Q: Can the Court consider a father's abuse of one child as relevant to his parental rights with another child?
Individual is party in two separate, but concurrently running custody cases. The 1st involves 10 & 8 yr. old girls, the 2nd involves a 3 yr. old daughter. The father has an extensive history of domestic violence, criminal and with DHS, though has skirted any criminal convictions. DHS has investigated allegations repeatedly over the years and determined one or more "founded ", resulting in therapeutically supervised visitation.
A:
Yes and no. If the abuse can be established as part of pattern of parenting towards all the children, the general pattern of abuse is considered. However, if the abuse is solely directly towards one child (yes, this does happen), the abuse is generally restricted to only the abused child (this does not apply for proven sexual assault towards a child). Overlapping the issue of relevancy, is general admissibility. That is, the abuse consideration is partial conditional on the ability of the parties to get or block the abuse from being admitted into evidence (documents and witnesses).
If you have an attorney talk to them about the abuse. If you do not, consider hiring an attorney because an attorney will likely be able to find a way to discuss the abuse in some fashion.
A: Yes. A court can consider any relevant factors, including abuse of a child or anyone, as such may be relevant to the issues of custody and parenting time. Whether the court will factor in that information, after considering it, is another question requiring more information. It sounds like the concerns mentioned, even if tied to a kid or kids of another case, would be relevant.
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