The next time a police officer tells you that a parent's failure to return a child after visitation is "a civil matter," remind the cop about Penal Code Sec. 25.03, which states: 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 of age: (1) when the person 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; (2) when the person 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 ... Read More >
Grandparents win “move away” modification case over only living parent who moved from Dallas to Washington because he had rejoined the military.
This case is a rare reported victory for grandparents in a fight for primary custody. In the Interest of Z.R.P. and D.A.P., No. 05-12-00134-CV (Tex. App. - Dallas 5/20/2013) ... Read More >
This father did not have a prayer! Ordering a father to give up a few hours on every one of his Sunday mornings so that the mother can take the children to religious education does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The San Antonio Court of Appeals found that giving the father a few extra hours on Sunday evenings made interrupting his weekends every Sunday morning for the mom’s religious preferences acceptable. Stop and think about this -- the father cannot ever leave town over a weekend because the mother gets three hours of possession of the kids every Sunday morning. Why? To accommodate one parent’s religious beliefs! How can that not be giving one parent’s religious beliefs priority over the other parent’s beliefs? What if Dad has a church he wants to take the kids to on Sunday mornings or what if he is an athiest? Rosenstein v. Rosenstein, No. 02-09-00272 (Tex. App. - Fort Worth, 8/11/2011)(mem. op.) should have decided this case but it was distinguished because the father here gets to keep the children until 9 pm on Sundays. This decision does not even address Knighton v. Knighton, 723 S.W.2d 274 (Tex. App. - Amarillo 1987, no writ). In Knighton, it was held: These constitutional ... Read More >