What if Someone in Your Ex’s Household Abuses Your Child?
Your child goes to the other parent’s (your ex) house on a schedule you agreed to or a judge ordered. Who lives there now is out of your control. If anyone in that household is abusing your child, such as:
You can take action to protect them immediately. Here are some options.
2. Yes, It Is Child Abuse
It is child abuse under Arizona law no matter who is doing it. Your child does not have to be related to that person, and that person does not have to be your child’s parent.
If your child has been abused, consider calling the police. If your child has been abused, consider taking your child to a doctor. Document it. Do that first.
If it is an emergency you can file an emergency petition in family court which is discussed below. You can also file for a civil court order to keep that person away from your child. There are two kinds of protective orders and which one you file depends on the relationship of the abusive person to your child.
Order of Protection or OOP
An order of protection is for people close to your child. It would apply to anyone who lives in the home when your child visits.
Injunction Against Harassment or IAH
An injunction against harassment is for everyone else. If that person does not live in the home and is not a stepparent, this is the one. Here you show a series of acts aimed at your child that would seriously alarm or harass any reasonable person that have no legitimate purpose.
3. Your Ex Still Has Parenting Time. Now What?
The order keeps that abusive person away from your child. It does not do anything else.
Your ex is not named in that order. His or her parenting time is exactly what it was. His or her decision-making is exactly what it was. Your child is still going to that house on the same schedule.
The next step to consider is family court if you want to change the parenting rights of the other parent.
4. This Is a Change of Circumstance. It Is Domestic Violence. It Triggers the Alec and Lydia Act.
The abuse of your child by a step parent or other person, allows you some choices to file in family court against the other parent. You could file for emergency temporary orders, temporary orders, both along with a petition for a change of circumstances due to the domestic violence. If it fits the definition of an emergency, you can file an emergency petition that is heard and ruled upon the same day you file it.
You want to allege domestic violence against the other parent because that triggers the protections for your child under the Alec and Lydia Act. Labeling it as child abuse probably only affects the abusive person, not the parent whose household the abuse happened in. The other parent did not commit the abuse but calling it domestic violence can affect their parenting rights to your child.
Here is the legal analysis.
A parent who has care of a child and allows that child to be hurt or allows that child to be put in a situation where the child is in danger commits child abuse under Arizona law. And that child abuse is part of the definition of domestic violence that triggers the Alec and Lydia Act.
Once the court determines that a parent committed an act or acts of domestic violence there is a mandatory rebuttable presumption that an award of legal decision-making or parenting time to that parent is contrary to the child’s best interests. The burden shifts to that parent to prove otherwise.
If the presumption is not rebutted the court shall not grant joint legal decision-making and the court shall impose restrictions on the manner and frequency of parenting time with your child. Here is the list:
- Exchanges of your child in a protected location or safe exchange location specified by the court
- Limits on parenting time, including a prohibition on overnight parenting time
- Supervised parenting time by a professional agency or one or more designated persons. You may not be appointed as the supervisor, alone or with anyone else
- An order that the other parent pay the cost of supervised parenting time
- Suspension of access to your child, in any form, until that parent petitions the court to modify legal decision-making or parenting time
- Completion of a program of intervention for perpetrators of domestic violence, and any other counseling the court orders
- If the court also finds that parent has abused alcohol, other intoxicants or controlled substances, an order to abstain from possessing or consuming them
- A bond for your child’s safe return
- An order that your address and your child’s address remain confidential
- Any other condition the court determines is necessary to protect your child, you, and any other family or household member
That last one is written broadly on purpose. It is where you ask for whatever keeps your child safe, including an order that the abusive person have no contact with your child during the other parent’s parenting time. When the protective order runs out in two years, this is the order that stays in effect. It is also a catch all for any other orders that you can submit to the court to help keep your child safe.
