Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

I live in Maryland

I have a situation and dont know how to procede. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible without leaving out the pertinent information.

My husband has 2 children with his ex-wife, the daughter will be 17 in August, the son will be 15 in March. They were divorced approximately ten years ago. During the divorce and custody/visitation battle the mother implied the children were terrified of their father. The daughter had been in therapy since age 3 for "anxiety". After 20k in legal fees we got visitation that was "phased in" by the childrens' therapist. We had to work up to a full day, then work up to an overnight, all of which took over a year to accomplish.

Everytime the children came to visit it was a scene, both children appeared to not want to come, and the mother coddled them. Shortly after, the older child threw a major tantrum, crying hysterically that she did not want to come to father's house. Vistation stopped. Mother would not allow son to go without daughter as it would cause emotional distress. We had already refinanced our house to the max in order to pay for the previous proceedings. So visitation ended up being my husband going to their house every other saturday and standing in the doorway for 30 minutes talking to the kids, most of the time being ignored by his daughter. In July, father asked kids if they would prefer him not come, because they continued to be disrespectful and cold to him (daughter would go up to her room when he came over) - they said they didnt want to see him.

This past week son called father (he had been in contact with my son, his step-brother, via emails and text messages for quite some time). He wants to come live with us. He said his stepfather has gotten physical with him and his sister in the past (no proof though). He said his stepfather repeatedly tells him they dont want him there, etc. Mother found out that son had called father and she called, saying son was out of control, refusing to go to school, disrespectful, and had threatened to slit her throat while she slept. Husband went over to speak to them, mother agreed, reluctantly, to allow father to take son for the day that sunday. At visit son was adamant he wants to live here. Son asked father to go to school meeting that was the following tuesday. During that meeting, father discovered that son has missed 45 days of school this year! (there have only been 98 school days so far) Both mother and father signed statement that they would be responsible for child going to school. Two days later son called father asking to be picked up, saying he could not take it anymore. Father went to the house, after much discussion mother agreed to allow father to take son for one night.

Son spent the night, was taken home in the morning so that he could change, brush teeth etc and go to school. Father found out later that day that he did not go to school.

As a side note - we discovered that the older child, 17, has been pulled out of school. She was missing weeks at a time, and was unable to handle school as she suffers from severe anxiety, requiring her to take 2mg of xanax a day, so she is now homeschooled by mother.

I researched parental alienation syndrome. EVERYTHING fits. The emotional problems, pathological relationship with mother, inability to function and severe anxiety, refusal to go to school, etc. All of which is blamed on the alienated parent.

[url=http://www.fact.on.ca/Info/pas/kopet98b.htm]Identifying Cases of Parent Alienation Syndrome--Part II by Leona M. Kopetski[/url]

We need to get custody of him. The court website says an expedited hearing for modification of child custody takes about 7 months, a standard hearing takes about 18.

I dont know what to do. Ex-parte? I dont think it qualifies as enough of an emergency to warrant one. Emergency hearing? I dont know how long that would take? Son has for the past 2 days locked himself in his room at mothers refusing to come out or go to school, only comes out to eat, and says he will continue until he is allowed to live with father. What can we do?? We feel time is of the essence as he has already missed 45 days of school and if something is not done quickly we wont be able to repair this.

Any help is greatly appreciate, and I apologize for this being so long but I didnt want to leave out anything that could affect the direction I should take. We feel this is

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