Opinion ID: 1659672
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Identification Proof

Text: Prior to the third hearing, each party filed a request for relief from judgment. The chancellor granted Mary's request and modified the former judgment, suspending all future visitation between John and Jane and further enjoining John from any further contact with his child. John's request for relief from judgment was denied and he appeals the order denying him visitation rights with his child. This Court holds that John's appeal is meritorious on the insufficiency of the proof of identification of the abuser. The chancellor found the proof of identification to be insufficient at the first hearing. This Court upholds that finding. Between the first and third hearing, this Court holds that the proof was no more sufficient than at the initial determination. (See footnote four herein). One medical doctor believed the child had been abused, one found signs of physical trauma, and one found no signs of abuse. One expert had formed the opinion, after months of therapy sessions with Jane, that the child had been abused by John; another expert, after six sessions with the child, formed the opinion that John had not abused the child; still another found that Jane had not been sexually abused. The battery of tests run on John to determine whether he exhibited any characteristics of a sexual abuser showed nothing of the sort. The hearsay statements of the child, as related by Brenda Chance, were the most damaging to John. While it does not appear that the chancellor erred in finding that the child had been sexually abused, the chancellor did not have substantial credible evidence that John was the abuser. The chancellor erred in suspending all visitation rights of John Doe. However, there is evidence warranting restriction of visitation. This Court reverses the denial of all visitation, based upon the insufficiency of proof of identity of the abuser, and remands for a determination of appropriate supervised visitation by the chancellor.