Dad with joint custody who had refused to return baby to mother charged with 2nd-degree domestic violence assault for attack on 4-month-old son; baby on life support (Jacksons Gap, Alabama)

Another great fathers rights victory...another baby near death.

This account is pretty circumspect, but the fact that the mother had tried to move out of state to get away from the father strongly suggests he had a history of domestic violence. Obviously didn't matter to the fathers-rights friendly courts, who granted him joint custody of a very young infant anyway.  Then the control-freak father basically abducts the baby and refuses to return him to the mother for a month. Do the authorities seem concerned? Nah. You know, fathers rights and all.

Now the baby is on life support, Daddy has been arrested, and he STILL has his fathers rights. He STILL has joint custody, and Mom can't make any medical decisions on the baby's behalf.

Abusive fathers do not deserve custody rights and they especially don't need access to infants who don't benefit in any way, shape or form from visitation. What judge ordered this?

Dad is identified as JAMES EDWARD MCINVALE.

http://www.alexcityoutlook.com/2014/12/31/jailed-father-claims-sons-injuries-the-result-of-an-accident/

Jailed father claims son’s injuries the result of an ‘accident’

Published 9:32am Wednesday, December 31, 2014

A Jacksons Gap man who was arrested Monday on child abuse charges after his 4-month-old son was severely injured, said it was an accident that has the infant clinging to life in a Birmingham Hospital.

James Edward McInvale Jr., 23, of Davis Circle in Jacksons Gap remained incarcerated in the Tallapoosa County Jail Tuesday, a day after being charged with second-degree domestic violence assault and aggravated child abuse.

Despite some media reports and social media reports stating otherwise, the child remained on life support late Tuesday evening at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, according to the baby’s mother Susan Brown-McInvale.

She said her son has suffered massive head trauma and remained unresponsive and on a ventilator.

“It just breaks my heart to see him like this,” Brown-McInvale said. “The doctors say there is little hope, but despite the fact that James has been arrested, they still say we have joint custody. So they can’t take him off life support without his permission. It sounds crazy, but that’s what they are telling us.

“Officials from DHR have been here talking to us about the options and there is a possibility that the hospital attorneys may petition the court. If not, I hope that my attorney can do something Monday. It just hurts so bad to see your son laying there helpless.”

Dadeville Police Department investigators say that they were called to a residence on Christmas Day in response to an unresponsive 4-month-old child. There they found a child with injuries so severe that he was flown to Children’s Medical Center in Birmingham.

Dadeville Police Department Assistant Chief Chris Martin would not elaborate on the injuries the child suffered or why evidence led to McInvale’s arrest.

But before his Monday arrest, McInvale told Detroit’s Fox 2 television reporter Dave Spencer, that the baby was injured in an accident while his “ex-girlfriend” was watching him.

“My ex-girlfriend says it was an accident,” James McInvale said in his interview with Fox 2. “I don’t know honestly. I said why didn’t you tell the police, she said because he was scared.”

In the interview just hours before his Monday arrest, McInvale told Fox 2 that he was outside fixing a flat tire when his son was injured.

“She told me he hit his head on the side of the bedroom door,” he said. “(The next morning) I tried to give him a bottle. And he won’t take a bottle from me and that is when he collapsed in my arms.”

Then, after more than what is believed to be about 12 hours from the time the injuries were sustained, authorities were notified.

Brown-McInvale said that she had taken her child and moved to Michigan to get away from McInvale. But he moved there, Brown-McInvale said, and that due to the fact that there was joint custody, she allowed him to see the child. She said in late November, McInvale returned to Alabama with the infant. Since that time she has been trying every legal avenue she could find to get her child back, Brown-McInvale said in a telephone call Tuesday.

Martin said that because the investigation remains active, he would not elaborate. He did say that the condition found did not seem to be consistent with the scenario that McInvale described to the television reporter.