Acting in the best interest of the child is where every Ohio custody battle should ultimately focus. That may or may not mean granting full child custody privileges to a parent. For eight years, a child custody battle has raged over a girl who is now 11 years of age.
In 2008, the girl’s father was shot and killed by her maternal grandmother. Although the girl’s mother retained custody of her, the court granted the paternal grandparents visitation rights. The mother did not want her former in-laws to have contact with their granddaughter and fled to another state in 2010 to evade the court order. That state refused extradition action, but a few years later, the mother moved them again to a third state, where she was arrested and the girl was sent to live with her paternal aunt and uncle.
An agreement between the mother and the aunt and uncle has recently been reached. The girl will remain with her relatives as her permanent guardians, partly because that is where she wants to be. The mother will be able to visit her daughter with supervision every other Sunday for five hours, a length of time that could be increased in the future. Although the mother had been fighting for full custody, the judge in the case stated she had been guilty of child neglect when she ran off with the girl before. He officially approves of the finalized agreement.
A child custody situation like this can be trying on not just the parent but the child, as well. Sometimes, a child can be shielded from much of the court action, but it can be confusing and frightening to a child who might be shuttled back and forth between combative adults and who cannot comprehend the enormity of the circumstances. Adults who have a custody case before them will want an Ohio attorney who will fight to uphold the rights of the child.
