Memories: Court Part 2

The county was trying to terminate parental rights over Daughter on the grounds that Birth Mom was psychologically unfit and that she had no bond with Daughter.  The only problem was the attorney tried to get the psychological evaluation admitted into evidence without having the psychologist there to be questioned about it.  So, dad's attorney challenged it, and judge ruled it couldn't be admitted.  After the county rested the case, dad's attorney asked to have it dismissed.  The judge adjourned to consider the request, and came back and dismissed the case for termination of mom's rights over Daughter with prejudice-- meaning it couldn't be brought back.  

I was asking the psychologist Daughter was seeing (who definitely wasn't the best) to get the visits with dad stopped.  She couldn't understand why I wanted to do that.  Finally, she observed a visit.  She noticed Daughter wouldn't touch any of the things from the toy cupboard that had been out for that visit following the visit.  Then she looked back over her notes, and realized that anytime Daughter had a visit, she regressed.  She decided maybe it wasn't good for Daughter to see him.  So we went to court to stop the visits.  But dad's attorney didn't want to consider such an important issue without the guardian ad litem present to give and opinion.  So they went forward with the termination case while waiting to get the guardian ad litem to court to stop visits.  I still don't understand why it was more important to have the guardian there to stop visits than  it was to terminate parental rights.  I am convinced that for dad's attorney, it was all a game.  He did lots of things to delay and complicate things. 

While he was playing his games, I got to deal with the aftermath of each of Daughter's visits to court.  One day I testified that Daughter had asked me to kill her daddy.  After I testified, dad's attorney came out with a calendar, asking when dad could next see Daughter.  I lost it.  "I hope you can sleep tonight, because Daughter won't sleep for the next two weeks.  You keep bringing her here, making her see her abusers, and then for the next two weeks she's afraid to go to bed."  The caseworker grabbed me and pulled me into another room.  I think she was afraid I was going to physically attack him.  I might have.  I think it was the first time I went into mother bear mode. 

Of course, I still had to bring her to the visits and to court, but I'd like to think some of the fight went out of the attorney at that point.  He stopped the delaying tactics, and eventually we were able to get the visits stopped.  The ruling on termination of parental rights took more time.