@gitana1 totally missed you today and your practical approach to understanding these proceedings. The documents (most of them) are out on social media but its hard to pull them into WS. Looks like the next hearing on July 15th might resolve many of the questions people are raising here about status of Pattis and GAL. Pattis/FD are pushing for custody and even though GF went to Probate Court to gain temporary custody I'm concerned that Family Court could overturn the custody situation as it presently stands. Grandparents rights are tenous and I think many are concerned about the ability of a grandparent to gain permanent custody in this case. FD is barred from the children and family of JD presently so far as I know but how long can the court hold out against a father asking for custody?
Good questions.
First of all, has Pattis even substituted in on the family law case? He would have to, in order to appear. What a creep. He's just using the family law case o grandstand and create a defense, at the expense of the poor kids in this case.
Someone else said grandma sought custody in probate court. Can someone provide a link? Since there's a family law case active that should be the proper jurisdiction for custody, via a motion to intervene, which is clearly before the family law judge. Not the probate court.
In CA guardianships of kids take place through probate court. I'm not sure about CT. But typically that's only when either parent is unavailable or incapable of caring for the kids. She could have possibly done so when he was incarcerated. Does anyone have some evidence of a probate court case?
I'm not sure about the strength of grandparent rights in CT.
It seems the kids have a team of people - the GAL, mom's counsel, grandma, and the judge, who have concerns about FD and he has already been determined to be a risk to the welfare of the kids. So that could help.
What I've found for CT law shows grandparent rights may not be as liberal as in CA. For example, here they have standing to open a custody case (guardianship). In CT it looks like they don't. But they can intervene if one is already open. (Like here, with the divorce action).
They can, however, open a case for mere visitation rights.
In CT, a grandparent may be able to seek custody if they can pass a theee pronged test via a case called Fish:
1. That they have a parent-like relationship with the child. That could be hard to prove here.
2. That it would be detrimental to remain in the parents' custody.
3. That it would be in the child's best interest to be in the care of the grandparent.
I think grandma succeeds with 2 and 3.
More at link:
https://www.jud.ct.gov/lawlib/Notebooks/Pathfinders/RightsofGrandparents/Grandparent.pdf