- On the 9th day of November 2014, an Order of Court was entered for shared legal custody; primary physical custody was granted to Mother subject to partial periods of physical custody by Father. A true and correct copy of the Order is attached and hereto referred to as Exhibit “A”.
- Per the attached correspondences from Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s attorney (Exhibits “B” and “C”, respectively) Plaintiff knowingly violate the terms of the Order by taking the children to Michigan after school on Wednesday, April 1, 2015
- Per the Order, Plaintiff was to have the children for the Easter holiday (April 5, 2015) and Defendant is to have the children every other weekend, which included the weekend of April 4-5, 2015, and every Wednesday from 4:00 pm until 7:00 pm.
- Defendant repeatedly asked Plaintiff’s attorney to have Plaintiff abide by the Order.
- Plaintiff repeatedly brings Michael (”Mike”) Buck, the man with whom Plaintiff had an extra-marital affair, to Defendant’s home and custody exchanges.
- On the 19th day of October 2014, Mike exited his vehicle and belittled and assaulted Defendant in front of the minor children as partially described by the attached letter (Exhibit “B”) from Rosemarie King.
- My attorney has repeatedly asked verbally and in writing, that Plaintiff does not bring Mike to Defendant’s home and custody exchanges.
- Plaintiff lives less than one mile from Defendant’s home and the Plaintiff brings Mike to provoke Defendant into negative behavior.
- Plaintiff frequently enters Defendant’s home when Mike is not present so her reasoning is not that she is afraid.
- On several occasions, Defendant has agreed to forfeit custody time in exchange for additional time in the future only to have Plaintiff later deny this agreement when Defendant asked for the additional time.
- There is no provision in the Order to compensate either party for custody time missed due to the desires of the other party.
WHEREFORE, Petitioner requests that the Court modify the existing Order to:
- Exclude Mike from Defendant’s property and from all custody exchanges.
- Include a provision in the Order to address undesired missed custody time of three hours or more as follows:
- If the time missed is during the week the party who missed time can choose a weekday within 30 days of the missed time for compensation.
- If the time missed is during the weekend the party who missed time can choose a weekend day with 60 days of the missed time for compensation.
As stated in the petition, what I wanted most was for the court to make some guidelines for how we should handle missed custodial time. When we eventually had a hearing, Judge Ruest said, “I guess if it’s not in writing, you guys can’t figure it out.” I’m thinking to myself, “No shit. If it’s not in writing, Rita will use it to her advantage, and you won’t do shit about it.”
Things got contentious at custody exchanges in Michigan a couple of times. My memory of the first time–which is not part of this petition–is vague. I remember Rita screaming at me in the backyard of my aunt and uncle’s house. I believe this was when Amelia asked if she could ride home with me. I told her I’d ask her mom if it was okay and texted Rita a few times. I never heard back from her, and Amelia kept asking, so I told her she could, not thinking Rita would care. However, I was mistaken, and Rita got extremely upset when I told her I’d already told Amelia she could ride with me. She informed me that she would pick Amelia up at 3:00 p.m. and drive all the kids home.
Slightly before 3:00, I hear Rita pounding on the back door and yelling about something. When I go out, she starts accusing me of trying to kidnap Amelia. I had no idea what Rita was talking about because I’d told Amelia she’d be riding home with Rita by that time. After I finally get Rita to stop yelling, she says something about locking her out of the house and not answering the door. The house has an enclosed porch with a screen door usually kept latched so the cat can’t push it open. You couldn’t hear anyone knocking at the screen door, and the doorbell wasn’t working. Thus, Rita and her crazy paranoia decided that I must be trying to keep Amelia from her because I was not answering the door. I don’t know if I ever explained what happened because, after all the yelling, she grabbed Amelia, put her in the car, and drove off. The neighbors said they’d write a letter attesting to how crazy Rita was acting, but I never requested it. Again, the court would have just looked at me as bitter and vengeful.