Can anything be done?

[daiseyinfl79]

What is the name of your state? Fl

Here is my question, any help would be greatly appreciated. My brother has weekend custody of his daugther who is 6 years old. For years we have been calling HRS on the mother for neglect. She has a total of 3 kids, only one which is my brothers...she lives in a 2 bedroom house, where all 3 kids have to share a room, and there are always at least 2 other couples staying at their house for months at a time. At times there are 2 or 3 guys that live there that we dont know and feel uncomfortable with his daugther staying there. My brother is going through custody battle now trying to get full custody. The place they live in, is unfit living conditions. Last time me and my brother took her home, my brother wanted me to take pictures of where they were living at, inside and out..so he would have some proof to show HRS how they were living and how it is unacceptable. When we went there, there was a total of 7 adults and 4 kids living in this 2 bedroom dump. My neice has told us that all the people are living there, even though her mom claims they are only vistors..I advised her mother when i walked in, that i was taking pictures of the place to see where she is living at...and i took about 10 pictures, mostly of the bedroom since the kids have no beds and sleeping on floor..i took some of the living room as well, and a few of the pics included the people who claimed they were just visiting sitting on the couch...now i am receiving harassing phone calls from one of the guys who is saying he is going to press charges against me for taking the pictures of him.. he doesnt even live there (supposely) and he never even seen the pictures, for all he knows, he wasnt even in the pictures.. is there any thing legally he can do about this?

 

[sicentird]

I am not an attorney so my advice may not help but first off calling HRS may not be the best choice. You need to contact the landlord (if she rents) and notify him of the living situation. Also Your brother needs to file for emergency custody of the child and notify maybe the health department or child welfare of the conditions.
A few questions are the children being fed properly?
Do the have proper clothing?
Is the house unlivable due to dirtiness,rats,mold or anything besides so many people?
In my opinion the house owner knew about the pictures so she can not do anything as for the guy i am not sure contact an attorney and ask them over the phone they will usually answer simple questions with no problem. You can however go after him for harassment. Just document everything regarding the children and the phone calls.

 

[daiseyinfl79]

The kids are being fed properly, as far as I know, they arent underweight or anything...its just the dirtiness of the place is ridiculous. The mother is obviously unfit to care for her 3 kids. They dont have proper clothing either, my brother and his wife send clothes home all the time so she will have good clothes to wear to school..only to find that the clothes some how disappear and she still goes to school looking like she is poor. This woman has 3 kids (ages 3-6) all living in one room, with no beds, just sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Plus the fact that they have different men and women living there is scary enough! Child Services has been contacted several times by several different people. Her mother has a case worker i guess assigned to the family..but it seems that its pointless to call them about the cleanliness of their house or the living conditions, because she (the mother of the children) told us, that when child services come to their house, they call them a day in advance, which gives them time to "clean up, so tough luck" My brother has even saved voice mail messages from this lady, stating how she knows her place is a dump but there is nothing he can do about it.. He let child services listen to the message, and of course they respond back with "let us handle it, we'll look into it" My neice is only 6 and has been in like 4 different schools because they are constantly getting evicted and having to move around. Every weekend my brother picks her up, she has headlice. Its just hard seeing my neice having to live there..the other two kids arent my brothers, but i feel bad for them as well. We were hoping that going and taking pictures of this place would help my brothers custody case, didnt expect some stranger there to start stuff about the pictures. Im guessing since he didnt do anything at the time, there is nothing that can be done about me snapping some shots.. guess we will find out if I receive some court papers. Calling the landlord is a good ideal, I never thought of that, but all it will do is force them to move again, possibly changing her school again. Well, Im letting my brother and his wife handle the custody battle, but I was just curious about the guy calling me about the pictures, whether or not, i broke some kind of law or something.. thanks for your help

 

[sicentird]

Sorry I can't be of more help. I am so tired of children being subjected to these kinds of lives. I hope everything will work out for the best for all children involved.

PS does your brother know the father(s) of the other children maybe the can help by joining forces or is it that they do not care?

 

[daiseyinfl79]

You have been a great help The father of the other two kids actually is married to her and he lives there with them. Hes a disgusting loser. This girl use to be descent until she started dating this guy, and from there, she just went downhill. Neither of them should have any kids at all. When this custody thing first started, both her and her new husband had to go get medical exams, she was diagnosed with bi-polar disease and he (the new husband) was just basically told he had a learning disability. I dont understand how things like this can go on for such a long time. So getting the father to team up with my brother, thats not going to happen! Even this woman's family has called child services, her father, her mother, her sister, her neice, and of course every single person in my family. My neice, who is 6, she will be 7 in a few months, she definitely understands that where she is living at, is a disgusting unfit place, so I dont know if her simply talking to child services or an attorney, along with my brother and his wife, would help get this situation resolved. Im not sure if her being such a young age, whether or not the courts would let her pick where she wanted to live at...by the time my brother gets custody, if he does, she will probably be old enough to live on her own!

 

[stealth2]

At her age, she won't have any say at all.

I'm astounded that the mother would allow you in her home at all, let alone allow you to take photos. If my ex tried something like that, he'd be very sorry - and it has nothing to do with the living conditions.

 

[itsallgood]

yea; no kidding. It would be a cold day BEFORE I let EX or his wife into my house armed with a camera snapping 'evidence' right in front of me.

 

[stealth2]

Tho I've spent the morning quite enjoying the inner vision of my two state trooper neighbors coming over in the event it was tried.

 

[nextwife]

Covert spy work required here. How about one of those new, better quality cel phones that shoots pics? Biodad is allegedly talking on the phone, while his little Samsung is snapping away like crazy. Schmootz everywhere, open food packages sitting out unrefridgerated, piles of dirty clothes. Lovely.

I have never understood why kids are forced to live that way when they have a ready willing and able parent, just as much their parent as the other, willing to provide a clean safe environment.

 

[daiseyinfl79]

I was actually surprised too that she didnt say anything, but I actually gave her no choice. My bro asked me to come along because when he had picked her up for the weekend the place was trashed, so he asked me to come and take pictures when he returned her Sunday. When we walked in, her and her new husband were no where in sight...just like several other people sprawled all over the floor and couches, when i asked where she was, i was told in the bedroom with her husband (if these people were just guest as she said they were, i doubt she would have been in the bedroom with the door shut) so my neice went and opened up her mothers bedroom door, she was sprawled over the bed like a big walrus and looked like she had been popping vicatin all day, she instantly started giving me excuses why she looked so out of it, even though i never said a word. Then i advised her i was going to take some pics and she instantly just started making excuses on why the place was so dirty...but never said for me to stop or anything (probably she was out of it and I am also a foot taller than her. haha) When me and my bro left, we instantly called the police to see if they could come check out the place and he told them that he felt it was unsafe to leave her there, since there was people he didnt know and her mother and step dad seemed drugged up..the police station said that it was a child services matter and they would document our call and forward the information over in the morning (it was about 10pm) She never said anything about the picutures that night, but called my bro like 20 times the next day leaving messages saying how she never wants me in the house again, blah blah blah...and how one of the guys wants the pictures back or he would see me in court...but i agree with you guys, if my X's girlfriend came into my place and started snapping pictures there is no way I would allow that, but then again, I would never have any reason for someone to want or need to do that!