but it seemed as though having the distance from him helped to reassure her that she and her son were safe. She was fearful of leaving her son in the care of anyone else to include family and close friends, but slowly she began to trust people more and more and her husband’s lack of interest in her and her child seemed to comfort her as well.
Sometime around May of 2015, her husband decided to move back to NC as well and moved into his mother’s home. Initially Katie tried to allow him to see their son as often as possible and would change her entire schedule frequently just to make sure this happened because she does believe that her son should know his father and be able to spend time with him, but she was also afraid of him being left alone with their son (as well as her) due to past situations, threats and a long history of issues, specifically involving firearms. The times that he would visit were sporadic and often times unannounced, and Katie began to again become fearful of her surroundings knowing that he was so close by. He would go periods where he remained in contact constantly for several days and then he would drop off of the map for periods of time. When he would visit at their home, their son would sometimes take days to return to his normal self and the visits would be followed up by violent tantrums and days of nightmares and Katie would call me in tears, unsure of how best to try and do the right thing for everyone. After about a month of him being back in NC he began making threats to Katie because he wanted to take Noah to his own him and keep him without supervision. Katie was extremely uncomfortable with this because her husband had not only stopped treatment for himself yet again, but her son was in treatment of his own, that her husband had at no point been an active participant in, he had made some very terrifying threats about harming their son, her and himself and she did not feel that his family took these matters seriously nor were they fully aware of the extent of the situation, and by this point her son had been in her sole care for over a year and had not been fully integrated into a new relationship with him.
Katie went back and forth with him for several months and admittedly made a million excuses as to why he could not just take him because she was terrified for her child, and simply didn’t have the funds to find an attorney to begin trying to sort it all out, all the while, she remained cordial with him, she sent him photos constantly, let them talk on the phone and let him visit any time he asked. In September just before her son’s 4th birthday there was a disagreement over the phone regarding the plans for his upcoming birthday and a threat was made toward Katie. At this point Katie was forced to seek an emergency domestic violence protective order. From September to October a temporary protective order was put in place and it encompassed their son. At the completion of the hearing the protective order was substantiated and made permanent for a period of 1 year, however, during the time in which Katie waited for the hearing to take place, he filed for absolute divorce and custody in another county. As a result, the Judge who granted the protective order in her home county would not extend the permanent order to encompass her son because there were pending custody matters in another county by that time (this was not filed until after the temporary order was in place). The judge instead stated that the matter of custody would need to be decided by the county in which he had filed since it was already a “pending matter”.
In November, Katie experienced some health issues and was hospitalized, during this time, the case in another county was continued and Katie struggled immensely to pay attorney fees with unpaid leave from work and no assistance from her son’s father. The attorney’s fees became excessive after one hearing in her home county, multiple continued hearings in the other county and an immense amount of case preparation that had to take place to prepare them for court in February. As of February 11th, the matter of divorce, custody and division of assets was heard in the neighboring county where he filed. Katie was divorced, but her son’s father spent the entire day in court being examined by his own attorney and the case of custody was continued into next month.
Since all of the court proceedings began in October of 2015, Katie has accrued more money in attorney fees than she earned in entirety in 2015. She is fighting vigorously to protect her beautiful son and young family who have excelled in so many ways over the last year and a half, but she is slowly drowning financially. Katie is already divorced but the matter of custody is still ongoing.
The costs of a family attorney for such a contested matter is not cheap, but she simply cannot agree to anything less than supervised visitation at this time as she (and everyone around her) firmly believes that unsupervised visitation would put her son at a substantial risk. If something were to happen to her son, there is no taking that back, it cannot be ignored, it cannot be erased and as his mother it is her duty to protect him with every single breath she has in her, just like I, as her mother, am trying to do for her here.
Katie is a good person, she has no criminal record, she works hard, she is beginning school next month with the help of financial aid to complete the last 5 classes needed in her degree program (Criminal Justice). Katie is honest, loyal, loving and fun. Her son loves her immensely and he is her sweet boy. He has made leaps and bounds of progress over the course of the last year and she does not want to cause him any undue stress or see him backpedal at all. A once shy, socially awkward and very troubled 3 year old is now a vibrant, lively and intelligent 4 year old who enjoys reading, singing, playing with trains, paw patrol and visits to the playground where he gets to spend time with lots of other kids.
Katie has an attorney who is representing her on her behalf and she has fought diligently to not just be present but also to work with Katie and our/her family to give ample time for fees to be paid and to be very conservative with billing, Unfortunately, since she is currently halfway through a full trial, Katie was slammed with a lot of attorney fees rather quickly and in order to continue on and allow the attorney to have ample time to continue to dedicate to her case she is desperately in need of assistance much faster than she can come up with the funds herself. Absolutely anything at all will help. Again, Katie would never ask anyone for something. She is extremely proud and she has diligently kept track of all of the money and resources that those around her have exhausted in trying to ensure that at the end of the day, her sons best interest remains the SOLE focus of this trial. She has helped many others countless times, but right now she needs our help.
EVERYTHING that is received here will go straight to the Attorney’s client-trust account for the purpose of the custody hearing(s) in the future. She is ALREADY divorced, and that particular detail is no longer a concern, the sole concern is to ensure that her son only be kept safe and ultimately when great care and consideration has been given to his father’s psychological state and potential danger can be ruled out, he is then integrated back into his daily life in a RESPONSIBLE manner.
While I cannot comment on the specific incidents that took place between my daughter and her now ex husband, as she is adamant that no one jeopardize his character or begin a smear campaign of the sorts, nor does she want her son to be negatively affected in any way (she does not allow her son exposure to matters pertaining to any negativity surrounding his father), I will say that they are very serious and are a constant cause for concern for everyone who has been involved first hand. If you can help in any way, please, please do so. If you do not feel comfortable depositing funds on a public site, feel free to email my daughter at [email redacted] and ask her for the attorney’s direct contact and you can make a payment to the trust account in her name directly.
Katie is scraping pennies to ensure she is prepared to return to court, any contribution helps and would also take a substantial strain off of her as she is also currently trying to maintain a working household and provide a loving and stable home for her 2 children and sacrafices her own personal bills/expenses at the expense of seeing this case through for the most desirable end result for everyone involved. She has put the rest in God’s hands and I hope that others may be able to see how hard she has worked and how far they have come.
Just over 3 years ago now, I recall a day where Katie was driving with me in the passenger seat of her car and saw a young couple on the side of the road with a sign asking for a job. They were holding a baby and I could see her heart sink. Knowing that she was tight on cash, I told her that she couldn’t save the world and she assured me she knew this, but sure enough as soon as she got me out of the car she dashed right back over to where they stood and handed the young couple 100 dollars, never thinking twice about it and told them to take care of their beautiful baby.
My daughter is the girl who made it her mission to befriend a homeless woman who used to sit outside of the coffee shop that we would frequent. Without fail, Katie would always pack something small in her purse to give her for comfort, she would buy her something to eat and once, when she felt that the woman seemed to be feeling sick, she pressed her to seek medical attention and when the lady refused, my daughter went to the pharmacy across the street to get her something over the counter to help her feel better….
This is the kind of person she is, and I am honored that even when life hasn’t been easy, she has always remained positive and seen the importance of giving. She is a positive light, and puts a lot of her faith about the future in God’s hands. It is apparent to me now more than ever that my daughter needs help, and she needs it fast. My hands are tied and so here I am pleading with you to help her just as she has done for so many others countless times…..
My daughter got married young, in June of 2010, she was always focused and determined to find herself a career in law enforcement or criminal justice, but when she welcomed her son in 2011 her plans changed and he became the center of her world.
Her pregnancy with my grandson Noah was something of a nightmare. She was hospitalized multiple times and nearly died at 28 weeks. At the time, her husband was deployed. Shortly after the birth of her son, her husband was Court Martialed from the army for “Assault with a deadly weapon”. In the 2 years following, Katie struggled immensely to make ends meet and care for her young family while her husband remained on Active duty on an inactive status without pay and did nothing to contribute to their household, all support provided to her came from myself, her father, sometimes friends and what she was able to do on her own. During this time her marriage began to slowly decline and she saw a significant decline in her husband. In time she grew fearful of him and he became violent and aggressive, would have periods of being okay followed by outbursts of erratic behavior and violence. This all came to a head in January of 2014 when her husband assaulted her son and was arrested at their home. Katie agreed to not prosecute him if he sought help. Having done so immediately, she asked that the charges be dropped and they were.
At the time, Katie felt that he desperately needed help, and fought to do everything in her power to get him the help he needed. They mutually agreed to move out of state and relocate to be closer to her father’s side of the family where he could begin to assist them as a family and guide them in the healing process. After re-locating, her husband discontinued the treatment that they had agreed upon and several incidents occurred that caused Katie to be significantly concerned for the safety of both her and her son. The situation seemed to become increasingly more violent until ultimately in June it came to another abrupt head. At this point Katie made a decision that she no longer felt safe in the home with him and felt that her and her child were in danger and she in an attempt to ultimately re-locate back home in North Carolina, began coming back more and more frequently for extended periods of time.
Initially, she tried to remain supportive of her husband’s care but was fearful of having herself and her son in the home as the situation became more and more violent she returned home to NC more and more frequently until ultimately she did not leave. From June of 2014 on, Katie began the process of slowly rebuilding the lives of both her and her son. With absolutely no help from her husband, Katie relied a lot on friends and family to get back on her feet. She stayed with me briefly, and then a friend kindly opened their home to her and her son and she ultimately moved back into the home that her and her husband had bought in 2010. Her son began counseling and started making significant progress in his therapy; he was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism and PTSD and has spent the last year in her sole care. During this time, her husband had little contact with her and her son has not provided them with any form of assistance and Noah has not seen so much as a birthday or Christmas card from his father. She began a new relationship and everything in her life slowly began to fall back into place. In the initial months that she was back in NC, she seemed to have had this huge weight lifted from her shoulders, and for the first time in years, I saw my beautiful and confident daughter begin to heal and become very much alive again. Katie started working and it seemed as though her life was finally beginning to come together.
At first Katie was very fearful. She would be jumpy and nervous, she was always afraid that he would show up somewhere or that she was in danger for having left, but it seemed as though having the distance from him helped to reassure her that she and her son were safe. She was fearful of leaving her son in the care of anyone else to include family and close friends, but slowly she began to trust people more and more and her husband’s lack of interest in her and her child seemed to comfort her as well.
Sometime around May of 2015, her husband decided to move back to NC as well and moved into his mother’s home. Initially Katie tried to allow him to see their son as often as possible and would change her entire schedule frequently just to make sure this happened because she does believe that her son should know his father and be able to spend time with him, but she was also afraid of him being left alone with their son (as well as her) due to past situations, threats and a long history of issues, specifically involving firearms. The times that he would visit were sporadic and often times unannounced, and Katie began to again become fearful of her surroundings knowing that he was so close by. He would go periods where he remained in contact constantly for several days and then he would drop off of the map for periods of time. When he would visit at their home, their son would sometimes take days to return to his normal self and the visits would be followed up by violent tantrums and days of nightmares and Katie would call me in tears, unsure of how best to try and do the right thing for everyone. After about a month of him being back in NC he began making threats to Katie because he wanted to take Noah to his own him and keep him without supervision. Katie was extremely uncomfortable with this because her husband had not only stopped treatment for himself yet again, but her son was in treatment of his own, that her husband had at no point been an active participant in, he had made some very terrifying threats about harming their son, her and himself and she did not feel that his family took these matters seriously nor were they fully aware of the extent of the situation, and by this point her son had been in her sole care for over a year and had not been fully integrated into a new relationship with him.
Katie went back and forth with him for several months and admittedly made a million excuses as to why he could not just take him because she was terrified for her child, and simply didn’t have the funds to find an attorney to begin trying to sort it all out, all the while, she remained cordial with him, she sent him photos constantly, let them talk on the phone and let him visit any time he asked. In September just before her son’s 4th birthday there was a disagreement over the phone regarding the plans for his upcoming birthday and a threat was made toward Katie. At this point Katie was forced to seek an emergency domestic violence protective order. From September to October a temporary protective order was put in place and it encompassed their son. At the completion of the hearing the protective order was substantiated and made permanent for a period of 1 year, however, during the time in which Katie waited for the hearing to take place, he filed for absolute divorce and custody in another county. As a result, the Judge who granted the protective order in her home county would not extend the permanent order to encompass her son because there were pending custody matters in another county by that time (this was not filed until after the temporary order was in place). The judge instead stated that the matter of custody would need to be decided by the county in which he had filed since it was already a “pending matter”.
In November, Katie experienced some health issues and was hospitalized, during this time, the case in another county was continued and Katie struggled immensely to pay attorney fees with unpaid leave from work and no assistance from her son’s father. The attorney’s fees became excessive after one hearing in her home county, multiple continued hearings in the other county and an immense amount of case preparation that had to take place to prepare them for court in February. As of February 11th, the matter of divorce, custody and division of assets was heard in the neighboring county where he filed. Katie was divorced, but her son’s father spent the entire day in court being examined by his own attorney and the case of custody was continued into next month.
Since all of the court proceedings began in October of 2015, Katie has accrued more money in attorney fees than she earned in entirety in 2015. She is fighting vigorously to protect her beautiful son and young family who have excelled in so many ways over the last year and a half, but she is slowly drowning financially. Katie is already divorced but the matter of custody is still ongoing.
The costs of a family attorney for such a contested matter is not cheap, but she simply cannot agree to anything less than supervised visitation at this time as she (and everyone around her) firmly believes that unsupervised visitation would put her son at a substantial risk. If something were to happen to her son, there is no taking that back, it cannot be ignored, it cannot be erased and as his mother it is her duty to protect him with every single breath she has in her, just like I, as her mother, am trying to do for her here.
Katie is a good person, she has no criminal record, she works hard, she is beginning school next month with the help of financial aid to complete the last 5 classes needed in her degree program (Criminal Justice). Katie is honest, loyal, loving and fun. Her son loves her immensely and he is her sweet boy. He has made leaps and bounds of progress over the course of the last year and she does not want to cause him any undue stress or see him backpedal at all. A once shy, socially awkward and very troubled 3 year old is now a vibrant, lively and intelligent 4 year old who enjoys reading, singing, playing with trains, paw patrol and visits to the playground where he gets to spend time with lots of other kids.
Katie has an attorney who is representing her on her behalf and she has fought diligently to not just be present but also to work with Katie and our/her family to give ample time for fees to be paid and to be very conservative with billing, Unfortunately, since she is currently halfway through a full trial, Katie was slammed with a lot of attorney fees rather quickly and in order to continue on and allow the attorney to have ample time to continue to dedicate to her case she is desperately in need of assistance much faster than she can come up with the funds herself. Absolutely anything at all will help. Again, Katie would never ask anyone for something. She is extremely proud and she has diligently kept track of all of the money and resources that those around her have exhausted in trying to ensure that at the end of the day, her sons best interest remains the SOLE focus of this trial. She has helped many others countless times, but right now she needs our help.
EVERYTHING that is received here will go straight to the Attorney’s client-trust account for the purpose of the custody hearing(s) in the future. She is ALREADY divorced, and that particular detail is no longer a concern, the sole concern is to ensure that her son only be kept safe and ultimately when great care and consideration has been given to his father’s psychological state and potential danger can be ruled out, he is then integrated back into his daily life in a RESPONSIBLE manner.
While I cannot comment on the specific incidents that took place between my daughter and her now ex husband, as she is adamant that no one jeopardize his character or begin a smear campaign of the sorts, nor does she want her son to be negatively affected in any way (she does not allow her son exposure to matters pertaining to any negativity surrounding his father), I will say that they are very serious and are a constant cause for concern for everyone who has been involved first hand. If you can help in any way, please, please do so. If you do not feel comfortable depositing funds on a public site, feel free to email my daughter at [email redacted] and ask her for the attorney’s direct contact and you can make a payment to the trust account in her name directly.
Katie is scraping pennies to ensure she is prepared to return to court, any contribution helps and would also take a substantial strain off of her as she is also currently trying to maintain a working household and provide a loving and stable home for her 2 children and sacrafices her own personal bills/expenses at the expense of seeing this case through for the most desirable end result for everyone involved. She has put the rest in God’s hands and I hope that others may be able to see how hard she has worked and how far they have come.
Organizer and beneficiary
Patricia Ann
Organizer
Shalimar, FL
Katie Michelle
Beneficiary
