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Date Posted: 21:45:14 05/27/04 Thu
Author: Cheyenne Griffee
Subject: Violated by Family Court Systems

My name is Cheyenne Griffee. I am writing this letter in hopes of exposing a very corrupt and bias family court system in Roswell New Mexico.
In December 2000 I got a divorce due to physical and emotional abuse in the relationship. I later remarried a man in the military in February of 2001. I had a daughter from a previous relationship which was proven by court ordered paternity test not to be my ex husband's. I had one child with my ex husband that was also proved by a court ordered paternity test. Ten months after her birth he began to harass me with phone calls, letters, and by petitioning the courts over 17 times in 18 months for various reasons including change of custody, contempt motions, and asking for more visitation (even though he seldom met the visitation that was originally set). He did this purposely around holidays or important dates to my family requiring me to drive round trip over 20 hours between Ft Hood, Tx and Roswell, NM each time costing me thousand's of dallors in travel alone and putting a substantial strain on my personal life. It also made it impossible for me to maintain employment of any kind and caused me to be fired twice and requiring me to quit my job on several other occasions. He wrote the presiding judge three seperate letters each being about 10 pages long complaining about how unfair it was that he did not have custody. He never mentioned in them the fact that he had nothing to do with the children for 17 months and paid no child support of anykind. I became pregnant with my current husband's child in January of 2003 and he deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in April of the same year. As soon as word of this reached Roswell the real Family Court nightmare began. They appointed a guardian ad litem in May in the "best interest" of the children. My husband was wounded in an ambush in Iraq on June 15 causing even more stress here. On July 21 the courts awarded custody of my two children to my ex husband siting that they were in an "unstable home"(without ever making a home visit of any kine) and that I had "alienated" my children from him(when in actuallity he had alienated himself). I would like to state that at no time was the stability of our home or the care of the children ever questioned in Texas. They were seen regularly by their pediatrician, the WIC office, military officials at my husband's work, and by family friends. At NO time was their care or well being questioned. In our home they had military health care, steady income, military housing, reliable transportation, a fenced yard to play in, play friends, and at least one parent at home with them. The courts felt this was unstable and elected to put the children in a home that was to small, and gave custody to a man with unsteady employment histories, who moved often, had an unreliable vehicle(at one point depending on a bicycle to get to work), and who depended on a vast network of "strangers" to care for my children. He is supporting my children so well that he continually uses my current husband's health insurance for the kid's medical needs (making it difficult for my husband to be treated for wounds recieved in Iraq) and is on wellfare.
The constant court harassment, required traveling, and the court's decision put considerable strain on my pregnancy that was already considered high risk and eventually put me in premature labor 16 days after loosing custody. Immediately following the birth of my baby girl there were false allegations of drug use on my part. I voluntarily took a urinalysis test to prove otherwise. They also notified my husband in Iraq that his daughter had been taken away because I was on drugs. This put considerably more stress on him in a hostile country.
On October 21, exactly three months after loosing custody of my oldest two, I was baited to the Roswell Police Station by my ex husband, a detective, and Roswell CYFD where they then took custody of my infant. They gave me 2 minutes to say good bye and took her from me. Their claim was that I was neglecting my infant daughter because she was late getting synogis injections (wich was due to extenuating circumstances). They even went as far as taking my husband, fighting for his country in Iraq, to court on allegations of neglect and telling my husband that I lost custody because I was having an affair wich was a total lie. This again put added strain on our marriage and quite possibly helped result in him getting wounded again on November 11th. While she was in states custody, she was over a month late for her 4 month check up and shots, put in a spanish only speaking foster home(my husband and I are caucasian and don't speak spanish), and was in a car accident but didn't recieve medical attention until 22 hours after it happened. I lost visitation rights to my infant due to the allegations of an affair and one week later lost all rights to my oldest two daughters. Luckily and coincidently enough my infant was returned to me on February 19th 2004 after 4 months of foster care just 3 days before my husband returned from Iraq because all allegations were found to be false. I still have no rights to my oldest two.
The loss of my children and visitation rights has caused tremedous stress and depression in my daily life. It has put substantial strain on my marriage. It has also disrupted parent-infant bonding time, sibling relationships, and parent-child relationships. I feel that as the birth mother of my children I have been wrongfully stripped of providing for them and watching them grow. The guardian ad litem purposely abused her legal authority by ignoring what was in the best interests of my children. I have been left physically, mentally, and financially drained and have the feeling I have no where else to turn. I feel violated by the family court system and am hesitant and unable to seek legal help, but need help any way possible. I thank you for your time and attention in this matter.

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