Urine Trouble Now
THE BLACKFISH FILES
The Situation
A family matter – child custody
The Concern
That despite the father’s history of violence and substance abuse, he was going to get unsupervised visitation of the children.
Our Client
She was divorced with two small children, and desperately trying to keep them safe, but the courts were not able to deny him visitation/custody without evidence of her claims.
His/Her Version of the Story
She described a man who, when they met, did not reveal that he’d had a troubled past with substance abuse. Those issues surfaced early on, and the marriage, despite the birth of two children, spiraled into a bad situation that included domestic violence and increasingly erratic behavior. She filed for divorce and won custody of the kids, and for the first year-and-a-half, he only had occasional supervised visitation. But now he was requesting equal custody, and per the court’s Order, he was taking regular drug testing. The test results were always clean, and it looked like he was getting his life together, but she knew better.
Our Findings
If there was something wrong, it was most likely with the testing lab or its procedures. We sent one of our investigators in undercover to get a urinalysis. He acted very nervous, telling the technician that he had to pass this test or he was going to lose his job. Without skipping a beat, the technician said, “No problem, we can make sure you pass for an extra $100,” which our investigator paid. The investigator had recorded the entire conversation on audio and video, and which was sent to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. Once the judge was informed, he ordered an immediate drug testing of the father at the local hospital, accompanied by police officers, which he failed miserably.
The Outcome
Our client was awarded sole custody, and the father’s supervised visitation was continued, but with additional security in place.