I will never forget my court victory for a father and his 3-year-old boy: he was given exclusive parenting time and the mother was ordered not to take the boy from Dad’s care, but she did anyway.
I’ll talk about the case on my weekly radio show, the Dads’ Rights Legal Hour, 9-10 a.m. CDT on Saturday, October 28 on Power 92.3 FM.
The mother took the child while Dad was away. According to court documents, she sent Dad text messages threatening that he would never see his son again!
Dad called the police, who refused to get involved, even though Dad had a court order granting him exclusive parenting time. As I saw it, the mother was a kidnapper! The police did not help.
We jumped into action, filing an emergency petition for an order of protection, and getting it before the judge the very next day. We prepared like a life depended on this, because it did. We argued the case, and we won! The judge granted the emergency order of protection we needed, and Dad was reunited with his son.
This is a victory, modified for broadcast, which made Dad extremely happy, and I’m glad that he and his son are together again, where they belong. But it should not have come to this. The first court victory should have been enough, but apparently we still have work to do in terms of making the police and everyone else aware that fathers have rights — especially when they’re detailed in a court order.
On another note, there are some things that have been a problem for a long time that tend to be overlooked. It shouldn’t take an emergency to address major societal ills.
Fatherless children is a crisis that has been hurting our country for far too long and is something I’ve been fighting to change through my daily work.
There is a fatherhood program in Milwaukee and I wrote an article urging other cities around the country to copy it.
In Illinois, a similar group was established by the state legislature in 2004 and was subsequently extended by Executive Order — a group I was proud to be appointed as its chairman by the Governor.
I urge my clients not to give up hope. That dad I told you about today did not give up hope and he is back together with his son because of it. We fought for him and won.
We’re on Facebook, X and Instagram at Dads Rights. Failure is not an option for our clients and their children.
