In Matter of Abare v. St. Louis , Abare was awarded sole custody of the couple's children while St. Louis retained "limited visitation" supervised by his sister.
A few months later, after accusing St. Louis's sister of failing to properly monitor the kids, Abare sought a termination of St. Louis's visitation rights on the basis her daughter developed "emotional and psychological problems" as a result of the unsupervised visits.
The Clinton County Family Court granted Abare's request and revoked St. Louis's ability to visit his daughter and directed agency supervision when meeting with his son.
On appeal, St. Louis argued the Family Court not only erred when it granted Christina's request, but wrongfully refused to appoint new counsel after he had a "disagreement" with his original attorney.
The Appellate Division, Third Department, noted the lower court had granted St. Louis sufficient time to retain an attorney and he thus "failed to establish grounds for the appointment of substitute counsel."
Furthermore, because there was sufficient evidence justifying the revocation of visitation rights -- including testimony from the daughter's therapist outlining the child's behavioral problems -- the AD3 could find no error with the outcome. (In addition to the father's anger-management problem, the therapist testified that the youngster's behavior became significantly better once the father's visits ended.)
They'll be no meeting St. Louis .
To download a copy of the Appellate Division's decision, please use this link: Matter of Abare v. St. Louis