Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I am a father of 3 that I have full custody of. My ex wife has been proven as an unfit mother and unable to care for our children there for I was granted full solo custody of our children. The final order states she is allowed supervised visitation every other weekend from 12pm � 4pm. I have reason to believe she is back to her drug habits and she has been following us by vehicle daily for the past 5 weeks, calling and texting at all hours of the night. My daughters do not want to see her or even do a visitation with her. Last weekend was her weekend to do her supervised visitation and my daughters did not want to see or talk to her. So we left the house for the day and when she arrived we weren�t there. She called the police and they said there was nothing they could do since it was a civil matter. The Police called me and informed me she was acting funny, her story wasn�t adding up and she looked like she had been up all night. I do not want her part of my daughter�s lives and they don�t either. What can I do? I have spent so much money on getting custody of them and still paying an attorney even after the fact.


Asked on 9/08/10, 10:41 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

TC Langford Langford Law Office

Bluntly, you got lucky with the responding officer.

Texas Penal Code: Sec. 25.03. INTERFERENCE WITH CHILD CUSTODY. (a) A person commits an offense if the person takes or retains a child younger than 18 years when the person:

(1) knows that the person's taking or retention violates the express terms of a judgment or order, including a temporary order, of a court disposing of the child's custody; or

(2) has not been awarded custody of the child by a court of competent jurisdiction, knows that a suit for divorce or a civil suit or application for habeas corpus to dispose of the child's custody has been filed, and takes the child out of the geographic area of the counties composing the judicial district if the court is a district court or the county if the court is a statutory county court, without the permission of the court and with the intent to deprive the court of authority over the child.

(b) A noncustodial parent commits an offense if, with the intent to interfere with the lawful custody of a child younger than 18 years, the noncustodial parent knowingly entices or persuades the child to leave the custody of the custodial parent, guardian, or person standing in the stead of the custodial parent or guardian of the child.

(c) It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a)(2) that the actor returned the child to the geographic area of the counties composing the judicial district if the court is a district court or the county if the court is a statutory county court, within three days after the date of the commission of the offense.

(d) An offense under this section is a state jail felony.

Since you have reasonable cause to believe that she is back on drugs, your better option would be to retain counsel, ask for an emergency hearing for drug testing and modification of the current order.

The restrictions you have in place are pretty strict, and am not sure you will be able to get even further restrictions, since it would be tantamount to no visitation. If your daughters are in their late teens, the judge may be more willing to further restrict visitation. Even though you are still in debt from the prior case, your attorney achieved good results, and you should consider returning to that attorney.

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Answered on 9/13/10, 11:11 am


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