So sorry to hear this -- but glad you found this site.
Dee has excellent advice. You will want to find a good family law attorney who has experience with child abuse cases. This may or may not be the same attorney you used for your divorce or any other legal matters -- you need someone with specific experience in this area.
As far as documentation goes, there is a specific way to do this that will preserve its usability in court. Here is my standard advice on that: http://www.network54.com/Forum/6443/message/1247326383/documentation+101
It is very helpful if the CPS (or whatever acronym they use in your area) caseworker believes there to be some validity to the report of abuse. That can make the difference between the (very unfortunate) knee-jerk reaction parents sometimes run into, where it's assumed that this would be a ploy to gain custody or hurt the ex in some way. You will want to communicate closely with the caseworkers and provide whatever detail you can about the kids' behavior.
When you say that your ex kept your son from you for 10 months, are you saying that he violated visitation/custody in some way? If so, bring that up in court and to CPS. Hopefully you have some documentation to back this up. If you can also point to a pattern of behavior related to the kids' visits with their dad, that is very useful to do -- here's another post on a way to document this: http://www.network54.com/Forum/6443/message/1246630657
I hope you keep in touch. I'll also be hoping that your kids are able to disclose what's happened to them in their interview today. Please let us know either way.
take care,
b
Posted on Jul 20, 2009, 9:09 AM from IP address 198.179.173.2
