Marriage of Hartnett CA3

DISCUSSION

I. Supervised Visitation

For several years, mother and Jonathan W. Hartnett (father) were engaged in a highly contentious divorce, a remnant of which is an ongoing custody and visitation dispute involving their lone child (hereafter daughter), who was born in July 2002.

Based on a child custody evaluation in 2007 that expressed concerns about mother’s emotional stability and noted father’s more reasonable and stable presentation, the family court in 2008 granted mother and father joint legal custody of daughter, but awarded father primary physical custody.

Based on another child custody evaluation in 2010 from a new evaluator, the family court, in a June 3, 2010 order, awarded father full legal and physical custody of daughter “until such time as the parties are able to work more cooperatively with each other,” and allowed mother unsupervised visitation. (This order is sometimes referred to as the July 21, 2010 order, which actually is the date of filing the order from a June 3, 2010 hearing.)

After considering a social worker’s reports, the juvenile court, in August 2010, found prima facie evidence that daughter was a child described by Welfare and Institutions…