This case is both difficult to read, but also amazing.
It is a reminder that even that when dealing with Parental Alienation, False Allegations, and the Family Court, there is hope.
I met my (now) husband when I was 28.
He has three children from a previous marriage. Shortly after being married for one year he decided to file modification of custody papers to his ex-wife. He was tired of her constantly moving. Less than four hours after receiving the paperwork she called the Hillsborough County sheriff’s office and told them we had sexually molested the kids.
Her new Mother-in-law had used this excuse in the past with an ex-boyfriend. The sheriff’s office investigated the allegations and found them to be false after contacting my husband for his permission to have the kids checked out because his ex-wife would not give them permission. When the ex-wife found out that the case was dropped she then took it to the Pasco County sheriff’s office.
They contacted the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and found out the whole deal. They refused to pick it up and then the ex-wife decided to go to the Zephyrhills Police Department. This all happened within a space of eight months.
We have not had contact with a children since the papers were filed. We finally got a court date. The ex-wife’s new husband was sitting outside the courtroom across from me. He began yelling about how he couldn’t believe that we could do that sort of thing and take video of it. Since we weren’t biological family we weren’t allowed in the court room. My husband was given one hour a week supervised visitation at the courthouse.
The ex-wife did not like this.
She would tell the kids that if they went to see their dad that meant they didn’t love her anymore. Before that court date She filed a sexual battery injunction against me and my husband. We wound up going to court over that and the judge put in a stay because she wanted to see what she could do.
During our second court date for that the judge told my husband’s ex- wife that if it had been up to her she would be put underneath the jail and have her parental rights stripped. The only thing this judge could do though was put a letter of recommendation into our file to order the ex-wife to give us visitation back. That didn’t happen.
During this time we were going back and forth with court dates and filing paperwork. I found online information on Parental alienation syndrome. My husband’s ex-wife showed the classic case of Pas. Unfortunately at the time the State of Florida did not recognize this as being an actual thing. For six years we would go to court and during those six years I was filing contempt of court papers every other week. The judge we had for the injunction recommended that I do that every time we were supposed to see the kids and we’re allowed to.
About 4 years later my husband’s ex brother-in-law wound up getting our oldest son once or twice a month. He would call us up and let us know that he was there and we could come see him if we wanted to. Our son informed us that his mom had told him and his brothers that we had left the state of Florida because we didn’t want anything to do with them anymore. We got to see our oldest son a couple months like this.
One day my husband’s ex mother in law contacted us letting him know that her poor daughter was in the hospital. She had a seizure. (Truthfully she had almost died from an overdose). This was about six years into the whole ordeal. We went to see her and she asked for forgiveness and asked if we knew of a place she could rent. We happen to have a place right next door to us that was available. My husband rented it to her in lieu of Child Support.
She stayed there with our three boys and her two new kids from her new marriage. Then one day she just left. Our three kids came home from school and all of their mom’s stuff was gone. We were still going to court during this time. We had the three boys all summer and bought them everything they needed for the new school year. The day before school started their mom showed up at my house demanding that we give her kids back to her.
I told her no.
She hadn’t had anything to do with him in 3 months and I wasn’t just going to hand them over. This was in August and we finally got our final court date in September. My husband’s ex-wife didn’t show up to the court date and my husband asked if he could just change the agreement to 50/50. The judge told him there was no way she was going to do that and because she had also read up on Parental alienation syndrome she decided to award my husband full custody of his three kids.
The judge ordered his ex-wife to have a home study done and to take parenting classes before she was able to see the kids again. This was very difficult for me because the state of Florida doesn’t recognize step parents as having any rights. My marriage almost dissolved. We had the longest running custody battle in the history of the State of Florida and we also brought parental alienation syndrome to the Forefront. We were the first case to ever be recognized in Florida.
At the time there was only two or three cases in the United States that were actually recognized. We are now the number one. You can look it up as Monroe versus Monroe.
I never talk bad about my husband’s ex-wife in front of the kids. That was six years ago and now that they’re older they have read the Case Files and thank us for never giving up. I would recommend to anyone going through a custody battle or even having issues with a custodial parent to keep a journal. Take lots of pictures. This can be admitted into a court of law as your Personal Diary.
My husband and I also done this on our own. We didn’t have an attorney because we just couldn’t afford one at the time. We had an attorney for the sexual battery injunction and he was a good friend of my husband’s ex- wife’s attorney. We heard through the grapevine that the ex-wife’s attorney said he had never had a case where he was having his butt handed to him by two inbred hillbilly rednecks.
I’m writing all this just to give everyone hope. Don’t give up and even if things aren’t going your way right now eventually the truth will come out. Parental alienation syndrome is a real thing and it is detrimental to society. Read up on it and keep bringing it up in any court case. Make sure your judge reads it. We need to make this nationwide. We also need to make the courts recognize that step parents have rights too. If we can be investigated, then we should have a say in what happens in the court room.
If you have any questions you can contact me through my email celiamonroe@yahoo.com.
Celia Monroe
Zephyrhills, Florida
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