Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

how do i protect my daughter from her father who was just arrested for rape?

I currently live in PA with my 5 month old daughter. My daughter's father lives in VA (we are not together). I am 22 and he is 33. I just found out that he is in jail and being charged with ''rape, sodomy, abduction, and inanimate object penetration''. He is a former police officer and earlier this year also plead ''guilty'' to an assault of a minor while on duty in an unrelated event. He receieved 12 months jail suspended and 2 years probabtion. My question is: What will his sentence most likely be? AND i do not trust him with me or my daughter and want sole custody. do i have a good chance of obtaining this? I have personally wittnessed his potential volitile behavior although i have no record of anything (he never hit me, just broke my windshield).

Any advice and information would be greatly appreciated! by the way: i currently have full physical custody and we have joint legal and he has visitation rights (he has only seen her 4 times within the last 5 months).

Thanks!


Asked on 11/13/03, 7:22 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: how do i protect my daughter from her father who was just arrested for rape?

Since your daughter's father is charged with four serious felonies, he is now, also, an alleged probation violator for his previous conviction. A conviction on any or all of these charges could land him in the pentitentiary for a considerable period of time.

The fact that he shares legal cutody with you and currently has visitation rights, as a practical matter, probably doesn't mean a whole lot at this time in terms of affecting your life or that of your daughter, given the distance he lives away as well as the fact that much of his time is now undoubtedly preoccupied with these new charges.

In light of the foregoing, unless you truly feel that this person could present a "clear and present danger", as the proverbial legal phrase goes, either to the safety of you and/or your daughter, I would wait to determine the outcome of these new charges before filing papers in family court to strip away his right to visitation and his status as a joint legal custodian of his daughter.

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Answered on 11/13/03, 11:24 pm


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