Judge Must Look More Closely at Allegations of Dad’s Domestic Abuse

Tennessee child custody case summary in divorce.

Brent DeWayne Carr v. Kellie Renea Carr

The mother and father in this Overton County, Tennessee, case were married in 2009 and had one son, who was born in 2011.  They separated in 2012, and the father filed for divorce.  In 2013, they reached an agreement as to most property issues, and agreed to a parenting plan granting each of them 182.5 days of residential parenting time.  This agreement, however, was apparently never made part of any court order.

There was an attempt at reconciliation, but in 2015, the mother left the home and they returned to court, where a trial was held in December 2016 before Judge Daryl A. Colson.  Judge Colson named the father the primary residential parent and made a parenting schedule.

The mother then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, arguing that Judge Cohen had not properly considered her allegations of domestic abuse by the father.

The appellate court, after reviewing the relevant statutes, looked at the lower court’s fact findings.  Judge Colson had found that the father had committed domestic violence against the mother, but that there had been no police report.  The lower court had noted that there was independent evidence corroborating the mother’s testimony.

The court also made findings of the mother’s involvement with drugs, and an occasion when she left the child in a hot car.  Judge Colson also noted that the mother was living with a man with a felony record.

The mother argued that the trial court had given insufficient weight to the domestic abuse, even in light of the other findings.  Judge Colson had stated that he had “struggled greatly” with the issue, and that the abuse had caused him “great concern.”

However, the appeals court noted that a specific Tennessee statute required the lower court to limit parenting time to some degree because of the abuse findings.  In this case, the appellate court found that Judge Colson had not made adequate findings addressing the specifics of this statute.  Therefore, it was unable to properly review the ultimate decision.

For this reason, the Court of Appeals vacated the decision and sent the case back to the Overton County court for specific findings regarding the applicability of the statute.

No. M2017-00556-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 1, 2018).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.