In February this blog covered a case about a child visitation court battle between a set of grandparents and the mother of a 3-year-old girl. At that time the paternal grandparents of the child had been awarded every other weekend visits with the girl, however, the mother had broken the court-ordered agreement and moved with the child out of state.
On March 1 the mother was due in court to explain why she shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for breaking the grandparent visitation agreement. However, she did not show up, and last week she was arrested and is now awaiting extradition back to the state where the grandparents live, which is also the same state where the court-ordered agreement was made.
As of last week the little girl was with her mother’s brother, who also lives in Florida, but her grandparents were looking forward to their first weekend back with their grandchild.
This grandparent visitation case goes back to November of 2008, when the father of the little girl was killed by the child’s maternal grandmother. At the time he was at the home that the grandmother and the child’s mother lived in, and was picking up his daughter for a court-ordered visit. At the time it was also believed that a judge was going to grant the father overnight visits.
Since then, the paternal grandparents have been battling with the girl’s mother to have visitation rights.
And while this case takes place between Illinois and Florida, it does highlight the repercussions a parent can face for failing to follow a court order, and issues surrounding relocation with a child when agreements are already put into place.
Source: Myjournalcourier.com, “Jennifer Watkins arrested in Florida on Cass warrant,” Maria Nagle, 15 March 2011
