Never let your case be argued before a judge at 3:30pm the Friday before a long weekend.
Mel went to court today to stop enforcement of a fraudulently obtained order from 2006 issued by a Canadian court, to surrender the children to their biological father.
This order was obtained by their father by alleging custodial kidnapping. He deliberately did not serve notice of the hearing for the order to Mel, and the order was obtained ex parte. Further, there had been no judgement of custody at the time, and the residential agreement in place had not been violated, so there was no valid cause for the original order to be issued.
We went to U.S. federal court and won on this very issue. The 9th circuit declared that there had been no parental misconduct, no custodial violation had occurred, that there was no kidnapping, and that no valid custodial agreement was in place.
We went into court today with clear evidence this order was obtained fraudulently, including a federal court ruling from the 9th circuit that it was invalid; and that enforcing the order was not in the best interest of the children (which according to the UCCJEA, federal law, and Idaho state law is supposed to be the highest authority in all matters regarding children).
We also went in with evidence Mels ex committed perjury, which he admitted to on the stand. That he has effectively abandoned the children, that he has made no attempt at contacting them in over two years...
That doesn't help when the judge refuses to hear arguments or accept evidence.
The judge decided that she had to enforce this fraudulent order on its face, because she didn't have authority to do otherwise (which is not true), and literally would not hear any arguments or evidence to the contrary. She heard the opposing councils argument, and accepted his cites, and then not just ignored ours, but refused to enter them into evidence.
The judge acknowledge that what she was doing was not in the best interests of the children, but that she didn't believe she had the authority to do otherwise. She also refused to ensure access provisions for the children, as there is now no residential agreement, no custodial determination, and no access agreement in place. Again, she said she did not have the authority.
It was clear she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She even told opposing council "just write the order and I'll sign it".
We asked for an emergency stay so we could appeal, and she refused to hear the request, stating again she didn't believe she had the authority.
Shortly after I publish this post we will be taking the kids to the police station to surrender them to Mels ex husband.
Now the fight moves to Canada.
We turned over the kids at 5:30 yesterday.
I'm already attempting to move heaven and earth in order to get something filed in Canada NOW.
I already know what the bulk of the comments will be, so there's two things we need:
1. a place to stay along the I-5 corridor in northern Washington for the court appearances, preferably for both me and Chris as he can work anywhere there's an internet connection.
2. a place to stash my firearms in northern Washington before I cross the border.
Thanks,
Mel
