Mother and Father have twelve year old Daughter together, but Mother and Father separated several years ago.
While Daughter is visiting with Father, Father sees rude and “inappropriate” text messages sent on her phone.
Intending to impress better cell phone etiquette on Daughter, Father confiscates Daughter’s cell phone.
Mother, who apparently purchased Daughter’s phone, saw the matter differently.
Now married to a police officer, Mother reported Father’s seizure of Daughter’s phone to the police.
As a result, Father was issued a citation for theft by city law enforcement officers.
So Father retained an attorney to challenge the charge. Which was dismissed.
But did not end there.
Instead, police officers arrested Father … at 2 in the morning … and hauled him off to jail in handcuffs! On a more serious misdemeanor theft charge.
At Father’s trial, Daughter testified against him.
Still, Father was acquitted of any criminal wrongdoing under a (judge) directed verdict.
Yet, the big picture is that Father concluded that he needed to withdraw from Daughter in order to protect himself from further encounters with the criminal justice system over parenting issues.
Read more in
- this Parenting magazine article: Dad Arrested, Then Acquitted for Taking Daughter’s Phone as Punishment
- this Washington Post news article: ‘I was being a parent’: Father found not guilty after taking away daughter’s iPhone and
- this [UK] Daily Mail article: US father tried for THEFT after he took his 12-year-old daughter’s mobile phone away as a punishment .
