Tag Archives: abuse

Child Custody, Foster Care, Foster Parent, General Legal, Opinion

Youth Court Permanency Hearing(s), Review Hearing(s) & You. Deadlines Changing…

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A still-alive MS Bill seeks to tweak the Youth Court timeline when a child has been adjudicated neglected and abused for a permanency hearing.

The current law requires that the youth court shall conduct a permanency hearing within one hundred twenty (120) days or every sixty (60) days for children under three (3) years of age after the earlier of:

(i) An adjudication that the child has been abused or neglected; or

(ii) The date of the child’s removal from the allegedly abusive or neglectful custodian/parent.

The proposed changes requires;

the youth court shall conduct a permanency hearing within * * * three (3) months * * * after the earlier of the following and every three (3) months thereafter:

(i) An adjudication that the child has been abused or neglected; or
(ii) The date of the child’s removal from the allegedly abusive or neglectful custodian/parent.

This change is not that significant and likely will not effect you.

Matthew Thompson is a child welfare attorney and noticed this when review pending legislation and needed a filler blog for the week of Spring Break.

Child Custody, Crime, Foster Care, Foster Parent, Opinion

What is CHILD ABUSE? CHILD NEGELCT?

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“Abused child” means a child whose parent, …caused or allowed … sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, commercial sexual exploitation, emotional abuse, mental injury, non-accidental physical injury or other maltreatment to occur.

Legal Definitions – Miss. Code Ann. Sec. 43-21-105:

“Neglected child” means a child:
(i) Whose parent… or any person responsible for his care…neglects or refuses, when able to provide necessary care or support, including education (as required by law), medical, surgical, or other care necessary for well-being.

  • However, a parent who withholds medical treatment from any child who in good faith is under treatment by spiritual means alone through prayer in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination by a duly accredited practitioner thereof shall not, for that reason alone, be considered to be neglectful…

  • (ii) Who is otherwise without proper care, custody, supervision or support; or

  • (iii) Who, for any reason, lacks the special care made necessary for him by reason of his mental condition, whether the mental condition is having mental illness or having an intellectual disability; or

  • (iv) Who, for any reason, lacks the care necessary for his health, morals or well-being.
    • The “when able” provision limits the application of neglect when the parent does not have the ability to provide necessities, think sever poverty issues. In that instance it is not willful neglect.
       
  • “Abused child” means a child whose parent…has caused or allowed sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, commercial sexual exploitation, emotional abuse, mental injury, non-accidental physical injury or other maltreatment.
  • However, physical discipline, including spanking, performed on a child by a parent, guardian or custodian in a reasonable manner shall not be deemed abuse under this section.
  • “Abused child” also means a child who is or has been trafficked within the meaning of the Mississippi Human Trafficking Act.
     
  • “Sexual abuse” means obscene or pornographic photographing, filming or depiction of children for commercial purposes, or the rape, molestation, incest, prostitution or other such forms of sexual exploitation of children.
     
  • “Any person responsible for care or support” means the person who is providing for the child at a given time. This term includes stepparents, foster parents, relatives, non-licensed babysitters or other similar persons responsible for a child and staff of residential care facilities and group homes.
     
  • “Commercial sexual exploitation” means any sexual act or crime of a sexual nature, which is committed against a child for financial or economic gain, to obtain a thing of value for quid pro quo exchange of property or for any other purpose.
  • Abuse and neglect are preventable and/or treatable circumstances if We all Look out for one another. If you see something, say something!

Matthew Thompson and Chad King are child welfare attorneys in the State of Mississippi. They have represented natural parents, foster parents, grandparents, other relatives, fictive kin, children and the Agency (CPS) throughout their decades of practice. (NOT all at the same time).

Crime, Divorce, General Legal

16 questions used to ID domestic abuse victims likely to be killed

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Research has found that men who choked their partners were 10 times more likely to eventually kill them.

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A CBS News article reported that the Oklahoma City Police Department is among the forces using the 16-question checklist, which is designed to help officers identify victims who are likely to be killed.

By answering the below questions, the more times a victim answers “Yes” to the questions, the more likely domestic violence may lead to a victim’s death. The checklist will be used across the state of Oklahoma. Authorities in Maryland say fatalities have dropped 30 percent since they started using it.

 

Below are the 16 questions contained in the “Domestic Violence Risk Assessment” checklist:

1. Has he/she ever used a weapon against you/threatened you with a weapon?

2. Has he/she ever threatened to kill you or your children?

3. Do you think he/she might try to kill you?

4. Does he/she have a gun or can he/she get one easily?

5. Has he/she ever tried to choke you?

6. Is he/she violent or constantly jealous or does he/she control most of your daily activities?

7. Does he/she follow or spy on you or leave threatening messages?

8. Have you left him/her or separated after living together or being married?

9. Is he/she unemployed?

10. Has he/she ever tried to kill himself/herself?

11. Do you have a child/children together?

12. Do you have a child that he/she knows is not his/hers?

13. Has he/she been physical toward the child(ren) in a way that concerns you?

14. Does he/she have an alcohol/substance abuse problem?

15. Has he/she interfered with a 911 call?

16. Is there anything else that worries you about your safety?

 

If you are in Mississippi and need help please do one or all of the following by contacting the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence;

If you are in danger, call 911.

If you need immediate assistance after hours: Call 1-800-799-SAFE(7233).

Local to the metro area may call 601-981-9196

If you wish to be connected with someone in your area regarding domestic violence, volunteering or making a donation, call 1-800-898-3234.

Matthew Thompson is a Family Law Attorney in Mississippi and encourages victims of domestic violence to have an emergency plan and seek immediate help.

Divorce

Fault Grounds for Divorce in Mississippi: Updated!

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The Mississippi Legislature amended the Fault Grounds for divorce last term to include spousal domestic violence and tweaked the corroboration requirement. The current Fault Grounds for Divorce are below. You only need one.

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§ 93-5-1. Causes for divorce

  • Divorces from the bonds of matrimony may be decreed to the injured party for any one or more of the following twelve (12) causes:
    • First.  Natural impotency.
    • Second.  Adultery, unless it should appear that it was committed by collusion of the parties for the purpose of procuring a divorce, or unless the parties cohabited after a knowledge by complainant of the adultery.
    • Third.  Being Sentenced to any Penitentiary, and not pardoned before being sent there.
    • Fourth.  Willful, Continued and Obstinate Desertion for the space of one (1) year.
    • Fifth.  Habitual Drunkenness.
    • Sixth.  Habitual and Excessive use of Opium, Morphine or other like Drug.
    • Seventh.  Habitual Cruel and Inhuman Treatment, including Spousal Domestic Abuse.

   Spousal Domestic Abuse may be established through the reliable testimony of a single credible witness, who may be the injured party, and includes, but is not limited to:

   That the injured party’s spouse attempted to cause, or purposely, knowingly or recklessly caused bodily injury to the injured party, or that the injured party’s spouse attempted by physical menace to put the injured party in fear of imminent serious bodily harm; or

   That the injured party’s spouse engaged in a pattern of behavior against the injured party of threats or intimidation, emotional or verbal abuse, forced isolation, sexual extortion or sexual abuse, or stalking or aggravated stalking as defined in Section 97-3-107, if the pattern of behavior rises above the level of unkindness or rudeness or incompatibility or want of affection.

  • Eighth.  Having Mental Illness or an intellectual disability at the time of marriage, if the party complaining did not know of that infirmity.
  • Ninth.  Marriage to some other Person at the time of the pretended marriage between the parties.
  • Tenth.  Pregnancy of the wife by another Person at the time of the marriage, if the husband did not know of the pregnancy.
  • Eleventh.  Either party may have a divorce if they are Related to each other within the Degrees of Kindred between whom marriage is prohibited by law.
  • Twelfth.  Incurable Mental Illness. However, no divorce shall be granted upon this ground unless the party with mental illness has been under regular treatment for mental illness and causes thereof, confined in an institution for persons with mental illness for a period of at least three (3) years immediately preceding the commencement of the action… (see statute for complete description).
Divorce, Irreconcilable differences, Marriage, Opinion

Clarion-Ledger: Protecting families, or prolonging misery?

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Protecting families, or prolonging misery?

, The Clarion-Ledger 11:00 a.m. CT June 2, 2017
LINKEDIN

Matthew Thompson is a Mississippi family law attorney and professor, and having difficult, drawn-out and costly divorces would be good for his pocketbook.

But Thompson supports reform and changes to divorce laws, “even though it’s against my own self interests.”

“The current laws make it expensive, and in some instances, impossible to get a divorce,” said Thompson, whose firm focuses on family law statewide and who is a professor teaching domestic relations at Mississippi College’s law school.

Thompson said the Legislature’s recent divorce law reform, removing a corroboration requirement for abused spouses, is a needed change.

“Our law has required cruelty claims be corroborated with evidence beyond that of the victim’s testimony,” Thompson said. “… Even if the court believed you, you had to have a neighbor, family member, police report or picture, or you didn’t have corroboration … Now, if the court finds the victim truthful and credible, the court can accept that. If you take a step back and think, that makes sense. Our judges have always been the lie detector, always the barometer of whether someone was credible.

“There is some form of abuse in a vast number of divorce cases,” Thompson said. “Not every one, but a lot of them. When you drill down and include physical, mental, emotional, verbal abuse — It’s a significant number of cases. We as human beings treat the people we are supposed to love the most the worst.”

Thompson said he supports Mississippi creating a “no-fault” ground for divorce. South Dakota is the only other state without such a ground. He said opposition to this change, from those saying it will weaken the sanctity of marriage and increase divorces, is misguided. In practice, Mississippi’s lack of a no-fault ground allows one spouse to hold up a divorce, sometimes for years.

“The idea behind making it difficult to get a divorce is that Mississippi is promoting marriage,” Thompson said. “But when you go 10 years and it costs tens of thousands of dollars — those aren’t intact families trying to get back together.

“Our law promotes divorce blackmail,” Thompson said. “… You have to pay what I say, or agree to what I want, or I won’t agree to a divorce … You have a fundamental, constitutional right to marriage, according to (a U.S. Supreme Court ruling). Shouldn’t you have a fundamental right to a divorce? I guess the counter to that is that you don’t have to get married.”

Thompson said some of the moral and religious arguments focused on divorce policies should be focused on the front-end, marriage policies.

“Our state has made it phenomenally easy to get into a marriage,” Thompson said. “There used to be a three-day wait, used to be a blood test requirement. But now you just go to the circuit clerk and pay $25.

“Studies show having mom and dad happily married and living together is what’s best for children and families,” Thompson said. “Having mom and dad get along and living separately would be second best. Mom and dad living together and fighting and being miserable, whether it’s violent or just cold war, that’s not the best. If this is really about protecting families, there are ways to do that, but still have an appropriate and reasonable means to get out of a marriage. It shouldn’t take a beating or physical violence to get there.”

Contact Geoff Pender at 601-961-7266 or gpender@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Child Custody, Crime, General Legal, Visitation

Youth Court in Mississippi

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Youth Courts deal with matters involving allegations of abuse and neglect of children.(Youth Courts also handle cases involving offenses committed by juveniles, persons who have not reached the age of 18 may be subject to the Youth Court, although there are some exceptions. Some offenses which would be treated as crimes if committed by adults are known as “delinquent acts” when they involve juveniles.”)

21 counties have a County Court Judge serving as Youth Court Judge. In counties which do not have a County Court, the Chancery Judge may hear Youth Court matters, or the Chancery Judge may appoint a lawyer to act in a judicial capacity as Youth Court Referee. The city of Pearl also has its own municipal Youth Court.

In Madison County the County Court Judges also serve as Youth Court Judges. In Hinds and Rankin Counties, they have Youth Court Judges that serve in dedicated Youth Courts.

Child abuse can be:

  • Emotional:anything said or done that is hurtful or threatening to a child, such as name calling, belittling a child, or making threats of harm.
    • Name calling; “You’re stupid.”
    • Belittling; “I wish you were never born.”
    • Destroying child’s possessions or harming pets.
    • Threatens to harm child or people they care about; “I’m going to choke you,” or “I’ll hurt your sister.”
    • Locking a child in a closet or box.
    • Rejecting a child.
    • Isolating a child.
  • Sexual Abuse is any inappropriate touching by a friend, family member, anyone having ongoing contact and/or a stranger, such as:
    • Touching a child’s genital area.
    • Any type of penetration of a child.
    • Allowing a child to view or participate in pornography.
    • Prostitution, selling your child for money, drugs, etc.
    • Forcing a child to perform oral sex acts.
    • Masturbating in front of a child.
    • Having sex in front of a child.
    • Touching a Child’s genital area.
  • Physical:any type of contact that results in bodily harm or bruising, or physically restraining a child improperly.
    • Hitting or slapping a child with an extension cord, hands, belts, fists, broom handles, brushes, etc.
    • Putting child into hot water.
    • Cutting the child with a knife or any other sharp object.
    • Shaking or twisting arms or legs, yanking a child by the arm.
    • Putting tape over a child’s mouth.
    • Tying a child up with rope or cord.
    • Throwing a child across a room or down the stairs.
  • Neglect: not meeting the basic needs of the child, including not giving essential medicines or food, leaving a child unsupervised, providing inadequate protection from the weather.
    • Medical – not giving a child life-sustaining medicines, over medicating, not obtaining special treatment devices deemed necessary by a physician.
    • Supervision – leaving child/children unattended and leaving child/children in the care of other children too young to protect them (depending upon the maturity of the child).
    • Clothing and good hygiene – dressing children inadequately for weather, persistent skin disorders resulting from improper hygiene.
    • Nutrition – lack of sufficient quantity or quality of food, letting a child consistently complain of hunger and allowing the child to rummage for food.
    • Shelter – having structurally unsafe housing, inadequate heating, and unsanitary housing conditions.

Within a neglect or abuse case there are several phases. Upon a complaint or report, which can be anonymous, Youth Court will hold a Shelter Hearing. It is akin to an emergency hearing. The Youth Court will determine if immediate action needs to be taken. Typically, the next Youth Court determination will be an Adjudication Hearing. This is to determine if the child was neglected or abused. Lastly, youth Court will conduct a Disposition Hearing. This is to determine the final outcome.

Youth Court’s #1 goal is reunification when and where possible. Youth Court cases involving neglect and abuse are not seeking to punish and there could be separate criminal consequences for acts of neglect or abuse for the perpetrator.

The “players” in a Youth Court proceeding are the Judge, Youth Court Prosecutor, Guardian Ad Litem (attorney for the child and sometimes a non-attorney investigator), some Courts now have Parent’s Representatives (attorneys appointed for a parent), or privately hired Attorneys.

Matthew Thompson is a Child Custody attorney in Mississippi and has handled multiple Youth Court cases throughout Mississippi.

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Child Custody, Crime, Divorce, General Legal

The TRUTH about LIE Detectors.

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“I’ll take a lie detector test!” Famous last words.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/01/08/become-a-human-lie-detector-how-to-sniff-out-a-liar/

Lie Detector Tests and their application in Mississippi Law is limited. The tests themselves are deemed generally unreliable by a legal standard and are not admissible in Court, absent mutual agreement or stipulation otherwise. However, law enforcement relies on them when administered properly. Personally, I have seen testing and the results impact several cases.

First off, What is a Polygraph Test? A test which measures and records physiological indicators such as; blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity, while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions. Wikipedia.

During the actual test only the test taker and examiner are present. The questions asked are typically only a few and they are asked a number of times, the exact same way. There are no surprise questions, no questions that are not rehearsed, and no Lamp Shades.

The test is measuring your involuntary responses and during the pre-test phase you are instructed to lie about an answer for comparison to involuntary responses during the testing.

Despite their limited Courtroom application, law enforcement agencies routinely administer Polygraph tests to suspects of crimes and the FBI uses polygraph testing regularly for not only suspects and witnesses, but also testing their own personnel, staff and agents.

I have used Polygraph testing in several cases where issues involved abuse allegations.  In one instance a properly administered and passed Polygraph test helped result in a matter being dismissed by the Court and helped end a criminal investigation and rightly so.

As for the tricks on Ocean’s Eleven on to how to beat the test…well, the FBI tests for counter measures.

Matthew Thompson is a Family Law litigation attorney in Mississippi and encourages you not to lie!

Follow the blog: BowTieLawyer Visit the website: Thompson Law Firm

You may also contact Matthew with your family law case, question or concern at (601) 850-8000 or Matthew@bowtielawyer.ms.

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Child Custody, Crime

Indicators of Abuse.

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Regrettably, in family law instances of child abuse are ever-present. The Mississippi Department of Human services, along with law enforcement and the Courts are tasked with dealing with these critical circumstances.

The following are instances and indicators of abuse.

Emotional/Verbal Abuse is anything said or done that is hurtful or threatening to a child and is the most difficult form of maltreatment to identify:

  • Name calling; “You’re stupid.”
  • Belittling; “I wish you were never born.”
  • Destroying child’s possessions or harming pets.
  • Threatens to harm child or people they care about; “I’m going to choke you,” or “I’ll hurt your sister.”
  • Locking a child in a closet or box.
  • Rejecting a child.
  • Isolating a child.

Sexual Abuse is any inappropriate touching by a friend, family member, anyone having on-going contact and/or a stranger, such as:

  • Touching a child’s genital area.
  • Any type of penetration of a child.
  • Allowing a child to view or participate in pornography.
  • Prostitution, selling your child for money, drugs, etc.
  • Forcing a child to perform oral sex acts.
  • Masturbating in front of a child.
  • Having sex in front of a child.
  • Touching a Child’s genital area.

Physical Abuse is any type of contact that results in bodily harm such as bruising, abrasions, broken bones, internal injuries, burning, missing teeth and skeletal injuries:

  • Hitting or slapping a child with an extension cord, hands, belts, fists, broom handles, brushes, etc.
  • Putting child into hot water.
  • Cutting the child with a knife or any other sharp object.
  • Shaking or twisting arms or legs, yanking a child by the arm.
  • Putting tape over a child’s mouth.
  • Tying a child up with rope or cord.
  • Throwing a child across a room or down the stairs.

Neglect means not meeting the basic needs of the child and is the most common form of maltreatment.

  • Medical – not giving a child life-sustaining medicines, over medicating, not obtaining special treatment devices deemed necessary by a physician.
  • Supervision – leaving child/children unattended and leaving child/children in the care of other children too young to protect them (depending upon the maturity of the child).
  • Clothing and good hygiene – dressing children inadequately for weather, persistent skin disorders resulting from improper hygiene.
  • Nutrition – lack of sufficient quantity or quality of food, letting a child consistently complain of hunger and allowing the child to rummage for food.
  • Shelter – having structurally unsafe housing, inadequate heating, and unsanitary housing conditions.

Call 800-222-8000 or 601-432-4570 to report abuse, neglect or exploitation of a child in Mississippi.

Reports can also be made online at https://www.msabusehotline.mdhs.ms.gov

Division of Family & Children’s Services
800-345-6347 | 601-359-4999

Matthew Thompson is a Child Custody Attorney in Mississippi.

Follow the blog: #BowTieLawyer Visit the website: #Thompson Law Firm You may also contact Matthew with your family law matter or question at (601) 850-8000 or Matthew@bowtielawyer.ms