Delayed = Denied?

What a headache-inducing day in court. After just waiting around for a couple of hours so the lawyers could get their acts together, everything is still a mess. The good thing is that the kids still live where they were living yesterday, that is, they were not returned to their numbnut and wackjob. The bad news is that both psychologists, who were to provide critical testimony, were sick with fairly serious health issues. So, because the Children's Services lawyer didn't think they had a strong enough case without them, the decided to suspend the trial.

What does that mean? Well, this isn't really a criminal trial, because the evidence is all circumstantial and the "reasonable doubt" aspect comes into play. 3 year-olds aren't exactly reliable witnesses, too unfortunately. So, this is sort of like a lower-stakes trial, with the consequence being whether these two poor excuses for humans are fit to get their children back. Those psychologists were going to say "NO FRICKIN' (that's a medical term) WAY!" There was a chance that they would get started with the proceeding yesterday and continue later, but later was going to be August, and that was just too long between hearings. So they suspended the trial.

The result? The charges are not dropped, but who knows how likely they are to have to ever go to trial on them. They may never have to face any legal repercussions because of it. But at least the kids are still safe and where they belong, though now the visitation, especially for the boy, is ridiculous. We can only hope they will face the music at some point. They (numbnut and wackjob) have to submit to mental health evaluations, too. THAT will be interesting, if we ever find out the results. This isn't some personality test, this is much more thorough, and hopefully, they'll find that they are both cracked.

Then there's the custody hearing. That may not happen for a year! That's a lot more fuzzy, but Mrs. Dave's parents are going to try to get full custody. The good thing is that the social workers and psychologists are still 100% behind us. They have all been clear and emphatic that these kids cannot go back to the situation they were in.

So, we didn't win the battle, it was more of a draw - but we will win the war.

Dave