Hot Toys November 2009
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The Oklahoma Supreme Court disqualified a district judge as it believed that he misinterpreted grandparent visitation laws. Judge Charles Gray apparently used “an expansive interpretation of grandparent visitation laws to give the paternal grandparents of a 4-year-old boy physical custody of the child five days a week while limiting the mother to two days.”
According to NewsOK, Gray’s ruling was not, as originally intended, a reasonable determination of grandparents visitation, but a determination of custody. Strangely enough, the mother has custody of the children – but Gray found that she could see her children only two days per week.
“The Supreme Court criticized Judge Gray for repeatedly failing to determine whether the mother, Mychal Cox, was a fit parent after she completed a court-recommended improvement plan and sought the restoration of her parental rights in early 2007,” NewsOK reports.
Gray’s justification for his opinion can be found in his court orders and is based on morals, a cohabitation situation of the mother as well as the religious background of the grandparents. NewsOK quoted the ruling: “The moral fitness of the parties … was indirectly addressed during these proceedings wherein testimony was presented by the mother that she does not attend church, has had a second child out of wedlock and is cohabitating with an individual not her husband. … The moral fitness factor as regards grandparents was proven to be that the grandfather is a pastor of a church and the child attends regularly with the grandparents and the grandparents maintain a marital relationship wherein the child has resided most of his life.”
Just another day in family court. You may or may not see justice being served. Sometimes it is simply a matter of persistence and plain luck and not what it should be – a fail-safe system to uphold the best interest of the children.
