Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona
Kayla is a 15 year old girl from Arizona. I have known her through the Internet for a long time and I would like to know if her mother can be charged with child neglect or something similar. Let me tell you about Kayla's everyday life.
Kayla is on a strict schedule. She is only allowed to eat between 3:30-4:00. Between 4:00-6:00 is chores. 6:00-8:00 is homework at the table, where she is not allowed to leave the table at any time. at 8:00 she is allowed to take a shower. After her shower she is not to leave her room.
Kayla's mother has told her that she sees her as a disappointment and a mistake. She often yells and strikes her through anger. Recently Kayla was not fed for over three days because her mother would not let her eat. It is my understanding that this is because the mother does not want to pay for food or give her money for food. Kayla suffers from depression and has attempted suicide in the past, (an overdose on hydrocodone, a painkiller) which luckily only caused her to sleep for 16 hours. The mother would only yell and scream at her shouting "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem". Kayla tells me that if her mother knew her current depressive condition her mother would probably do what her grandparents did to her mother at her age. Put her in a mental institution.
Kayla has never met her birth-father because he beat her mother when she was pregnant with her. Her only other family members include an aunt who lives in the middle east, and grandparents who Kayla describes as "A whole new kind of evil". She is worried that even if she was to get away from her mother that she would never see her friends and she does not know where she would live. Can a friends parents take legal custody of her? She will not turn 18 for another 28 months.
Can Kayla's mother be charged with child neglect, or something similar? I do not believe that the mother is fit to be a parent and Kayla should have a proper household. It is my understanding that emotional abuse (the depression), some physical abuse (the mother striking Kayla), and the lack of food by the mother may be able to be enough to set a basis for child neglect. I am afraid to report this because it is a friend i know over the Internet and not somebody that i have met in person. Thank you for your time.
1 Answer from Attorneys
There are a couple different things going on here. One is your desire to obtain legal custody of the girl (or have someone other than her mother do so anyway) and the other is a desire to have the mother punished for the neglect and abuse she has caused her daughter. Both of these things may be able to happen, but they may be antithetical (opposite) to the furtherance of each other's goals. The first is designed to convince the mother (or at least a court) that it is in the child's best interests to live with someone other than her; the second is designed to convince a court that the mother should go to jail or suffer other punishments, which would make it impossible for her to care for the child, at least for a time.
Here is what I would do. Report the abuse anonymously to the police and/or child protective services if you are able to do that; if not, have a third party (a friend or relative) do so and keep your information confidential, at least for now. Meanwhile, work on obtaining custody of the child. You will definitely want the assistance of a lawyer in doing the latter and possibly the former.
Best of luck!
Joan :)
P.S. Are you an adult or a minor? If you are an adult you can try to obtain custody; otherwise, someone who is an adult would have to do so.
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