Whatt o do if my grandson has been taken out of state by his mother and will not give an address?
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Whatt o do if my grandson has been taken out of state by his mother and will not give an address?
My son has missed two visitations that are in the court ordered documents. The mother has had two previous CPS cases filed against her. The cases are closed; however, we are concerned for his safety. On 2 differenct occasions, she has left my grandson with us and didn’t return for 5 to 6 weeks without even a phone call. Tomorrow is my son’s legal visitation. How should we begin to handle this? Call the police?
Asked on November 1, 2012 under Family Law, Texas
Answers:
B.H.F., Member, Texas State Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
Your son has three avenues and should use each of them.
The first is for your son to try to conduct his visitation as ordered by the court. If she does not produce the children as ordered, then he needs to contact law enforcement and request that charges be filed for interference with child custody. This is the Texas version of parental kidnapping and it classified as a state jail felony offense. Some agencies do not like these charges becaue they have civil overtones-- but make the call anyhow and insist in the filing of charges.
Second avenue is to call the Texas CPS and raise concerns about her being with the children. Some workers are better than others, but at least it will keep her on their radar.
Third avenue is file a motion in the court that set up the visitation schedule for enforcement. He can request that she be held in contempt-- and considering her prior CPS cases/current flight situation-- he may want to petition for custody of his son. He will need his own family law attorney to do this remedy.
I'm suggesting all three because the effectiveness of each will depend on the attitudes of the cps workers and officers in your area. Often, just one of the above will work-- but when it comes to the safety of child it's always best to use every possible avenue to insure that the child is safe and happy.
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