Opinion ID: 2617514
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The California Proceedings

Text: On July 22, 1993, the father filed a motion with the California Superior Court, in San Bernardino County (the California court), asking the California court to establish the Texas divorce decree as a California judgment, and requesting a modification of the custody order placing sole custody in the father, with only supervised visitation by the mother in the father's state of residence. As grounds for the modification, the father claimed that the mother was being uncooperative with the visitation agreement, that upon returning from visitation with his mother on two occasions, C.B. was ill, and that the conduct of the mother, and her current husband, R.R., was detrimental to C.B. In her response to the order to show cause, the mother did not object to establishing the Texas divorce decree as a California judgment. However, the mother did object to the father's request for modification of custody, and requested the California court to award her sole legal and physical custody. The mother denied the father's allegations, and countered that the father's sexual deviancy led her to believe that C.B. may have been abused. The mother also alleged that the father had a drinking problem, that he was vulgar, and that he was emotionally and mentally unstable. On June 16, 1994, before the California court ruled on the cross-petitions for modification of custody, C.B. went to Colorado for a scheduled visitation with his mother. C.B. was scheduled to return to California to his father on July 27, 1994. When the mother failed to return C.B. to his father's custody, the father initiated proceedings for a temporary restraining order. The California court subsequently issued a temporary restraining order, requiring the immediate return of C.B. to the father in California. The mother was served with the California order on August 8, 1994, but did not return C.B. to the father's custody. At the end of August and the beginning of September 1994, the California court held a five-day hearing on the cross-motions for modification of custody. Both parties called witnesses to testify. [1] The mother called Lon Kopit, a psychotherapist in private practice in Denver, Colorado, who saw C.B. on at least four occasions starting in early August 1994, at the mother's request. Lon Kopit testified that C.B. exhibited fear and anxiety when the therapy sessions involved discussion about the father, and that he noted no anxiety or tension in C.B.'s responses to his mother. Lon Kopit further testified that, in his opinion, C.B. believed that the father and the father's wife physically and emotionally abused him, and that the mother and the mother's husband did not physically and emotionally abuse him. Finally, Lon Kopit said that he believed that it would be in the best interests of C.B. to reside with the mother, but that it would also be in C.B.'s best interests to have a relationship with the father. Both the mother and R.R. also testified at the California hearing. R.R. said that he had a good relationship with C.B. [2] He also testified that the father made phone calls to their home in Colorado, and left vulgar messages on the answering machine. During R.R.'s testimony, several tape recordings of the father's messages, and the father's phone conversations with C.B., were admitted into evidence. The mother testified that the father left demanding, intimidating, and sometimes threatening phone messages on her answering machine, and that C.B. would often appear upset after having phone conversations with his father. The mother told the court that she initiated restraining order proceedings in Colorado against the father because of what she felt was emotional abuse of C.B. in the father's care. She testified that she felt it was in C.B.'s best interests to be in her home, and not the father's home. The California court orally issued its ruling on the cross-motions for custody modification on September 8, 1994, and on September 23, 1994, the court issued a written order incorporating the terms of its previous ruling. The California court established the Texas divorce decree as a California judgment, and essentially denied both parties' motions for sole custody. The California court did not alter the substance of the original Texas custody order, which provided for physical custody of C.B. in the father and a complex visitation schedule for visitation with the mother. However, the California court did provide a schedule for phone calls between C.B. and his mother and father, and ruled that neither party was to discuss the case with C.B., and that neither party was to disparage the other party in front of the child. Finally, the California court ordered that C.B. be returned to California no later than five o'clock in the afternoon on September 18, 1994. [3]