Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

sexual abuse and visitation rights

my ex boyfriend and father of my 1 yr old daughter was babysitting my 11 year old son who is not his son and asked him if he wanted to see something funny. he told him yes and he then proceeded to masturbate his greyhound dog for approximately 20 seconds with his hand and he told my son that he was never to tell me. my son told me approximately 2 weeks later and i reported it to the abuse hotline. it is now being investigated by the dcf and also is assigned to a detective. the day after i reported this to the abuse hotline, my ex filed for co-custody of our daughter since i have been avoiding him. he is unaware that he is under investigation because dcf nor the detectives have contacted him yet. i have 20 days to respond to his lawsuite. Will the investigation be enough to not allow unsupervised visitation until they decide whether or not to charge him. Also, can you tell me what the legal charge would be against him if they do charge him?


Asked on 4/19/02, 7:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Sanford Martin Martin Law Office

Re: sexual abuse and visitation rights

After a report from the DCF, the court will decide what is in the best interest of the children. Usually, parents are given shared parental responsibility, which means rights of visitation. The DCF and court may restrict the visitation of the father based on his conduct. The father is not likely to be charged with a crime since you have mentioned no child abuse, (just gross and questionable conduct), but if DCF finds any suggestion of abuse or neglect, he could be restricted to supervised visitation and other penalties.

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Answered on 4/20/02, 10:30 pm


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