the trial as well as some of the petitions and cleans that were contained in the record show a very different we would apply those facts to that particular actors in the best interest at a disadvantage by not making any specific findings of fact or stating anything about the best interests of these children other than he considered a political sachi when making the decision so  was given to plead as i've already said there's a difficulty here because obviously the trial court is in a better position to judge the credibility of the witnesses as well as the evidence but because there is no specific findings in because the cracker does not support the decision by the court i we're all sort of sitting here at least myself wondering why it was that the court made the decision that it did specifically i think the facts that are poured into the case it here and it's obvious from reading of the records and the testimony reconciliation kerry got pregnant with their second child mercy during most of the time the parties didn't live together and a home in maryland college and after separating for the final time kerry moved out of the marital residence still residing in mt olive for a short period of time there was a mediation order that was interred in this case and i would get into the record because the mediator actually filed it in the family law case the mediation report states that the parties shall share custody of mercy engaging if you look at it later received the children on the night to carry work to receive them every other weekend but kerry had them at all of the relevant times it also specified in this internet being a specific point of contention that each of the parents should have two weeks of an interrupted summer vacation they had to give the other party thirty days notice this became problematic because in the spring of two thousand and ten kerry decided to move to highland which is about thirty minutes away from our college this wasn't decision that happened by her i just arbitrarily deciding to do so and not discussing it with blade as she did so because it was closer to her place of employment and felt like it was a better school district just a better community to raise the children and the testimony that the court heard was uncontroverted that lee encouraged harry to make the move to highland that he understood that hearing intended to enroll the children in the highland school district and he actually helped carry select the apartment that she moved into and helped her move into the new home and no time during this process did he tell her that he intended to fight her on her in rolling the children heiling to remain silent on that issue carrie was under the impression that this would not be a problem she was the primary caretaker of the children throughout the majority of their lives in fact for most of the children's lives they did not even have a driver's license so she was doing all the transportation to and from school medical appointments she was basically doing everything for the children she  back that there would be a problem in rolling the children in high plains and having late i received little visitation however what ended up happening is that prior to the children starting school late indicated to carry that he  weeks of summer vacation she told him that he couldn't do so because the children were starting school and daycare she was also fearful about what would happen because of the court order that stated that he was to have two weeks of an interrupted his attention upon thirty days notice so when ended up happening were all parties appeared in front of the trial court on august eighteenth to determine what school district he would go to the judge indicated that on a temporary visas he was going to keep in it this will be short of mount olivet because it's a school district he went to the prior two years and that he was not having any prejudice against either party personal situation the timeline i think these proceedings are becoming important because his was originally set for trial in october of two thousand ten leagues attorney filed a motion to withdraw the case then was set her december ninth testimony was heard because of the length of the testimony another day of trial was scheduled the case was continued to december fourteenth was continued by the court submit that one of the most agree just all thoughts on the part of the trial court is their assessment his assessment of the credibility of the witnesses and as i stated before obviously the court's in a better position to judge them on a track court level but if you read the record and you read the testimony of the parties you'll see that carrie is she is a cocktail waitress and she was at one time a stripper by her testimony and all the testimony that was heard was that she was a very very good mother and that she actually began working as a stripper because the lady asked her to do so because he was not making enough money to support the family and he knew that that would be a lucrative job for her she does not have an education beyond high school she doesn't have a big skill set that is something that she decided to do as you'll recall to record later training makes a lot of mention of fact that she was at one time a stripper that she still works in a cocktail lounge and they did hold that he did hold that against her the reason that i would assert that is because by all indications carrie has never committed a crime she was a good mother she provided for the children stated the needs she in no way there were some things that were questioned on the part of late about her being fired from a child or a man that she chose to have a living in her home however nothing was actually presented in terms of real evidence we do have on the part of late is that is a convicted felon that during the marriage she was charge of aggravated battery is charged with domestic battery given clearly the court took away this joint custody situation which happened happening and awarded sole custody too late so and them being it would seem as if the court did believe that lee was the more truthful of the two of them and because of that i would submit that he did not take into account all of the criminal charges that only i had has received in his lifetime the fact that he has been convicted of two duis and some of the bad judgment calls that he made during the time that the parties have been separated such as the fact that he left his father who's been convicted of three duis watch the children he's firing made it on the stand he still thinks forty five beers a day and that he consumed for five years during the time that he was watching the children that's what we have we have criminal convictions which if we were in a criminal court the fact that he was convicted of felony would absolutely would be read to the jury and the jury would be allowed to consider it against somebody screwed ability and then we have a hearing on the other side who the worst thing that you can say about her is that she is employed in a gentlemen's club and that she at one time was a stripper lots of accusations were thrown out in the trial court level nothing stuck those are what we're dealing with we're dealing with two parties we have to assess which one's more credible i would hope and would think that on the trial court level they would look at the convictions criminal activity of both of the parties and to me it doesn't seem as if that was done after getting through the credibility of the witnesses and trying to look at the best interest standard that the court has laid out again i think we're looking at a situation where the court just blatantly ignored some of the issues that were presented by me by way of testimony at the trial so there are a couple of the factors such as the wishes of the child as to stoney and as the court can read gage was interviewed on camera by the court he indicated a slight preference to stay with his dad that was clearly based on the fact that this is the home that he resided in for some time this is a school district he had been in he had some kids that he played with in the school district but at this point h and at the point of the trial he was eight years old and mercy was five years old and as i've seen in the brief the courts have been clear about the fact that you can look at the age of the children and what are the factors that are relating to why the children want to remain or want to go to one or another so i would submit that that that factor should not have been taken or been given great weight again i don't know if the trial court didn't give it great weight because it may no specific findings that relate back to the factors that the the legislature has enumerated that he should look to so long that being the child's adjustment to his home schooling community case like this is to give great deference to the trial court and i understand that you're in a position where you don't have any findings it's almost an impossible question to answer and if you send it back to the trial what i would submit that your job would be a lot there was also quite a bit of testimony concerning some of the abuse that was happening in the house during the time that lee and kerry were living together and as the court is aware and can read a marriage of patty act the court doesn't have to limit its consideration of cases where there's actual harm and can consider both present actual harm to the child as well as the likelihood of future in danger man they can consider the fact that there was abuse in the household even if it wasn't against the children in some of the most disturbing testimony was a from here stitches as a result of it kerry testified to other incidents of violence specifically having to call the police because of domestic violence that happened in two thousand and eight if you believe played in his attorney's side of the story the parties had a very relationship and kerry was just as much as all at fault for the abuse as plate was the court was present though and observe the parties of the court was able to see the physic whole demeanor of both of the parties here is a woman who barely weighs one hundred pounds she's about five foot size and furthermore he has never been arrested she's never been charged with a crime she's never had an order of protection interred against her so again this seems to be one of the factors that the court did not consider if it did consider it certainly didn't give us any direction in terms of why the use that was clearly happening in the household that was uncontroverted wasn't considered when trying to make a determination of which parent would be the more suitable custodian for the children the willingness to facilitate a relationship the other parent is also cause for concern if you read through the testimony of both of the parties there was some testimony about each one of them and their failure to appear strictly to mediation order and that was a big criticism of kerry but through the testimony of a blade and he didn't have a driver's license for a significant period of time and so during that entire time he did have a driver's license the he asian agreement was modified to allow him to drop the children off an hour earlier yet when kiri wants to do the same thing when she wants try to modify it now it's so strictly adhere to it we have instances where he calls the police and where the police have to show up for visitation exchanges i would submit your router's that the court do not take this he seriously enough and did not consider what was in the best interests of the children he did he changed entirely the custody arrangement between two people in that while they had shared custody before he gave laid sole custody of the children but kept the mediation agreement which so clearly was not working if you read through this through the test of these two parties and left back to them to try to add here to every pires thierry drive from highland to mt olive several times a day sometimes because the mediation order is just not set up for the kind of living arrangement they have right now so for all of those reasons i would ask the court to every person remained thank you  in the stock in three of six one eleven states the court after reviewing the position statements of the parties its own notes and the appropriate statutes has determined custody of the minor children to be awarded to plate ferguson as the along with blake's testimony we were very pointed regarding mission test also when it comes to credibility i think the facts were clear that the judge considered plait even though he had some prior convictions but one felony conviction which took place over ten years ago i think was fifteen years ago i think he considered played a few more credible the court rea facts of the case it will find that carrie admitted she had a job at one gentleman's club that was fired for stealing she did not say that she didn't steal she just said that's why she was fired and she went to work at another she also indicated in the first day of trial that she further testified tot the past two gentlemen that she had been living with that there was some evidence regarding his indiscretions regarding drugs now i don't believe that the judge took gauges testimony bach that his preferences were were that telling or required the court to allow him a look at the spot i don't believe that at all i believe though that the court considered the fact that cajun told him that basically his mom had told him about about not living with this person or not seen him as it were him on a regular basis that wasn't true so that goes to credibility also not a big deal all but a big deal when you consider the fact the gauge had made our bed the father blake had made arrangements with his employer to work days so you could be home with the children made sure they did their homework got to throw out beads at the mardi gras celebration in sioux are during mardi gras so that was her choice that's the kind of choices that she made that's the kind of evidence that was presented and that's the reason why the test it would he did he gave a test  children to the parent he thought would benefit the children the most and i think he weighed all the factors set out six of two and i think he did the right thing i think that's clear obviously the standard of proof is you have to find that somehow the just decision was against manifest with the other evidence if you read the factual statements the facts that were presented to court i don't think you could make that decision you could also find that there was an abuse of discretion obviously that did not happen in this court heard the evidence of the parties heard the evidence heard testimony of parties saw their demeanor was in the best place to judge who was most credible who was not what was in the children's best interest and i think did a great job and i think also you know judge wanted as a rule he doesn't want either tourney in the room when he interviews minor children i know that kind of goes against the statute but most of the time we agree to that and this is one of the first times i got to see i just want to give interviews a child especially want to gauge is age and i think he did a great job with gage and i think that he  some information out of gage that perhaps others he might not have gotten heavy attorneys been and so so i think in this case that that that worked out but i don't believe that he gave and do cream standing in gage to say regarding his choices late in his testimony showed that he was concerned about the children's grades they had made good grades while living with him he was concerned about the children's absences the absences were caused by the mother either picking the children up early were not taking in the school at all and this was this was under but it was this was not not mentioned at all by kerry in her testimony or in  trial arguments may file are part of the record by both sides of court had an opportunity to read those positions statements prior to making his fin the issue back before the children were born or maybe when gage was a baby that should carry becoming a stripper and blade asking her to do to do that was and is in dispute late  night that late in the cage it was her idea that he went along with it realized after you went along with it it was a bad idea because things weren't working out carrie was not coming home and i've times and it wasn't a real good situation so eventually she also brings up the description of the party center size what we're dealing with two fairly small individuals my quiet way more than her quiet her quiet having worked as a  carrie was had just as much of the ability to cause a physical altercation and it minute to being involved in the physical altercations with her husband as my client  she admitted to start some of the physical are ultra cations and the testimony regarding the order of protection the kerry received she wanted to go to texas she wanted to take the kids with her plate said no this is after they separated for the second time place said no no i don't want you to do that she said walking to do it anyway so she runs out and gets an order of protection my client doesn't get to see the children for six weeks because it came to hire me i wasn't available the court when we go to court over here you know  all the things that happened especially the fact that blade may make major changes in his life you know what were you doing fifteen years ago is what i say to myself what was i do fifteen years ago that i have changed but i can tell you what was a big difference between the between the at nineteen years old me and thirty four years old and he made some changes and realized hey these are my most important priority and i think the judge saw that and the judge rules little does he did him i'm happy again i would reiterate that the allegations that were made against kerry during the trial level and today are very trivial trivial in comparison to the allegations that been made against lee and some of the things that he has admitted to doing if you read through the record period never admitted to starting in the altercations i carry again was never arrested she never had any problems with the law as opposed to lee who absolutely did in terms of the absences that is one of the more significant allegations against hillary she was scrambling to see her children as much as she possibly could the mediation agreement forced her to have to drive to mount olive from highland several times a day trying to also bring money in and provide for her children and again with the scheduling believe it is often unemployed when he is employed there are times that he has to travel and he did testify as to that carries her fashion while some may look at it disfavor allows her to have a schedule that is very conducive to being able to take care of the needs of the children she works at night she is able to be there for the children when they get home from school she able to get  them get them to bed she doesn't have to leave her job until after they've already fallen asleep she testified that she had secured a babysitter her apartment complex that would come over to the house to watch the children while they slept this person wasn't registered e m t and that then she would be back home in the morning to have the children get ready get up get bed and get off to school and she is struggling right now and it is difficult the mediation agreement that the judge kept into place is clearly not working in this case and in terms of blade changing what i would submit to the court is that if during may of two thousand and ten in the spring of two thousand and ten the summer of two thousand and nine when these discussions were being had between kerry and played concerning kerry moving to highland when she was so clearly telling him that she was intending to enrol the children in the highland school district if it any point he would have indicated to her that he was not in agreement with that or that he was going to fight her for sole custody of the children we wouldn't be in the situation that we're in here today he left who believe he was fine with that she moved to help her move with her to select an a partment that's that's manipulative behavior on his part he was manipulating the situation so that he could turn around and get try to get sole custody of the children and leave her in a position where she's having to do the driving and she looks like the parent who's doing a