Father and Mother, divorced, live in Rhode Island. Father is the primary residential parent.
Father’s parents live here in Florida. Court order reportedly bars Father from relocating daughter to Florida.
According to reports, Father tried, unsuccessfully, to modify the order so that he could relocate to Florida, to work in his parents’ business.
Father allegedly takes daughter on a car trip to Florida, during school year without advising mother. Upon investigation, Father’s landlord states that Father moved.
According to accounts, Father is caught with a do-it-yourself moving van, arrested for child snatching and sent back to Rhode Island.
Father contends that he and his daughter are just visiting her grandparents in Florida, that the court order doesn’t absolutely bar the daughter from leaving Rhode Island, just from moving away.
But Father also allegedly states that he has no Rhode Island address at the moment and that he is going to be living with his parents for “a while”.
Now Father is barred from any contact with his daughter at all, although Mother does not feel Father is a danger to their daughter. And Mother is seeking primary residential responsibility based on relocation / visit.
Father contends that his and his daughter’s rights were violated and that the current situation is not in his daughter’s best interests.
Among other facts that are unclear from this report, is why the primary residential parent and his daughter are deprived of any visitation (not even supervised visitation) – especially before any conviction and/or incarceration.
Read more in this Westerly [RI] Sun article.