Would Terri have had any Rights to Kyron as a Step?

gitana1

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There has been a lot of discussion, here and there, about this. Some have wondered (me) if TH's motivation for disappearing Kyron could have been that in a divorce, she would have no rights to Kyron. This article explains a bit:

http://www.nlrg.com/divlit/STEP2.HTM

"As noted in the Table at the end of this article, twenty-three states have statutes which authorize stepparent visitation. In ten states (California, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin), stepparents are explicitly denoted as having the right to request visitation. In thirteen other states (Alaska, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia), "interested third parties" are granted the right to request visitation, and stepparents come within the definition of interested third parties. As further noted in the Table, in the absence of a statute, some courts have held that stepparents may petition for visitation (Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, and Utah), while others have held that stepparents may not petition for visitation (Alabama, Florida, Iowa, and South Dakota)."

Much more detailed info at link.
 
More from the above link:

"When seeking visitation, a third party must show reasons to overcome the parent's prima facie right to uninterrupted custody. However, the reasons need not be so convincing as in a custody case. In a custody case, the third party must convince the court that it is in the child's best interest to take custody from a parent and award it to a third party. In a visitation case, the third party need only convince the court that it is in the child's best interest to give some time to the third party. As the amount of time requested moves the visit further from a visit and closer to custody, the reasons offered in support of the request must become correspondingly more convincing. (Emphasis original.) The courts thus view "visitation" with a third party as not inconsistent with parental rights; the third party thus need only establish that visitation is in the best interests of the child.[...]


[...]Thus, even if the continued stepparent-stepchild relationship poses a burden on the autonomy of the custodial parent, this burden is secondary to the primary goal of stabilizing the child's meaningful relationship with a parent figure.

The same point was made in In re Marriage of Dureno, 854 P.2d 1352 (Colo. Ct. App. 1992). In that case, the court held that a trial court may grant the stepparent visitation rights where the stepparent has acted in a custodial and parental capacity, and visitation would be in the best interests of the child. In determining the best interests of the child, the court should consider the wishes of the child's natural parent, the child's age, the nature and length of the relationship between the child and the stepparent, and the extent to which the child's well-being will be served by stepparent visitation. Accord Bryan v. Bryan, 132 Ariz. 353, 645 P.2d 1267 (Ct. App. 1982) (man who stood in loco parentis to child during marriage to child's mother granted visitation rights, where testimony showed he had developed close and loving relationship with child); Wills v. Wills, 399 So. 3d 1130 (Fla. DCA 1981) (welfare of child promoted by visitation with wife of adoptive father); Evans v. Evans, 302 Md. 304, 488 A.2d 157 (1985) (stepmother given visitation as in best interests of child); Hickenbottom v. Hickenbottom, 239 Neb. 579, 477 N.W.2d 8 (1991) (stepfather given visitation, after eight year marriage to mother, and stepfather and child had developed close, loving relationship); Hutton v. Hutton, 21 Ohio App. 3d 26, 486 N.E.2d 129 (1984) (visitation given to stepfather); Seger v. Seger, 377 Pa. Super. 391, 547 A.2d 424 (1988) (it was not in child's best interests that relationship with stepfather be "abruptly terminated").
 
I could be wrong but I think the question is more about whether she could profit from her relationship with K (i.e. by selling pictures) than whether a step parent could get visitation rights...K is not here and the baby is her bio child so step parents rights to visitation wouldn't be relevant at this point...Does that make sense?...Very possible I missed some other questions regarding this issue...
 
Thank you so much for the link..
However, I still see where there is any legal rights to Kyron..
Many divorced parents have visitation rights, which IMHO is totally different than having Legal rights..

Legal rights in my opinion concern health, education..etc..
 
Do we still not have any information about whether there was ever court-ordered custody to Kaine? and whether it included anything about Terri?
 
I think the restraining order would make any rights moot at this point

sans restraining order though... that is interesting! Not sure... has anyone posted it to the lawyer thread?
 
We would have to assume that she cared enough to desire visitation rights... Dunno, she doesn't even have custody of either of her biological children right now and had had her son move elsewhere before Kyron went missing. If she wanted to get rid of all her charges, mission accomplished. If she wanted to keep visitation rights, not working so well...

If it was about visitation it would mean that Kyron is being taken care of somewhere and I'm not sure who would keep him. And it's a fail, Terri couldn't visit him now because of the surveillance she might be under. She's lost her daughter over this (maybe her son too? I don't know if she sees him or not) and seeing as how she is in deep doodoo and has allegedly felt like she needs to pay 350.000 dollars to defend herself against murder charges (or some other grave charge), wouldn't it be easier to try and make him come back somehow?
 
ehhhh, no. Okay, well in reality, if she didn't harm him AND if HE loves her and wants to visit her and if she would like to pay child support (since Kaine has custody), I would think that it should be considered. But I really doubt she would ever ask based on the fact that she isn't seeing her own biological daughter right now. But I suppose that may change? Who knows. I simply hope that Kyron would have a say in any decisions about that. As well, Kyron already has weekends/time split between two homes and long drives. So, hopefully he won't be disrupted/traveling any more than already necessary if that ever even came into question. I really don't see her out looking for him or making any pleas for his return or even information, so I will revert back to "ehhhhh, no" as my opinion only.
 
Do we still not have any information about whether there was ever court-ordered custody to Kaine? and whether it included anything about Terri?

In the Dateline interview, Desiree said that she ultimately let Kaine take full custody of Kyron. (She said that at first she had custody, then gave him temporary custody when she went to Canada, then full custody when she returned, because she was still sick and struggling financially.)

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Kyrons-mom--99345859.html
 
I could be wrong but I think the question is more about whether she could profit from her relationship with K (i.e. by selling pictures) than whether a step parent could get visitation rights...K is not here and the baby is her bio child so step parents rights to visitation wouldn't be relevant at this point...Does that make sense?...Very possible I missed some other questions regarding this issue...

Some people were throwing around the possibility of TH hiding/taking Kyron, or plotting to kill Kaine or killing Kyron because she felt the marriage was heading for divorce and thought she would have no rights to be in Kyron's life. So...hide him until she can join him somewhere, or give him away/kill him because "if I can't have him, no one will."
I myself mentioned this theory but I frankly don't think this was the motive, if TH is found to have done something. Nevertheless, the law shows that indeed, if this was her motivation, she may have had some visitation rights to Kyron, in the context of a divorce, but likely no custodial rights. And yes, this is somewhat moot because with the RO, she would have no rights unless she defended herself and was found not to have committed DV. But, the point, is, could her inability to have any significant custodial rights been part of her motivation?

Thank you so much for the link..
However, I still see where there is any legal rights to Kyron..
Many divorced parents have visitation rights, which IMHO is totally different than having Legal rights..

Legal rights in my opinion concern health, education..etc..

You are 100% correct. That's what legal rights are and it appears unlikely that a stepparent in OR could be awarded legal custody. The rights I was talking about are visitation rights.
 
In my situation, I've been told I would have to adopt my stepdaughter so that the bio mom would then have her rights terminated. I haven't done so yet because she'll have to be notified and sign away her rights, and the family doesn't want her coming back into my stepdaughter's life right now (she left before DHS could really investigate her when my stepdaughter was five, and she's going to be twelve this fall). So I don't currently have any rights to her, legal or visitation.
 
In my situation, I've been told I would have to adopt my stepdaughter so that the bio mom would then have her rights terminated. I haven't done so yet because she'll have to be notified and sign away her rights, and the family doesn't want her coming back into my stepdaughter's life right now (she left before DHS could really investigate her when my stepdaughter was five, and she's going to be twelve this fall). So I don't currently have any rights to her, legal or visitation.

During the time I was a custodial stepmother, their father gave me legal rights. I don't know if that would hold up in a court of law? Probably not. If he would have died, I'm sure my rights would have died with him, for example.
 
Some people were throwing around the possibility of TH hiding/taking Kyron, or plotting to kill Kaine or killing Kyron because she felt the marriage was heading for divorce and thought she would have no rights to be in Kyron's life. So...hide him until she can join him somewhere, or give him away/kill him because "if I can't have him, no one will."
I myself mentioned this theory but I frankly don't think this was the motive, if TH is found to have done something. But, the point, is, could her inability to have any significant custodial rights been part of her motivation?

(above snipped by me)

So I did miss some posts! No way I can keep up with every post but I try... :blush: Thanks for the clarification...

So people really think she would have hid/killed him due to possibly not being able to see him in the event of a divorce? MOO, but in the pics, discussions, etc. I have just not seen the bond and find it more likely she would have looked at that as a perk of divorce, sad to say...I just feel like he may have rubbed her the wrong way...
 
During the time I was a custodial stepmother, their father gave me legal rights. I don't know if that would hold up in a court of law? Probably not. If he would have died, I'm sure my rights would have died with him, for example.

That's exactly what I think but I'm basing it on educational law in my state...Unless a parent's educational rights have been terminated in court, no one else is supposed to make educational decisions for them...I would think other rights are similar as well...But school's are pretty lax about it and when the custodial parent signs off saying the step parent can have certain rights, few pursue the bio- non-custodial parent for their consent unless that person has made specific claims about it...
 
In the Dateline interview, Desiree said that she ultimately let Kaine take full custody of Kyron. (She said that at first she had custody, then gave him temporary custody when she went to Canada, then full custody when she returned, because she was still sick and struggling financially.)

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Kyrons-mom--99345859.html

I just haven't seen anything yet about whether they had anything court ordered, or some kind of legal written document about custody.
 
I just haven't seen anything yet about whether they had anything court ordered, or some kind of legal written document about custody.

Gitana, please chime in on this, but I would think (and know in my case) that divorce documents have to make stipulations about matters concerning the child(ren)...Obviously, parents may later end up doing differently things later (i.e. many times children will start with one parent and then go the other- and often back again) without ever going back to court to update the documents...But I would think, at the point of their divorce at least, there had to be legal documents specifiying custody (shared, joint, sole, whatever...)...JMHO.
 
In my situation, I've been told I would have to adopt my stepdaughter so that the bio mom would then have her rights terminated. I haven't done so yet because she'll have to be notified and sign away her rights, and the family doesn't want her coming back into my stepdaughter's life right now (she left before DHS could really investigate her when my stepdaughter was five, and she's going to be twelve this fall). So I don't currently have any rights to her, legal or visitation.

I don't know where you live, but here, the biological parent has to sign papers consenting to adoption, unless the court takes away their parental rights. A person could not adopt a child in order to remove the mother's rights, it would be the reverse.
 
My brother adopted his two step children and had to get consent from the biological father. He had raised them from a very young age (3-4) and they were older (Jr. High) and wanted to change their last name. Their biological father had never had custody or much to do with them, so it is different from this case. Kyron had two biological parents with joint custody. I don't think someone can have two mothers - I may be wrong.
 

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