Child Custody

In The Wrong Hands – A Child Custody Case

All names mentioned in the case file below have been changed in order to protect the identity of our client. We have been granted full permission by our client to publish this file.

Eddie called the New Jersey office of AJ Sterling & Associates early one Saturday morning. Clearly exasperated, he told us he needed help winning custody of his eight year old son, Tyler. He explained that his ex-wife Sharon was the custodial parent, and that he had visitation rights during the weekend. During the week Tyler was cared for by Sharon, and her new husband Ron. Eddie had heard from various sources, including members of Sharon’s family, that Ron was nothing but bad news; a heavy drinker who was prone to violent behavior. While this concerned Eddie, there had yet to be an incident that forced him to take action. That was until last night. While Tyler was getting ready for bed, Eddie noticed bruises on Tyler’s ribs and back. When Eddie asked him about the bruises, Tyler became very nervous and told him he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten them. Once Tyler had gone to bed, Eddie called his ex-wife and asked why Tyler had bruises on his ribs and back. She immediately went on the defensive, telling Eddie he had no right to accuse her or Ron of child abuse, and that Tyler had gotten the bruises during football practice. After she hung up, Eddie realized there were two things that had struck him as odd about their conversation. First was how quickly Sharon went on the defensive. Second was the fact that Tyler’s bruises were in places that are protected by football pads. The next morning, Eddie woke up and decided to hire a private investigator.

After hearing his story, we first commended Eddie on keeping his cool and not making matters worse by confronting Ron. We then explained to him that we would take a multi-pronged approach to determine if Ron was indeed an irresponsible, abusive caregiver. First, we would run a background check to determine if he had a criminal history, or a history of other reckless behavior (DUIs, speeding tickets, etc). Next we would perform surveillance in order to determine if (a) there was any visible evidence of Ron being physically abusive towards Tyler or (b) there was any visible evidence of Ron acting in a reckless manner that could potentially harm Tyler. Lastly, we would conduct interviews with neighbors, teachers, and school parents to see if they had witnessed Ron acting in an abusive or reckless manner.

The results of the background check threw up an immediate red flag. It turned out that Ron had at one time pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and also had a DUI on his record. With these results in hand, the next step would be to determine if Ron’s troublesome past was a reflection of his current behavior. Eddie signed on for 30 hours of surveillance, which would be spread out over the course of 3 days. Eddie informed us that his ex-wife worked from 9 A.M. until 6 P.M. during the week, so it was Ron who picked Tyler from school. Eddie also knew that Ron worked graveyard shifts and that his job usually finished late in the morning, around 10 A.M. We agreed that Ron would likely head home to shower after a full night’s work, so it was decided that surveillance would begin at their house at 9:45 A.M.

The first two days of surveillance yielded the same result:

While there was no visible evidence of Ron acting reckless or being physically abusive towards Tyler, our investigator’s video does show an uneasy interaction between the two. Specifically, Tyler’s eyes and body language seem to show that he is terrified of his stepfather. The real evidence however, came in the third day of surveillance. Our investigator reported the following:

For the final leg of the investigation, our investigators conducted interviews with neighbors, teachers, and school parents. Although most members of the community were apprehensive and failed to provide color on the situation, our investigators were able to obtain the following statements:

PETER (coach of Tyler’s football team): “Ron has been known to show up to practice after having a few too many drinks. He sometimes interferes with my coaching by yelling at Tyler from the sideline. I feel bad for the kid. You can see that he’s mortified. I’ve approached Ron more than once and asked him to stop interfering with my practice. It just doesn’t seem to get through to him.”

LAUREN (Ron and Sharon’s next door neighbor): “It seems like there’s an argument every night in that house. On any given night you’ll hear Ron cussing and screaming at Sharon or Tyler. I can’t tell you if it’s ever gotten violent, but I’ve heard things being broken in the house on more than one occasion. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the cops show up at the house one of these nights”.

At the conclusion of the investigation, we presented Eddie with all the evidence we had gathered and gave him our professional opinion on the matter: Ron had the characteristics of a reckless guardian who could potentially harm Tyler. A few months later Eddie called to tell us that he had won full custody of Tyler. He said the evidence we provided, especially the surveillance video of Ron drinking and driving, was vital to his success in court.