Court systems fail
The court system in America works at times, others it fails miserably. Everything is facts, confirmed by me, and even events witnessed by me.
Let me draw out the facts, then think through the conclusions. A man and a women get divorced, no big deal, happens all the time. There is even a child involved, sad, but it does happen as well. The divorce was agreed up between the two. They also verbally agreed to have a single attorney draw up the paper and agreement on who gets what. During this time, there is no warning sign of things to come. He leave to GA to take a job, nearly 500 miles away.
Then, one day, all hell breaks lose. He comes back to town, to get his stuff, except this time he has his two brothers with him. They take everything they can get their hands on, including food, and the mothers clothes as well. Among other things they take a bike helmet, belonging to the child, the mother goes after the helmet, because the child is crying for it. One of the brothers corners the mom, and goes after her. The daughter throws the mother a hammer, which is taken away from the brother. At this point he keeps attacking and the brother jumps in and starts beating her as well. She is in a cast from knee surgery at the time. A women, in a cast being jumped by two full grown men, in front of her daughter, while the father stands there and snickers.
The get bored with the beating, trash the house, video tape themselves trashing the house, and leave. Once gone, the mother and daughter are left with nothing. They go immediately to the police station, and receive an order of protection. Not only because of the beating, but because they took an unregistered handgun as well with them.
The father then served divorce papers on the mom, demanding custody. The order of protection was dismissed because all three of the brothers lived out of state, but they were also ordered to stay out of Tennessee for 3 to 4 months, and the mother was given temporary custody.
She was granted temporary custody until formal hearings could be held. The mother and daughter were happy, they were living, the child's grades were excellent, straight A's in advanced classes. The father proved to be difficult, and even with a restraining order was still coming around, stalking them, standing outside the house at night, even breaking in once. Even though these actions occurred, the mother still allowed him to talk to the daughter on the phone, if the child wanted to. The child was terrified of the father, having seen him beat her mother up, push her down, yell at her, and chase her.
Enter the court hearing, which took place in Monroe county Tennessee. The father comes with his lawyer, and his parents and brothers, all to destroy the testimony. The mans father is a minister, and was a character witness for his son. From the very start of the case, the restraining order was dismissed, and any evidence to the character of the father was not allowed. The daughters wishes were not taken into account at all. The father at this time had not paid the mother any of the assets from the divorce that he had been required too. He moved out of the state, creating a situation for the child that was going to be less then ideal. The school system where he moved was sub-par to where the child was currently enrolled.
During this trial, nothing the mother presented was allowed. After the final ruling, the father was granted custody, based on a point system, and the winning point was he was more likely to let the mother see the child then the mother was to let the father see the child. Which was totally false. The father had never had anything to do with the raising or care of the child, and was merely being vindictive towards the mother. My opinion of the ruling was at the time, Tennessee recently began giving the fathers more rights during custody, and this overzealous judge was going for popularity points.
So, the child leaves the mother tearfully, and goes to Georgia to live with her abusive father. During this time the child was left unsupervised, her grades dropped, she was allowed to go out at night on her bike down busy roads. The father interfered with all phone calls too the mother, something implicitly forbidden in the custody agreement. He has not to this day given the mother a single report card, nor does he inform her of any medical issues the child has. She has had extensive oral surgery, unnecessarily so, even by other dentist opinions. The child's grades approximately 25% lower, not taking into account her not being in advanced classes.
Since this time, the father has committed nearly 200 infractions against the custody order. And nothing has been done yet. He did not take the parenting class as ordered, he has not paid a single dime from the divorce to the mom, he doesn't follow the visitation decree, and still has custody!.
Why is situations like this allowed? He has everybody down there convinced the child's mother is worthless, neglectful, etc. He has slandered and lied about her to everybody. The ones who meet her seem shocked, because she is nothing like what he tells everybody. It breaks her heart everyday, not knowing what goes on, trying to enjoy a brief phone call while in the background the father puts words in the child's mouth, laughs and ridicules the mother.
And the child, she has no will left, her most popular answer is "I don't remember". She has been put in a bad environment, and continues to deteriorate. This whole time the court sits on its collective rump, and turns a blind eye to the situation. The lawyer in charge of the case, is beyond worthless; and having found out he is fishing buddies with the fathers lawyer, it is no surprise.
If you take anything from this article, please let it be that the court is not perfect, sometimes the bad person wins, and I hope you take a small measure of outrage as well, because this is a travesty, that cannot be allowed to continue.
