Any help/visitation denied/custody

[needhelpinla]

I am a step grandmother trying to help step son.  He is the most caring father to 2 boys, ages 7 & 4. 

Both he and ex live in Louisiana now but divorce &  custody orders done in Mississippi where they used to live.  They divorced in 2008 after one year separation and he has been going through a nightmare with his ex who has history of prescription drug abuse & mental illness. 
They were granted joint legal custody with she as the domicillary parent however; she does not allow any phone calls from Dad to boys and brings the kids for their scheduled bi weekly visits when she feels like it.  As of today, Dad has not seen boys in over 1 month.  He has filied an appeal of the custody decision with the MS supreme court of appeals but it is pending at this time.

She has had her daughter from her first marriage accuse him of inappropriate behavior on one occasion and battery on another.  The inapp. behavior accusation was during custody hearing and was thrown out by court.  And battery charge claimed when the daughter was picking up the boys from a weekend visit with their Dad.  It went to court and he is on probation for one year.  He raised that daughter since she was 3 and she is now 17.  The daughter is affraid of her mother an always has been so she does whatever her Mom says to do.

Ex has also told the boys (they told us) that "Daddy is a bad person as is his entire family".  The judge separated the boys in 2007 giving custody of the oldest son to Dad and youngest to Mom (Which we couldn't believe judge split up the boys).
The 7 yr old lived with Daddy for the first year of their separation and knows Daddy & his family are not bad people, but the 4 yr old doesn't have memory of living with Daddy so he tends to believe what Mom says.

Most recently Child protection has become involved.  They supposedly did a home visit at Mom's this past Friday.  This morning CP contacted Dad to set up a home visit with him.  He has recently (2 months ago) moved in with his fiance' and her children due to selling the family home based on the courts property separation order.

There is a standing restraining order that they are not to contact/harrass each others family, friends or work place.  This past Friday, (which just so happened to be the same day as CP visit) she contacted his job and told them she saw Dad pass in front of her home in the company vehicle.  Dad's boss told her 'it's not him, I'm looking at him".  She swore it was and had called the police.  We assume she is now going to press stalking charges against him.  Dad's boss is writing a statement regarding this.  This was not the first time she has contacted his job.   This MAY cost him his job.

Sorry this is so long but what we need to know is: 

1) Can he file charges against her for violation of the restraining order and harrassment?
2) Can Dad's lawyer file for emergency transfer of custody until Court of Appeals makes their decision based on Parental Interference, denial of visitation and false allegations?
 
Any info provided is greatly appreciated!
 
 
 

[MixedBag]

1.  If the restraining order is contained within the divorce decree, then I lean towards NO, he can not file.
 
2.  Procedurally, I believe that dad has to withdraw his appeal to the supreme court, then he can file for what you listed.
 
EX#3's EX and he had an appeal sitting with the NV supreme court for a few years (sorry, but yes, it took THAT long).  Meanwhile she did as she pleased on several different subjects.  Once he brought the appeal back to the local court (geez, THAT alone took 6 months), had something heard locally (denied), had it sent back to the Supreme court.
 
I'm no attorney -- but base my answers on experience.

[needhelpinla]

Thanks for your response. 
My son is going to court tomorrow on the comtempt charges he filed against ex however, this morning his lawyer called to say ex's lawyer isn't available tomorrow so more than likely ex won't be there either.  Son will be there to plead his case if nothing else.
Can the judge issue an arrest warrant for ex on the contempt charges?
 
Thanks

[MrCustodyCoach]

The judge can do pretty much anything s/he wants.  If they've been notified appropriately and they simply fail to show, the hearing can go on without her present - not very good for her at all.

Sounds like your boy is in a very messy situation.

[snowrose]

I think if it were me and she filed stalking charges, I would counter-file harassment charges.  She's been told by his boss that he's not the one who drove by as the boss was looking at him right then, so she has no right to file stalking against him.
 
I would press the issue while his boss is still willing to get involved and support him.  Get it over with now to dissuade the ex from ever doing this again because his boss probably won't be so amenable later if it keeps up.
 
Since she isn't supposed to contact his work, file contempt charges against her too.

[needhelpinla]

My boy is in a messy situation to say the least.  He is such a loving father to the boys and was to the step daughter as well, it just breaks our hearts.  The boys want to be with him so badly but are not at the age to make that decision for themselves.
 
Hopefully the judge will do something to make the ex do right as well as Child Protection.  We are hoping for a transfer of custody.  I will certainly post what goes on tomorrow in court. 
 
Thanks for all the responses. 

[needhelpinla]

This is first chance I had to do an update.

Well, we went to court and NOTHING happened.  Judge said, "can't do anything" since ex & lawyer weren't there.  But said "visitation is important".  It's like they don't want to be bothered with situations like this!  Dad'slawyer just accepted that and said "he would call ex's lawyer" and call Dad, which he never did.  That was last Wednesday!!! 

Ex did not bring kids again this past Friday.  That makes 5 times this year!  Dad has lost 240 hours total with his boys.  Dad went to her house with police and she said she was not letting kids go with Dad.  Just like that!  Police said there was nothing they could do.  Oldest boy just stood there and waved to his Dad.  It' just breaks my heart.

Don't know what to do!  I guess comtempt of court means NOTHING!  We are just at wits end and don't know where to go from here.

[ocean]

Did they make another court date to deal with it? Did you file contempt charges? I have witnessed first hand a judge not doing a thing to the mother for a whole year...system doesnt work unless you get a judge that does the right thing.
File a police report each time and now go to court and file another contempt charge for this past weekend. You can do this yourself. Call family court and ask what papers you need to fill out. That way you dont pay your lawyer to do it.

As for the lawyer, he works for YOU. Tell him either play hard in there today or you will be fired. We could hear our lawyer getting loud how it was unfair of this father not to see his kids but the judge kept putting it off. You really need to do your homework because once they get your money they slow way down. Ask around and maybe change lawyers. We had a good one that we can email. We were able to scan things and send him things. He also let us run around and make the charts we needed in court so we didnt have to pay for that.

[needhelpinla]

Thanks for those suggestions!  The judge clearly needs to retire in my opinion.  The lawyer is really on his last leg.  Dad has paid him over $15k for nothing!  Wish we could find a lawyer like yours!
I will look into how Dad can file contempt charges himself and see how that goes.   Dad is not giving up on his boys!! That's for sure!

[MixedBag]

there's got to be more to this.