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Fathers, don't seek custody in Liberty County
Letter to the editor
lettereditor

Editor, If you are a father seeking custody of your children in Hinesville, please read this carefully.
How bad does a mother have to be to lose custody in the Liberty County judicial system? I can tell you that the mother is allowed to post a Craigslist ad for a companion and take that potentially dangerous stranger into the home around the young children. She is allowed to have multiple men in the home all hours of the day and night around the 2- and 5-year-old children while her husband is deployed. She is allowed to be so volatile that she can purposely drive herself into a pole and total her car while her children are sleeping. It is OK if she has been hospitalized twice for psychiatric issues and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It is OK that her kindergartner was absent or late from school more than 40 times during the time her husband was deployed. It is OK for her to not seek medical attention in a timely manner for the children or get the prescriptions filled within a reasonable amount of time. It is OK for her to take them from the home while the father is deployed, move the children 11 hours away to three different locations (two out of the three they were living with felons) within five months. It is OK for her to drive her child to a different state for school and tell the child he has to lie to his teachers about where he lives. ...
I can tell you that the judge in this case does not care what she has done or not done. Throughout the first hearing, he appeared bored, closing his eyes at times. There was documentation to prove most of the above accusations, including police reports, affidavits, medical records, pharmacy records, report cards and witnesses. The judge was disinterested. Instead of carefully considering them, he actually became angry over the many, lengthy affidavits describing how bad this mother is. ...
The father, in this case, gave up his 11-year military career so he could raise his children in a stable, safe environment. Instead of the judge seeing this as an act of a devoted father, he chastised him for this action.
... I am not the husband and father in this case; I am a witness. I am writing ... in hopes that other fathers who have been treated this way will come forward and to warn fathers who are seeking custody. If there is any way possible, file in a different area. You don’t have a fighting chance in Hinesville! This has to change for the benefit of children!
Sheila Laird
Summerville, South Carolina

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