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Minneapolis, Minnesota family law lawyers represented the parties in a custody and visitation dispute.

Harry Alan Stillwell and Beth Ostergaard Stillwell were married in 2004. They have two joint minor children, a daughter and a son. Beth petitioned for dissolution of the marriage approximately 12 years ago, in October 2012. Since then, the parties have had numerous high-conflict disputes and have engaged in nearly continuous litigation.

In September 2014, the parties resolved the issues of custody and parenting time by a stipulation. The parties agreed they would share joint legal custody for religious and educational decisions, that Beth would have sole legal custody for the purposes of medical and dental decisions, and that no physical-custody designation would be made. The parties also agreed to a parenting-time schedule by which Harry would have the children for five overnights each two-week period, and they agreed to the appointment of a parenting-time consultant to resolve parenting-time disputes. The district court incorporated the parties' stipulation into an amended dissolution judgment and decree, which was entered in November 2014.

Between 2014 and 2017, the district court appointed two parenting-time consultants, both of whom eventually resigned. In March 2019, the district court appointed a special master to provide a better mechanism for addressing and resolving the parties' disputes. See Minn. R. Civ. P. 53. The district court authorized the special master to, among other things, "expand or restrict either party's parenting time or to order supervised parenting time" and to "make recommendations . . . regarding a change of legal or physical custody."

In February 2020, the parties' 12-year-old daughter refused to see her father or to exchange more than a limited number of text messages with him. The special master consulted with the daughter's healthcare providers and issued an order (the sixth special-master order) stating that it was "not advisable" for the daughter to have unsupervised contact with Harry. The special master ordered Harry to not contact his daughter "directly or indirectly" and to follow recommendations made by the daughter's healthcare providers to facilitate contact that was "appropriate, constructive, and consistent with the goals of the family repair work." In August 2020, the special master filed a status report in which she documented the daughter's healthcare providers' concerns about the daughter's condition and the possibility of her having contact with her father.

In early April 2021, the daughter made a disclosure concerning an incident involving her father, which led to child-protection and criminal investigations. In mid-April 2021, the special master issued an order (the sixteenth special-master order) suspending Harry's parenting time with both children on a "temporary basis" and scheduling a review hearing for later that month. In late April 2021, the special master issued an order (the seventeenth special-master order) discussing the concerns of the parties' son's healthcare providers and child-protection workers that the son "may be subjected to extreme pressure or exposed to significant parental conflict if he is required to transition between households prior to the resolution of" the child-protection and criminal investigations. The special master limited Harry's parenting time with his son to two two-hour supervised sessions per week. After receiving the order, Harry sent the special master an e-mail message that began, "Screw this. I am not having 'supervised' visits with [my son], ever." In early May 2021, the special master issued an order (the eighteenth special-master order) that extended the limitations on Harry's parenting time until the criminal and child-protection investigations were completed and until Harry and the son had engaged in a family therapy session.

In mid-May, the son's healthcare providers expressed concerns about his being returned to Harry's care based on a belief that Harry was "subjecting [the son] to emotional pressure to adopt [Harry's] perspective regarding the current situation" by "sharing negative or other inappropriate information" and that Harry had demonstrated an inability to regulate his emotions. Based on this information, the special master issued an order in late May (the nineteenth special-master order) that extended the limitations on Harry's parenting time with the son until Harry completed three additional family therapy sessions and three dialectical-behavioral-therapy (DBT) sessions.

In June 2021, the state charged Harry with two crimes based on his daughter's prior disclosure. One month later, the district court in Harry's criminal case issued a domestic-abuse no-contact order (DANCO) that prohibited Harry from contacting either child. The conditions of his pre-trial release also prohibited him from having any contact with minors.

In December 2021, while Harry was prohibited from contacting his children, he moved to modify custody, seeking temporary sole legal and temporary sole physical custody of both children. In a supporting affidavit, Harry asserted that Beth had "unilaterally removed" the children from school "for significant periods of time" and that Beth was alienating the children from him based on their daughter's allegations.

In January 2022, the district court in Harry's criminal case modified the conditions of pre-trial release to allow Harry to have contact with the parties' son, to the extent allowed by the orders in this case. In July 2022, the special master filed an order (the twenty-first special-master order) providing that Harry's parenting time would remain suspended until he completed a psychological evaluation and a four-week DBT program.

Outcome: In October 2022, the district court conducted a hearing on the special master's July 2022 order and on Harry's motion to modify custody. In December 2022, the state dismissed the criminal charges against Harry based on concerns that it would not be in the daughter's best interest to testify. In January 2023, the district court issued an order affirming the special master's July 2022 order, denying Harry's motion to modify custody, and awarding Beth conduct-based attorney fees. Harry filed a motion for amended findings, which the district court denied. Harry appeals.

In re Marriage of Stillwell, A23-1487, A23-1970 (Minn. App. Aug 19, 2024)

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