Legal Question in Family Law in Missouri
Procedures for Child Sexual Abuse
A friend has suspected her ex-husband of sexually molesting her now 7-year old daughter, whom he had adopted. The child has been displaying inappropriate sexual behavior for her age. This came to a head earlier this month when she wanted to take nude pictures of her mother's vagina. She finally admitted to my friend that Daddy .... has shown her these things. My friend went to the police, and the county family services immediately took custody of her daughter. She is now in foster care until the investigation is completed. My friend was told not to contact her, and she hasn't heard anything. She is afraid and doesn't know what to do or how her daughter is. No one will tell her anything. She has been trying to get sole custody of her daughter and has a lawyer, but the lawyer won't tell her anything either. What is standard procedure for sexual abuse of children by one parent and what are the innocent parents rights?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Procedures for Child Sexual Abuse
DFS is most likely acting in an abundance of concern for the child. I am guessing that there have been no court hearings in this matter. Your friend will learn a lot at the first hearing.
The reason DFS takes the child away from both parents for a time, is to be able to fully investigate the situation. They don't know either parent, so they often assume that both parents were negligent or worse in allowing the child to be abused.
I have handled cases similar to your friend's. In one of them, the mother made an almost identical report to her's. What it turned out to be was a messy break up betweent he spouses, and the mother find out her boyfriend had molested the child. Fearing that she would lose custody, she reproted the abuse as being done by her exhusband,a nd tried to coerce the child to go along. That child is still in therapy several years later.
Most people, hopefully never have to get involved in a DFS case, but the DFS workers are in them everyday. They rarely seem to get the full truth from either of divorced or divorcing parents. Therefore, they sometimes go overboard in trying to seperate teh child from possible influence of either parent. It appers in this case, that the mtoehr feels they have gone too far in trying to protect her daughter. Her attorney should be able to get this straightened out. She is lucky to have you going through this with her.
Good Luck,
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