My daughter is scheduled for a one-week visitation with her mother in Wisconsin. There is currently a warrant for her mother’s arrest stemming from a DWI charge. My daughter has been in the car with her mother once when her mother was arrested on an outstanding warrant. I don’t want to put my daughter in this risky situation again.
Is there a legal way for me to get away with NOT sending my daughter for this visitation week? It’s in a week so I don’t have time to go back to court and have only found out about the warrant.
A side note…I spoke with my ex-wife about her DWI and the fact that she will not be eligible for her license until 2011. I asked her not to drive with my daughter in the car and to please have a licensed driver driving her. She told me it was none of my business and that she would be the one driving my daughter. With that said, there is a very good chance that she will be pulled over for driving and arrested on the warrant as she lives in a small town where the officers know everyone.
If you deny the mother visitation, she could file an action to have you held in contempt of the current order. While the situation she is placing your child in is far from ideal, I am not sure a judge would deny her visitation if you were able to get into court prior to the scheduled week
I don’t have a similar situation, but I have to believe there is some sort of thing that can be done if the mother shows up driving a car, when it is known her license is suspended or revoked, and wants to take the child/children anywhere in the car with her. Granted, if she had someone driving her that’s one thing- but I have to tell you I would feel the same if my ex was under license revocation for a DWI and showed up driving a car to take our children for visitation (or anywhere else for that matter).
Barring any judical relief here, I would recommend if she shows up driving the car- call the police and let them see her there driving the car… She would likely be ticketed for driving without a valid license… At the very least, document (video, audio, etc.) the pickup so it can be brought up later that she is driving around illegally with your children in the car.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night… This to me is just common sense, and I would hope that there would be some sort of option available besides just having to let the kids go into that unsafe situation.
Unfortunately the ex lives in another state so I have to put my daughter on a plane to her. I called the municipal authorities in the other state to provide them with her correct, unfalsified address. I was told that if I wasn’t the person with the warrant they wouldn’t take the information from me. How whacked out is that? I contacted my ex and told her she needed to clear up the warrant prior to our daughter visiting her. I haven’t heard a word and haven’t received notification that she’s bought her side of the plane ticket either. Maybe it won’t be an issue.
“Fromthehills”, thanks for the support. It’s amazing what situations we’re “required” to put our children in for the sake of the parents. What about what’s best for the children?
When my stbx and I went to court in November, the judge allowed him to visit with our son that evening. After court, I realized that I had not told the judge that he didn’t have a license because it had been suspended. (I had also found out just before court).
But, when I called the courthouse and told the clerk that he had no license and I was worried about him driving with our son in the car, they basically said that they weren’t worried about it because he didn’t have a car either…and they blew me off. Well, lo and behold, when he brought our son back to where we were to meet, he was driving the car. I should have taken pictures, I should have called the police to report him, but I was so shocked, I did none of the above. Fortunately, stbx has not seen our son since…
Good luck getting anyone to do anything about it. They’re going to have to catch up with her when they do and you’re going to have to deal with the fallout from it with your child…it sucks, but there ya go…
I also am not a lawyer, just someone else who has had to deal with the same type of crap.