So how did this charming father get custody? Hey, it's New Jersey! You get it the same way New Jersey dad ALEJANDRO MENDOZA did. You just show up in court and demand it. Of course, you leave out any mention of any ongoing child abuse charges or investigations. Not that this is strictly necessary, because there's not much evidence the court would care anyway. As as for legal necessities like notifying the mother of the proceedings? Strictly for amateurs and losers. Don't bother. Strictly optional.
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/05/sexually-abusive-father-jails-mom-on.html
By the oddest of coincidences, HANIF SIMS got away pulling the same stunt. According the child's mother, SHE WAS NEVER INFORMED OF THE CUSTODY COURT DATES. Should sound very familiar to the wife of ALEXANDRO MENDOZA too.
Sheriff Seeks DNA Samples To Help ID Body Found In Crawl Space
Former Tenants Last Seen Living In Los Angeles Rescue Mission
By Lance Hernandez, 7NEWS Reporter
POSTED: 6:23 pm MDT May 25, 2010
UPDATED: 11:51 pm MDT May 25, 2010
MONUMENT, Colo. -- Investigators with the El Paso County Sheriff's office tell 7NEWS they've asked for DNA samples from relatives of Genesis Sims to see if that will help determine the identity of a body found in the crawl space of a townhome in Monument.
Work crews found the remains on May 14. The coroner determined that they belonged to a 7 - 10-year old female of undetermined race.
Neighbors told 7NEWS that 7-year old Genesis Sims lived in that home with her father, Hanif Sims, stepmother Monique Lynch and brother Davon about 1 1/2 years ago.
Neighbors said that when Genesis seemingly disappeared, they asked her parents what happened and were told that she had gone back to New Jersey to live with an aunt.
When asked if investigators found any relatives who could confirm that Genesis was still alive, Lt. Lari Sevene of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said, “I don’t have details specific to that.”
They apparently spoke to Genesis’ mother.
Jopeita Garretson, told KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs that she hasn’t been able to sleep since investigators came to her home last week.
“I don’t need DNA to prove that’s my first born out there,” Garretson said. “I believe it’s her because ever since around December, Christmas time 2008, I just have had a weird feeling that something was wrong.”
Garretson told the station that she lost custody of her daughter in October of 2007.
“I wasn’t told of the court date,” she said. “I kept trying to get some court dates so I could get custody of her back.”
Sevene confirmed that detectives traveled to New Jersey and to California to look for Hanif Sims and Monique Lynch but said they have not been able to track them down.
Hanif Sims’ brother, Hassan, told 7NEWS that he last spoke with him two months ago.
“He never mentioned anything like that to me,” Hassan Sims said.
When told that we were just trying to confirm that Genesis is OK, Hassan replied, “Yeah, I want the same thing.”
Hassan Sims said the last he heard was that the couple was in the Long Beach area.
7NEWS has learned that Hanif Sims and Lynch spent several months in the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles.
“They came to the mission on March 14, 2009, and left Dec. 9, 2009,” said mission CEO Andrew Bales. “They had a son, Davon, who was 12 when they came here and 13 when they left, and a little baby boy who was born the first month they were here.”
Shortly afterward, Lynch did an interview with the mission. While holding her infant son, she said, “I don’t think I’ve been able to appreciate that I have a new baby because of a situation that I’m in.”
She didn’t elaborate in the interview which can be seen on youtube.
Bales said Union Rescue Mission helped subsidize an affordable housing apartment for the couple.
“When they left town, they left the children with a friend and disappeared,” Bales told 7NEWS. “Family members then came to pick up the kids.”
Bales said he didn’t know if the family was from California or New Jersey.
He said there was no girl with them.
“They never talked about a girl,” Bales said. “They had their hands full with the newborn boy.”
Sevene said Hanif Sims and Monique Lynch are not considered suspects but that investigators would like to talk to them to answer questions raised by neighbors.
“We have a responsibility to do that,” Sevene said.
She added that the couple has reason to avoid contact with police.
“They both have warrants out of New Jersey,” Sevene said.
Hanif Sims is wanted on a weapons violation, Lynch for a drug-related probation violation.
Garretson told KRDO she wants answers and hopes that Hanif Sims and Lynch turn themselves in.
Speaking of the body that was found in the crawl space, Garretson said, “I just hope who really has done this will pay.”
“God bless those souls when Judgement Day comes… they’re going to suffer,” she said.