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Sarah Palin Accused of Alienating Grandson
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin could be heading into an ugly court battle. Levi Johnston, father of Palin’s grandson is threatening with legal steps to allow him access to his son Tripp. The 19-year old may have made not so helpful headlines as the date of Bristol an almost son-in-law of the Palins, but a public legal fight may be even less desirable for Sarah Palin, especially if Johnston can provide evidence supporting his alienation allegations.
Johnston and the Palins have been in a heated debate over the access to Tripp and Johnston now claims that the situation is bad enough that a court battle cannot be avoided. In a recent interview he stated that Sarah Palin is preventing him from seeing his child: “I’m up to the point where I can’t see my kid again. I’m done. I’m sure we’ll end up in court. We’re definitely going to court,” he said.
He recently started paying child support, but his calls asking for the child are not being returned, Johnston claims. Palin, on the other side, says that Johnston is lying. Her lawyer stated that Johnston is always welcome to see Tripp. At this point, it seems too early to judge who is playing what game, whether Palin in fact is preventing Johnston to see his child and whether she is engaging in alienation, which is a serious charge that can have a major impact on child custody.
Legally, grandparents are considered “significant others” in child custody cases and while courts generally tend to grant grandparents access to their grandchildren, there can also be the question whether grandparents have an adverse influence, intended or not, on a child. The Palin’s situation is an interesting one, as 18-year-old daughter Bristol – as far as we know – still lives at home and a much closer relationship between the child and the grandparents is a given.
Often, such grandparent cases try to paint a “poisonous” relationship to a child. However, in this case, the custody evaluation may focus on determining whether the grandparents are overly attached and become too controlling, which seems what Johnston is indicating: “Bristol listens to her mom. Sarah says something, Bristol is going to follow,” he told The Guardian.
Most states usually try to figure out a way that a parent remains the primary care giver and that both parents take precedence over the grandparents as far as parenting time is concerned. Many psychologists go a step further and suggest that grandparents should only step in if asked: Controlling grandparents can shake the parenting confidence of their children and create unnecessary tension. Typically, grandparents are expected to leave as much parenting responsibility to the biological parents as possible.
If we look at the current case and the fact that Sarah Palin and her lawyer do most of the talking in this case, it seems that that Johnston has at least a foundation to launch his claims from.
It will be interesting to see how the Johnston-vs.-Palin case will work out, if Sarah Palin in fact will be risking a court battle that may interfere with a presidential campaign in 2012.
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MarkGillar
