2009 Mississippi Court of Appeals Excerpts

 

After the 2007 divorce trial, Mr. Stewart appealed numerous issues.  The Mississippi Supreme Court assigned the case to the Mississippi Court of Appeals.  On appeal, the Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed and remanded Judge Cynthia L. Brewer’s award of unsupervised visitation to Mr. Stewart.  All other issues were affirmed.  Significant excerpts from the opinion which used fictitious names are as follows:

 

[H]is continuing practice of bathing Sarah even after the guardian ad litem’s first report; and his continuing to help Sarah bathe even after the court instructed both parents that the children were of sufficient age to bathe themselves.

Steven bathed naked with all three children for most of their lives until the children were the following ages: Michael, ten; Robert, six; and Sarah, five. At that time, the guardian ad litem advised Steven to stop engaging in such behavior and apparently assumed he stopped the practice.

Then, upon his return home from COPAC on a Saturday evening, after being in treatment for his gambling addiction for a month, testimony reveals that Steven tried to force his ten-year-old son to take a bath with him, grabbing his son by the arm, even though the boy screamed in protest. Rachel stated that she intervened when she heard her son screaming. Rachel testified that the next morning, she saw Steven shave his pubic hair, and then once again tried to get the children to bathe with him. Rachel intervened again, and took the children to church to get them away from Steven. The record reflects that Rachel found this behavior offensive and alarming.

During a fifteen-day visitation, Sarah developed a rash and blisters in her private area and upper thighs, which was diagnosed as impetigo. Steven asserted that Sarah told him that the rash was caused by a car seat belt. However, during his visitation period, Steven failed to seek medical treatment for Sarah, and he refused to allow Rachel to see Sarah until four days later, when his visitation period ended. Nothing in the record shows that the rash was tested to confirm its cause. The record reflects that Sarah was in so much pain from the rash that when Rachel picked her up several days later, Sarah was sitting with her legs spread apart.

[H]is COPAC records reveal that Steven’s pending legal problems motivated him to participate in treatment, rather than his desire to seek recovery. The record also reflects that he lacked insight into his own character and seemed to blame Rachel for his problems. Steven’s prognosis for recovery was reported as very poor.

We note that the COPAC records contain a discharge summary, concluding that not only was Steven unwilling to stay away from casinos, but he also lacked any insight into the impact of his impulsive behavior or cravings on his addictions.

In his sexual addiction screening test, Steven admitted that he felt that he needed to discontinue a certain form of sexual activity, and had worried about people finding out about his sexual activities. He also admitted that he had trouble stopping his sexual behavior when he knew it was inappropriate.

We, therefore, reverse the issue of Steven’s unsupervised visitation, and remand this case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

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