Excellent post from the Battered Moms Lose Custody blog. I'm only including the first part of it here as it is quite long, but check out the entire posting for all the legal records on custodial dad ROLAND MATTHEW, who was just convicted of murdering his 4-year-old daughter.
You want to know the timeline on how a killer gets full access to his victim, with the full particpation and encouragement of the courts? It's here, along with all the judges who helped this piece of sh-- take this child from her mother.
http://batteredmomslosecustody.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/florida-gives-custody-to-abusive-dad-child-dead-within-months/
Florida Gives Custody To Abusive Dad-Child Dead Within Months
June 9, 2009 — batteredmomslosecustody
Kristina Hepp’s death never should have happened. Although the mother was struggling, her parents were able to adequately care for this child. After the state’s involvement in Paternity, the father of this child, Roland Matthew, allegedly did what many abusive men do – he obtained custody. (Possibly to avoid child support issues) The hearing that gave him custody did not take into account his criminal history. More concern needs to be given to histories of domestic violence against the mother. If a man is abusing the mother of his child, he is more than twice as likely to abuse the child. Felony and misdemeanor convictions rarely occur due to domestic violence being routinely dismissed when a child is involved. The opposite needs to occur. More vigorous prosecution needs to occur when there is domestic violence. These abusers should not have custody or unsupervised visitation with children.
This child was failed by so many people, changes need to be made so that this stops happening. The state of Florida has charged the father’s girlfriend also.
12/26/07 State of Florida filed Paternity case against father
3/17/08 Domestic Violence Charge Against father by mother
4/9/08 DV Charge dropped by prosecutor
6/20/08 final judgement paternity established
11/10/08 father files for custody
2/11/09 temp custody order signed
4/13/09 motion to modify/dissolve temp injuction
4/14/09 motion for visitation
4/27/09 911 called at 5:33 in the morning child is dead