15 year old never met father, father contacting child

[gam]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Mi

This is for my niece, I have explained that she has medical issues and can't use a computer herself. You guys have helped on her other case.

This case she has a 15 year old, that has never met his father. Father wanted nothing to do with the child, when child was 5 father contacted mom and wanted to start visits. Mom said fine, however it needed to be done through court. Mom filed to establish paternity/CS. Father filed nothing, he did ask for visitation in court. Court hearing determined by DNA he is father, CS was ordered. Father said in court he didn't want parenting time after all. Mom has sole custody, CS order and there is no parenting time order.

Fast forward 10 years, in these 10 years the only thing that has ever been filed is show cause hearings. These were filed by FOC, as the father is $36,000 behind in CS. A show cause hearing occured Dec 9, 2010. My niece did a phone in for the hearing(FOC allows it, as she can't drive due to her medical issues). Nothing about parenting time was mentioned during this hearing.

4 days later my Niece received a letter(postmarked day of show cause hearing)from FOC saying dad was requesting mediation for parenting time. Letter clearly states that Niece is under no legal obligation to go to mediation, as there is no order in place(FOC can only legally deal with what is ordered). Gave 2 boxes to check, yes or no. Gave no time frame for Niece to have this done. My Niece just mailed the letter with the no box checked back to FOC yesterday.

This morning, her son forgot his medication, so I drove her up to his school to drop it off. The head security guard, told my Niece he had several things to talk to her about. Her son had gotten into a fight this morning with another student. Head of security said they were still looking into it, but the other kid said her son sold him smokes, he paid him, and then her son didn't give him the smokes. They checked her son's wallet and he had money, however her son said he got the money from his father, gave him his father's phone number and said he could call him and ask him. Her son said he had met his father last night at a gas station and that is when he got that money.

Niece has not spoken to her son, as he is in classes. But from what her son is telling security guard, his father has been in contact with him. My niece has had no contact from the father setting this up, there is no parenting order. The child has been having issues and is currently in counseling. Father already had asked for mediation, at any time he could have filed to have the court set up parenting time, but has not. Instead he is contacting child directly. Niece has no idea at this time how he even made contact with the child.

Sorry so long already, but my Niece feels this contact needs to be stopped and done through the courts. She wanted counseling ordered, supervised visitation and a GAL assigned.

Now what step can she make now to get the contact stopped until this can be heard by a court? Is it possible for her to file an ex parte motion today? Any suggestions on what else she could do?

The father has mental issues, not sure exactly what they are, he won't tell her, and he would not tell the FOC ref during his show cause hearing. He is the one that said he does, he applied for disability because of these issues back in May 09. He appealled and just had the appeal hearing in Sept, that Judge has till Dec 31st to make the decision. Brought this up, because the father told the Ref that he has been in trouble for these issues, was in court ordered anger management classes.

As usual a thank you in advance for any help, suggestions or saying Niece is out of line on being concerned here.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Mi

This is for my niece, I have explained that she has medical issues and can't use a computer herself. You guys have helped on her other case.

This case she has a 15 year old, that has never met his father. Father wanted nothing to do with the child, when child was 5 father contacted mom and wanted to start visits. Mom said fine, however it needed to be done through court. Mom filed to establish paternity/CS. Father filed nothing, he did ask for visitation in court. Court hearing determined by DNA he is father, CS was ordered. Father said in court he didn't want parenting time after all. Mom has sole custody, CS order and there is no parenting time order.

Fast forward 10 years, in these 10 years the only thing that has ever been filed is show cause hearings. These were filed by FOC, as the father is $36,000 behind in CS. A show cause hearing occured Dec 9, 2010. My niece did a phone in for the hearing(FOC allows it, as she can't drive due to her medical issues). Nothing about parenting time was mentioned during this hearing.

4 days later my Niece received a letter(postmarked day of show cause hearing)from FOC saying dad was requesting mediation for parenting time. Letter clearly states that Niece is under no legal obligation to go to mediation, as there is no order in place(FOC can only legally deal with what is ordered). Gave 2 boxes to check, yes or no. Gave no time frame for Niece to have this done. My Niece just mailed the letter with the no box checked back to FOC yesterday.

This morning, her son forgot his medication, so I drove her up to his school to drop it off. The head security guard, told my Niece he had several things to talk to her about. Her son had gotten into a fight this morning with another student. Head of security said they were still looking into it, but the other kid said her son sold him smokes, he paid him, and then her son didn't give him the smokes. They checked her son's wallet and he had money, however her son said he got the money from his father, gave him his father's phone number and said he could call him and ask him. Her son said he had met his father last night at a gas station and that is when he got that money.

Niece has not spoken to her son, as he is in classes. But from what her son is telling security guard, his father has been in contact with him. My niece has had no contact from the father setting this up, there is no parenting order. The child has been having issues and is currently in counseling. Father already had asked for mediation, at any time he could have filed to have the court set up parenting time, but has not. Instead he is contacting child directly. Niece has no idea at this time how he even made contact with the child.

Sorry so long already, but my Niece feels this contact needs to be stopped and done through the courts. She wanted counseling ordered, supervised visitation and a GAL assigned.

Now what step can she make now to get the contact stopped until this can be heard by a court? Is it possible for her to file an ex parte motion today? Any suggestions on what else she could do?

The father has mental issues, not sure exactly what they are, he won't tell her, and he would not tell the FOC ref during his show cause hearing. He is the one that said he does, he applied for disability because of these issues back in May 09. He appealled and just had the appeal hearing in Sept, that Judge has till Dec 31st to make the decision. Brought this up, because the father told the Ref that he has been in trouble for these issues, was in court ordered anger management classes.

As usual a thank you in advance for any help, suggestions or saying Niece is out of line on being concerned here.

I think that your niece needs to take a big deep breath and wait until she can talk to the child about the whole thing. She needs to find out what exactly has been going on before she takes any further action.

 

[milspecgirl]

so, the child snuck out and met with dad at a gas station and your niece didn't know it????
She needs to wait and talk to the child. It sounds like a story was made up to get out of being in trouble over the money issue.

 

[gam]

Not made up, the head of security called the father with the phone number provided by her son. Father verified he gave him the money. My niece let her son and her son's GF walk to the corner gas station yesterday afternoon. And no she had no idea that the father had been in contact with her son. Her son does not have a cell phone, they have no house phone, she monitors his computer activity.

Other then the kid not doing his school work and his grades slipping he has been in no trouble ever in school. The head of security, the VP and the counselor told my Niece since it was verified and he has been in no trouble he would get in school suspension on the fight this morning. The other kid threw a punch first, and her son then threw one back.

However since I posted the school callled, her son has now been suspended, he was caught smoking on lunch hour. Should know shortly what has been going on, my sister(Niece's mom)drove Niece up to school to pick him up.

 

[gam]

Update

My Niece went up to school, only to find that her son was not smoking and did not get suspended. He was standing at his locker which is right by a door, where 2 students were smoking. He was sent to the office with the 2 other students by a teacher. However another teacher had already reported it, and when he got to the office, he confirmed that her son was not smoking, he was just at his locker.

As for the father, her son confirmed that he has been in contact with him. He has met up with him several times, mostly at the nearby mall, has had many phone conversations with him, many messages through facebook. The phone he was contacting him on the father gave to him. He told him not to let mom know of the phone or the contact. 2 of the father's brothers have also been contacting him on facebook. Contact has been going on since Nov 21st.

My Niece did call the father, and he finds no problem with the way he did this, and said he will continue. My Niece has no problem with him having parenting time, but since the father has not been part of his life for 15 years, this is not the way she felt was best for her son.

After all of this, she went to her court house. Filed for a no contact and filed for a parenting time order. She was granted the no contact(expires on the Jan court date) and they have a mid Jan court date for the parenting time order. In her filing she asked for counseling(which he is already in), supervised visits at a supervision center, a phased in parenting plan, and a GAL.

She attached a printout of all the text messages still on the phone, the numerous messages from the father and his brothers on facebook. She also attached the numerous threats he texted to her phone after her phone conversation with him yesterday.

She also called and scheduled a counseling session for today, hopefully they can help her son deal with all of this. He is very messed up right now, because what the father and his brothers have been telling him, is basically that my Niece has kept the father from him all these years. That he didn't know about him for a long time, and then when he did my Niece kept hiding him.

The father has always known where my Niece and his son have been. He's been to court numerous times for show cause hearings on the CS, my Niece has gone to all of them, except this last one, that she phoned into. He has called her phone numerous times over the years about his show cause hearings. All the guy has ever had to do was file with the court for parenting time, but he told the court 10 years ago he didn't want any. See what happens in Jan at the court hearing.