Recently in Child Custody Category

If you’re a parent who has been convicted of a crime, one of the most significant - and unintended - consequences of your conviction could be the potential loss of custody of your children. Child custody cases depend on a lot of factors, and we’re here to boil it down to the top 3 things you should know about how criminal convictions affect your child custody rights:

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the couple accused of abusing and murdering 10-year-old Ame Deal, reports ABC15 News.

In one of the most horrific examples of possible Phoenix child abuse in 2011, Ame was found suffocated in a plastic footlocker while in the care of John and Samantha Allen, Ame’s aunt. The Allens claimed Ame was accidentally trapped in the box while playing a game, but Phoenix believe she was purposely placed there because she stole a Popsicle.

A Tempe couple pleaded guilty to felony child abuse last week for allowing their infant son to almost drown in a motel bathtub, reports the Associated Press.

Twenty-six-year-old Jasen Anchondo and 23-year-old Summer Dawn Angelly were indicted in August on felony child abuse charges based on allegations that they left their 11-month-son unsupervised in a bathtub.

It's a trend that's horrifying doctors, getting shock value attention in the media, and throwing the spotlight on parents who don't believe in vaccines: shipping disease-infected objects in order to expose other parents' children to different illnesses. The act of sending diseases through the mail could be criminal by itself, but it also begs the legal question of whether parents have the right to expose their children to diseases in the first place.

Parents with legal custody of a child have the right to make long-term decisions about how a child is raised. They have a right to direct the care, control and upbringing of their children for as long as they are minors. This does give them the power to make various decisions, including what medical treatments to obtain.

Since Facebook and other social media sites have been blamed for causing 20 percent of divorces in America, it was only a matter of time before your social media information was up for grabs during divorce and custodial battles.

Well, the time is nigh divorcing couples: A judge in Connecticut reportedly ordered a couple to exchange their social networking passwords, according to Forbes.

With the court order, Stephen and Courtney Gallion now have access to each other's Facebook and dating website profiles and all of the information that data entails. Given how notoriously open people have been on social media sites, it's likely to be a lot.

The AMBER Alert system is a national program that quickly and widely disseminates information about child abductions. Amber Alerts, which stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response,” has been a useful tool for authorities to gain valuable information that can lead to the recovery of an abducted child.

The AMBER system uses various media outlets to inform the public about information about the abduction, including a description of the child and the suspected abductor, the vehicle’s make and model, and the license plate number. However, can parents or family members use this valuable resource in the event of a family abduction?

Indiana native Christopher Carlson received a six-count indictment for child abuse after prosecutors alleged he took his three grandchildren on a brutal Grand Canyon hike, reports the Associated Press.

Authorities claim the 45-year-old grandfather forced his grandsons - ages 12, 9 and 8 - to hike in the Grand Canyon in triple-digit temperatures without food and water during two separate trips in August. The boys were also allegedly pushed, choked and pinched during the hike.

The indictment was announced last Thursday in Indianapolis, and his arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday in Phoenix. Under standards of criminal law, suspects are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Carlson’s criminal defense attorney defended his client by stating that it was improbable that the boys had completed the hikes without food or water.

A Flagstaff father is in custody after he was arrested for violating the child custody rights of his daughter’s mother, reports the Associated Press.

Robert Leland Morse was wanted on custodial interference charges after he reportedly took his two-year-old daughter from her Flagstaff home, reports the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office. Luckily, authorities received a tip that he was living in a Phoenix apartment complex, and he was found and arrested without incident Friday afternoon. An arrest warrant had been issued earlier that day.

His daughter was also found unharmed and was returned to her mother. The mother reportedly has full child custody rights.

Let Mel Gibson’s child custody agreement with baby mama Oksana Grigorieva be a lesson to all involved in a child custody battle: it doesn’t pay to be greedy.

At the end of the bitter custody dispute over their 10-month-old daughter that garnered national headlines, Gibson only has to pay Grigorieva $750,000 under a settlement agreement that was disclosed on Wednesday, reports the Los Angeles Times.

A 21-year-old Phoenix mother faces child abuse charges after she was caught on video hitting her baby daughter and blowing marijuana smoke into her mouth, reports the Associated Press.

Phoenix police arrested Jessica Tara Callaway Saturday after her friend, Alexandrea Kingsley, turned in a cell phone video depicting Callaway's actions. In the video, the Phoenix mother reportedly picked up her 10-month-old daughter by her left leg and smacked her in the leg and the face, according to court documents. Kingsley also told police that Callaway blew pot smoke into the baby's face twice to keep her from crying.