| Virginia court says lesbian child custody dispute governed by ... | | Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2006 12:45:54 PM by Blog57 Team | | [JURIST] The Virginia Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [text, PDF] Tuesday that Virginia state courts had a constitutional obligation to defer to the rulings of Vermont courts in a child custody dispute involving two lesbian partners who had entered into a Vermont civil union. Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins lived in Virginia but traveled to Vermont to be joined in a civil union in 2000, and Lisa conceived a child through artificial insemination while the two were still together. The couple subsequently moved to Vermont, but in 2003, they separated with Lisa returning to Virginia and suing for full custody of the child.A court in Virginia granted full custody [JURIST report] to Lisa in 2004, with the judge declaring that since Virginia law does not legally recognize unions between members of the same sex, Lisa was the child's "sole parent." In August 2005 the Vermont Supreme Court disagreed, saying Vermont had exclusive jurisdiction [JURIST report] over the case since the couple's civil union had taken place under Vermont's laws.... | |
| |
| | | Baby's injuries indicate pattern of ongoing abuse | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 10:45:46 PM by Blog57 Team | | A Somerset man accused of brutally stun-gunning and breaking the leg of his 7-week-old daughter was escorted into a closed court Thursday as authorities began determining custody for the child.Wearing a bright-orange prison jumpsuit, 21-year-old Brandon Alan Austill declined to comment as he was taken by a sheriff's deputy to the dependency hearing.Judge David Klementik refused to allow The Tribune-Democrat to make a motion for the hearing - traditionally closed to the public - to be open based on a three-year-old state Superior Court decision in a Westmoreland County case.The hearing was postponed to allow Austill to get an attorney, a source close to the investigation said.The child has been released from Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and is in foster care, authorities said.Psychological experts and police consider the allegations against Austill among the most malicious they've ever seen."This is highly unusual," said Somerset psychiatrist Dr.... | |
| |
| | | Illegal alien arrested in child sex case | | Posted Friday, October 27, 2006 10:46:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | ORANGE BEACH, Ala. An Orange Beach man has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a child. Baldwin County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. John Murphy says 32-year-old Inigo Varguez Felix was arrested Thursday. He's charged with three felony counts of sodomy and two felony counts of sex abuse of a child under 12 years of age. Murphy said Felix was taken into custody after the young male victim reported the alleged activity to police. Investigators say Felix also faces federal charges after admitting he is an illegal immigrant. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. .... | |
| |
| | | Man jailed over child custody threat | | Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:46:33 AM by Blog57 Team | | A MAN has been jailed and another given a suspended sentence for attempting to pervert the course of a child custody hearing in the Federal Magistrates Court. Queensland's crime watchdog, the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), today said Rodney John Renshaw, 37, and Gary James Facey, 38, were each sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Renshaw will be eligible for parole in three months while Facey's sentence was fully suspended. They appeared in the Brisbane District Court for engaging a person to carry out an armed home invasion with the intention of intimidating a man involved in a child custody application. The CMC said a man was to have used a shotgun to intimidate another man into withdrawing his application for custody of his child from his ex-wife. But the offence was never carried out after intervention by authorities.... | |
| |
| | | Home raided in child prostitution probe | | Posted Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:45:33 AM by Blog57 Team | | Phoenix police raided a Surprise home and arrested several people as part of what prosecutors described as a two-year investigation of a child prostitution ring. There was no immediate disclosure of the number of people arrested or their names. However, Detective Brian Peters, a Phoenix sex-crimes investigator, said that a 41-year-old Surprise man, the suspected ringleader, was among those taken into custody. .... | |
| |
| | | Child custody with abusive ex-spouse? Study shows how women decide | | Posted Friday, October 06, 2006 12:45:42 PM by Blog57 Team | | URBANA - What influences women when they are making child custody decisions that will bring them into future contact with a violent or controlling ex-husband? Fear, pragmatism, and the belief--sometimes reinforced in mandated divorce education classes--that their children will suffer if both parents are not in their lives, according to a University of Illinois study in the August Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. "Will the mother and father be able to co-parent without a recurrence of violence or controlling behaviors? That's the most important consideration in making child custody decisions," said Jennifer Hardesty, a U of I assistant professor of human and community development. Unfortunately, other factors, including fear, practical considerations about money, and guilt over breaking up the family, influence such women heavily when they are making custody decisions, the researcher said.... | |
| |
| | | Jackson settles child custody dispute | | Posted Monday, October 02, 2006 6:45:37 PM by Blog57 Team | | Pop star Michael Jackson and his former wife Debbie Rowe have reached a settlement in their long-running child custody dispute, her lawyer says. Attorney Marta Almli, who represents Rowe, did not disclose the terms of the agreement, which she said must be signed by a judge in the coming weeks. The judge's approval was expected to be a formality. .... | |
| |
| | | Accused child molester in custody | | Posted Sunday, September 24, 2006 6:45:56 AM by Blog57 Team | | The Citrus County Sheriff's Office has charged 69-year-old Ralph W. Smith of Homosassa for acts he allegedly committed on a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old girl. Smith was charged with capital sexual battery on the 6-year-old and lewd or lascivious molestation against the 9-year-old. Deputies say Smith knows both girls and there could be other victims. "He's been living in the Tampa Bay area for the past 20 years, possibly 25 years," said Det. David Wyllie of the sheriff's office special victims unit. "He's been molesting kids for the last 30 years and we're still looking for victims. We know by his own admissions there's at least 10 out there." Wyllie said Smith admitted to having a problem with young girls. Investigators also said Smith told them he couldn't remember the names of all his victims.... | |
| |
| | | Karr Leaves Colorado Jail in Custody of California Authorities | | Posted Friday, September 15, 2006 6:45:49 PM by Blog57 Team | | BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - John Mark Karr, who was briefly a suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying, left the Boulder County jail Tuesday in the custody of California officials, authorities said. Karr faces child pornography charges in Sonoma County, Calif., where he is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. He was released to Sonoma sheriff's deputies, said Boulder County Sheriff's Lt. Phil West. Karr, a schoolteacher, was arrested Aug. 16 in Thailand after he made phone calls and wrote e-mails in which he claimed to have killed the 6-year-old beauty queen in her Boulder home in December 1996. The case disintegrated when DNA tests showed Karr could not be the killer. Five misdemeanor counts of child pornography possession have been pending against Karr in Sonoma since April 2001, when authorities arrested him and seized his computer, alleging that the hard drive contained five sexually oriented images of children.... | |
| |
| | | Child custody in Japan isn't based on rules | | Posted Friday, September 08, 2006 12:45:23 AM by Blog57 Team | | Imagine discovering you have been living in an artificial world with rules designed to mask a terrible reality. This is, of course, the premise of "The Matrix," but it is also an analogy I use to explain child custody and visitation in Japan, a subject in which I do research (and have had personal experience). Japan's family courts have rules and procedures that hide a sad truth: They are powerless to protect the parent-child relationship when a divorce turns hostile. Take the case of Samuel Lui, whose Japanese wife took their 2-year-old son from California to Japan in violation of a California court order that gave him custody. The validity of his U.S. custody order was confirmed by Japan's Supreme Court, yet his wife remained in control of the child. In the meantime, he had to file proceedings in the Osaka Family Court just to seek visitation with the child who was supposed to be living with him in California.... | |
| |
| |
|
|
