Court of Appeals - Unpublished Decision

I have attached the Court of Appeals Unpublished Decision. There is a link at the bottom of the web page that will open up in a PDF document for your reading pleasure.

Update 3

It has been awhile since I have updated...I apologize. My son was allowed to visit over his spring break as long as he spent the nights at one of my relative's houses. The visit was nice but under a lot of stress because his father was arrested 24 hours prior to the visit for failure to pay child support which resulted in myself having to drive the entire trip (12 hours) to pick my son up and then driving to return him the entire trip. My son had answered the door and was quite upset over seeing his father under those conditions. However, his father was able to make arrangements with the court that allowed him to be out of jail by the time my son was due to return from the visit. In April, I was informed by the DHS/CPS worker that in order for my son to returned to me full-time that I would have to have a place on my own and he would have to have his own room. I moved into a trailer park in May with three bedrooms. My two daughters would share a room, my oldest son would have a room to himself and my youngest son would share a room with me. There was another hearing on May 10, 2010 in which DHS/CPS requested that the court order me to have see a counselor to assist me in developing a "safety plan" for the family when my oldest son comes for visits and for when he returns home. She also requested that some weekend visits occur before the court orders that my son can return to live with me to give everyone time to adjust. The weekend visits were difficult to get scheduled due to my son's father being difficult about meeting halfway. He either didn't have the money, their family had plans, he didn't have a vehicle, etc. For what was supposed to be the extended visit over Memorial Day, I ended up driving the entire trip (12 hours) to pick my son up on Friday after work and driving the entire trip again to return him on Sunday. When my son was due to come for his next visit on June 11, 2010...we had similar issues except this time it was because the DHS/CPS worker made the pick-up and drop-off schedule without taking into consideration my work schedule and based it around what was convenient for my son's father. However, my son's father and I actually were able to finally work on an agreement which allowed my son to be here for two weeks. On July 6, 2010, there was a permanency planning hearing. At that time, DHS/CPS requested that the two week on and two week off visits between my home and his father's home continue until the middle of August in which my son will finally be returned to me. YEAHHHHH!!!!

However, after much discussion with my son....he asked to remain with his father. He expressed that he had missed out on too much of his father's life in the past five years and realizes that his father will not make the effort to stay in contact or visit as I will. It was a difficult decision for me but I decided to let him live with his father.

On July 29, 2010, the Court of Appeals found in favor of Allegan's rulings. The next step is to take the case to the Michigan Supreme Court which I am not in the position to do financially. However, a professor from the University of Michigan has offered to take the case pro bono. So, I gratefully accepted. According to him, there are several cases in Michigan in which the non-custodial parent is admitting to guilt in neglect/abuse cases and the courts are taking jurisdiction of the children from the custodial parent and enforcing the custodial parent to submit to service plans, counseling, etc. even when the custodial parent has not been found guilty of neglect/abuse as in my case. This professor is working to change this for families all over and get a ruling that will put an end to this corruption. He is drafting an Application to the Michigan Supreme Court and then the Supreme Court will decide whether they will look at the argument and hear the case. There is a 1-2% chance that they will consider the case which is very low. However, this professor believes that due to the interest in cases very similar to mine within the past year and a half that I have a good chance.

I am not sure where allowing my son to live with his father leaves me regarding the case in Allegan. There is another hearing in October. I continue to take one day at a time.