Protective mom could go to jail for not letting kids visit dad indicted on cocaine trafficking charges (Charlotte, North Carolina)

Just when you figure the family courts couldn't get any more demented or daddy-coddling, you find a story like this.

Dad DAVID EDWARD KENNEDY isn't just "troubled." That makes him sound like a brooding, romantic hero. Nope, he's serious bad news. He has a history of drug abuse and is now INDICTED on FEDERAL COCAINE TRAFFICKING CHARGES. Daddy has even signed a document where he confessed!

But the idiotic judge can't see why Daddy's visitation should be diminished. Can't see any danger to these kids at all, hanging around with a cocaine trafficking Daddy and his no doubt charming and well-mannered "business" associates. Just like the JOSH POWELL case, this moron can't see any red flags indicating potential danger to the kids, even when they're staring him right in the facee. Nope, he waxes philosophical about the lack of evidence. How can we "know" that Daddy would sell drugs with the kids in the car, or subject them to guns? How can we know he wouldn't? This isn't a theoretical debate. It should be about protecting kids. You err on the side of safety! Not in coddling cocaine peddlers!

Meanwhile, the protective mother of all people MAY BE THE ONE WHO GOES TO JAIL because she refuses to allow her kids to be in this dangerous situation. Because she's acting like a responsible and loving mother of all things. We want people to be punished for doing the right thing by their children!

And why the hell should we be worrying about the rights of a drug dealer???

This is how twisted the courts have become under fathers rights. Disgusting.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/crime/Moother-of-2-could-go-to-jail-in-custody-battle-with-troubled-dad-138896514.html

Mother could go to jail in custody battle with troubled dad

by GLENN COUNTS / NewsChannel 36 Staff
WCNC.com
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 7:12 PM

Updated Wednesday, Feb 8 at 6:29 AM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A custody battle over a 7-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother has created a unique challenge for a Mecklenburg County judge.

NewsChannel 36 talked with the mother of the children who asked us not to be identified to protect them.

The children’s father is 36-year-old David Edward Kennedy. The couple married in 2001 and divorced after 2009.

Kennedy’s past is the issue in the custody battle. Court records show that he has abused drugs and even lost his City of Charlotte job because he flunked a drug test.

After the divorce, though, Kennedy was granted visitation rights. However, last November, a federal grand jury indicted him on cocaine trafficking charges. Since then, the children’s mother has refused to allow the kids to visit.

“I cannot sleep at night thinking the kids are in harm’s way,” she said.

In November, the mother went to court seeking emergency custody but said she was stunned when Judge Charlotte Brown said no emergency existed and declined to change the custody arrangement.

In support of her ruling, the judge said “Even if he was indicted with 20 kilos of cocaine…there has to be some danger to the child. If the child was in the car with him while he was making a drug deal or subjecting a child to maybe guns, then I could see the emergency.”

The mother of the children still refused to allow them to visit their father.

"When I did find out there was clear drug use going on and he was selling drugs,” she said, “it was clear to me that my kids were being put in an unsafe environment.”

Kennedy has not agreed to a plea deal, but he has signed documents in which he confesses. His attorneys accuse the mother in the case of being spiteful and in court documents say, “There is no reason for Mother to deny Father access to the minor children. Mother is acting in a hateful and spiteful way toward Father and she is not acting in the best interest of the children.”

"I'm doing the right thing for the kids,” the mother said. “And I know that I am if going to jail is what happens, that's what happens.”

Late Tuesday afternoon her attorneys asked the Family Court Administrator’s Office to remove Judge Brown and assign another judge, claiming she has a personal bias.

Thursday morning the judge will decide whether to hold the mother in contempt and send her to jail.