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Date: 10-18-2024
Case Style:
In the Matter of the Marriage of M.D. and S.D.
Case Number: 126,599
Judge: Jacquelyn E. Rokusek
Court: District Court, Johnson County, Kansas
Plaintiff's Attorney:
Defendant's Attorney:
Description:
Olathe, Kansas family law lawyers represented husband and wife in a divorce.
After eleven years of marriage and four children together, Father and Mother divorced. Six years of contentious and acrimonious litigation over the parties' children, spousal maintenance, and child support followed. At first, the parties agreed to share equal parenting time with their four children. The trial court issued a journal entry and decree of divorce and adopted the initial parenting plan as the permanent plan. It also found that-based on evidence at a bench trial-the parenting plan was in the best interests of the children. The trial court also ordered Father to pay child support and spousal maintenance.
A few months later, Mother moved to reduce Father's parenting time and require that it be supervised due to the many coparenting issues she had with Father. Many motions followed which concerned issues of the children's therapists, school arrangements, and Father's child support payments. At a hearing, the district court ordered that both parents must submit to a psychological evaluation. Mother complied, but Father refused. While Father refused to submit to the evaluation, he obtained verbatim portions of the results of Mother's evaluation from his lawyer, which is a violation of a local court rule.
The district court sanctioned Father and his counsel based on Father's refusal to comply with the district court's order to submit to an evaluation and his lawyer's release of portions of Mother's evaluation to Father. As a result, the district court also suspended Father's parenting time to which Father moved for the court to reconsider. The district court then partially granted the reconsideration motion and modified Father's parenting time to two hours of supervised parenting time twice a week. The district court did note its observation that Father had not consistently exercised his share of parenting time and that most of Father's parenting time was spent with paternal grandparents.
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In re Marriage of M.D., 126,599 (Kan. App. Oct 18, 2024)
Outcome: Affirmed
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: