Mom Failed to Prove Allegations of Abuse of Daughter

Tennessee child custody modification case summary.

A.W. v. M.N.

The child in this Tipton County, Tennessee, case was born to unwed parents in 2015.  In 2016, she moved in with the father, and they were married in Mississippi, but the marriage lasted only a few months.  In July 2016, the mother and child returned to Tennessee.  The father filed for divorce in Mississippi, after the mother’s four–year-old daughter from another relationship allegedly reported that the father sexually abused her.

The mother then filed a petition in Juvenile Court in Tennessee to restrict the father’s visitation.  The father denied the allegations, and a hearing was held in 2018.

The court adopted a parenting plan naming the mother as the primary residential parent, and ordering the father to pay child support.  The father’s visitation was initially supervised, but eventually was without supervision.

After a visitation, the mother suspected that the child had been sexually abused.  She took the child to a hospital for an examination, and there was an investigation by authorities in Tennessee and Mississippi.  The mother then filed a petition to suspend the father’s visitation.  The father denied the allegations, and a hearing was held.  The trial court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to grant the mother’s petition.  The trial court noted that it was unable to determine the exact meaning of the child’s statements, and there was no physical evidence of abuse from the examination.  At the mother’s request, the hearing was continued, and a Mississippi investigator testified as to the investigation.  The court then reinstated the father’s visitation, and the mother appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court first noted that in cases of modification of custody arrangements, trial courts have great discretion, and appellate courts should not abuse the arrangements except for abuse of discretion.

Even though neither parent raised the issue, the court first determined that Tennessee, and not Mississippi, had jurisdiction over the case.

After carefully reviewing the evidence, the court agreed with the lower court’s disposition of the case.  It noted that there was no physical evidence, and the child’s statements were unreliable and unclear.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals, in an opinion authored by Judge Carma Dennis McGee, affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

No. W2020-00091-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 7,  2021).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Modifying Custody & Parenting Plans.

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.