Nancy left that night to go back to N. Carolina after giving up her son to Tom. She was tired as she had had a roller coaster of emotions in the past few days. Anxiety and sadness over losing her son to Tom and his custody papers. Joy that with the help of the police we got her son back. And finally extreme sadness and depression over having to give up her son again.
As soon as Nancy got back to N. Carolina, I was in touch with her and I directed her to hire a child custody attorney in her home town immediately. After Nancy hired the N. Carolina attorney, Colleen and I worked to devise a plan. Colleen would start a custody case in N. Carolina while I scheduled another hearing on the case here in Massachusetts. Our hope was that once a family court judge in N. Carolina took the case, we could then transfer the Massachusetts case to N. Carolina, where I believed it belonged. Remember that the Massachusetts family court judge didn’t make any custody determinations. He simply took “emergency custody”. That was his code word to me that he would be willing to let the case go if there was another judge in N. Carolina supervising the case and the child. At the end of the day, the judge here in Massachusetts just wanted to make sure that nothing happened to the child.
After about a month’s time, we finally got the order from a N. Carolina judge saying that they’ll take jurisdiction over the case. A copy of the jurisdictional order was apparently sent to Tom’s attorney but not the order granting my client custody until the child was back in N. Carolina. The question now was (1) whether or not the judge here in Massachusetts will dismiss the case as I had asked and relinquish his control over the case to the N. Carolina court and (2) what would Tom’s attorney do now that he knew we were coming. And yes, Nancy and I were coming to get her son back ASAP.
The next day, Nancy came back here in town from N. Carolina. Early in the morning, we went back to the police with our court order from N. Carolina and asked them once again to “keep the peace.” They didn’t object this time. We went over to Tom’s house and there was no answer. After a long while, we decided we should probably go over to the grandmother’s house to check. But before we all got into our cars, my phone rings and it was Tom’s attorney. He tells me that he’s actually over at the courthouse with Tom trying to get an emergency hearing. It turns out, he tried to have a hearing in front of the judge without telling me (which is not allowed) and the judge made him contact me to see if I could be available. I was there at the courthouse with Nancy in less than 15 minutes.
Tom’s attorney made the argument again that the judge should keep the child here at least until the paternity tests were completed. However, this time, not only did I ask the court to dismiss the case again, but I had with me 2 court orders from N. Carolina. One was giving the judge in N. Carolina the case and the 2nd was giving Nancy custody of her son. There was nothing left to say. The judge dismissed the case and ruled in Nancy’s favor. She could have her son back.
Now that our legal battle was over, it came down to how we were logistically going to get Nancy’s son back. It turns out that Tom was smart and didn’t bring the child to court with him. We didn’t know where the child was. I demanded that they bring the child to the courthouse within an hour. Tom’s attorney, upset that he finally lost, said in so many words, “we’ll bring him back when we feel like it.” It was not the answer I wanted to hear. They left the courthouse and I immediately contacted the police again.
We spent the rest of the day going to all of Tom’s relatives to try to locate the child. After a day of searching, we were ready to issue an Amber Alert. At around 6PM, we get a call that Tom and his attorney showed up at the police department and was ready to turn the child over. Nancy and I were exhausted and I was just glad that we finally knew where her son was.
We raced towards the police station where Tom, his attorney and Tom’s mother was waiting with the child. I took the son’s hand and I walked him over to Nancy. Nothing much was said between Tom’s side and Nancy or I. We packed Nancy into her car with her son and before she left I gave her my last piece of legal advice, “Don’t ever come to Massachusetts again.”
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