Judge David D. Wolfe Hears Emotional Grandmother Visitation Fight

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]All right. Are you When you say you're contesting it, are you wishing Do you said that you just got noticed Saturday morning? Are you wanting time to hire a lawyer?

[00:00:09]Uh no, I'm representing myself. You're going to represent yourself. Okay.

[00:00:12]All right. Well, you're last on the docket, so we'll get to you as quickly as we can, but we have a contested case that's I'm told is going to take most of the day.

[00:00:21]So, understand that's the next time that I'm holding Chancery Court.

[00:00:28]>> [clears throat] >> If we don't get to get through anything today, the next days are the 18th and 19th and the 26th.

[00:00:39]Are we still Miss Roberts left on them?

[00:00:41]You're not involved in the Marlon case, are you? Mr. Potter is, I think.

[00:00:46]That correct? He's not any longer?

[00:00:49]Anyway, so whatever we don't get to today by the close of business will be rolled over to one of those three days that we have the rest of the month.

[00:00:57]>> I'm saying now? It's this month.

[00:01:00]The 18th, 19th of May or the 26th of May or the are the three days that I have remaining in Chancery Court here in Dickson. The rest of all criminal, so.

[00:01:09]Judge, so so you're aware what we're taking is a relocation case.

[00:01:15]Father relocated to Florida without permission of the court. I'll read through the file. Perfect. All right.

[00:01:21]Thank you, Judge.

[00:01:22]All right. We are going to take a 15-minute recess to allow the Mr. Franklin, do you have something?

[00:01:31]I'll staff before you take your recess.

[00:01:33]>> is that? It's on the uh state of Roy Overton.

[00:01:37]Okay. I'd filed a motion to compel an inventory. Mr. Osborn did provide an inventory and some bank statements. I think we've agreed that he's going to have four 14 days and he had to do a supplemental. He'd provided the decedent's estate uh the decedent's account statements and we just want the uh estate statements.

[00:01:56]All right.

[00:01:58]And that'll take you you're going to do it in a great order. Yes.

[00:02:01]>> And I feel that Mr. Johnson, do you want to take up your show cause matter which was in the matter of Susie Cobb?

[00:02:09]Good morning. I have James Johnson. I would I received notice I thought it was for a status review and so I have a copy of the prop the inventory and the property management plan that I'd like to submit to the court for review.

[00:02:24]Uh and there was no bond set. So I'll go through each one of those items with the court rather quickly.

[00:02:30]Uh shouldn't take long. Okay.

[00:02:33]As you can see you're out of from the real property the real [clears throat] property was valued at when the conservatorship was established.

[00:02:41]Um the conservator the ward owned a house worth $231,000.

[00:02:47]Uh judge >> [clears throat] >> Uh judge Marsh approved the sale of that property. That property sold for 100 and $80,000 or in that neighborhood I believe it was your honor.

[00:03:01]She also approved the disbursement of the expenses incurred in the sale of that property.

[00:03:10]Uh and now >> [clears throat] >> there's an order in the file where she approved of those disbursements in the sale of that property. That real estate no longer exists your honor. So in the bank after all the expenses have been paid there's a balance of $130,697.

[00:03:29]So that along with her monthly income your honor she gets monthly income of 20 $243.

[00:03:39]Social Security and a pension. So the court there's never been a bond set on this and so I would like for the court to go ahead and tell us what bond amount should be established or be set on this and we'll get that bond in place.

[00:03:53]Well, >> [clears throat] >> I don't want to burden the estate with an excessive bond, but uh you're saying that there's a $130,000 roughly in the bank. $130,000 in the bank account, Your Honor. I mean, I would say that would be the amount of the bond. Okay.

[00:04:09]Not worry about the monthly income, but the amount of actual liquid cash assets would be the amount that we need to Well, let's set the bond at $130,000.

[00:04:18]$130,000. I can get on that this week.

[00:04:21]Okay.

[00:04:23]Okay, and there are no debts again, Your Honor, and she has monthly expenses that total over $5,000, so that 130 will be going. She's in an assisted living facility, so most of that 130 over the rest of her life will be going to pay for that.

[00:04:39]Well, I think that complies with our status requirements, so uh I don't see there's any real need for us to to Normally, what we do is in a year or so, we send out another, you know, show cause just to see what the status of it is. Sometimes, people pass away they don't uh on these conservatorships and they don't let us know and we've got a file that remains open, so Yes. you know, probably just be set for uh Let's just set it in January on that January the 2nd day for just a status to see how she's doing. Okay.

[00:05:11]Uh and we will do an and we will submit an accounting before that, so the court will have that.

[00:05:15]>> accounting and and by that time you should be able to get your bond, so We'll do. All right. Okay. Thank you, Your Honor.

[00:05:24]Mr. Odell, would you something else?

[00:05:25]Anybody have anything that you need to take up before I take the recess? Judge, we have the motion to set on the Green case.

[00:05:32]Chas Chas Allen Green versus Julianne Nicole Green. Yes, and the court provided me with August the 26th August the 28th, September the 2nd, and September the 21st. Uh they gave me one more date, but that date was not available on my calendar, so I was just waiting Mr. Odell to tell me what he said.

[00:05:51]Now, August is a different judge, huh?

[00:05:53]I'm here in September, but August would be Judge Turnbull. It really doesn't matter to me.

[00:06:00]>> Does not matter on this one. Nobody's hurt anything. He's been in jail.

[00:06:15]September the 2nd.

[00:06:18]September the 2nd works, Judge.

[00:06:21]All right, September 2nd.

[00:06:24]Uh mainly the issue will be visitation with the kiddos, so uh 3 hours? 4 hours?

[00:06:34]Half a day. Half day.

[00:06:44]Your Honor, on the the um Jenkins versus Taylor matter, Your Honor, Mr. Taylor had reached out to um Mr. Vandiver, but they represented my client in some estate planning scenarios. So, we have got some various motions. We're going to strike our request for possession of the marital residence, and Mr. Taylor's going to be um stay at the marital residence and pay the mortgage and the the debts associated with the marital residence.

[00:07:15]Um Mrs. Jenkins is going to be able to coordinate with him, and she and a friend will be able to come over and to pick up her uniquely personal items from the marital residence. And then he's going and then we're going to pass anything to give him time to retain counsel. All right.

[00:07:32]Mr. Taylor, you understand what's being agreed to today? Yes. All right.

[00:07:36]And we'll show that the matter is going to you're going to submit an agreed order on that one issue, and uh then the rest of the issues will be reserved.

[00:07:43]Yes, your honor. All right. Thank you.

[00:07:44]>> your honor.

[00:07:47]Anybody else have anything that you want to announce before I take my recess?

[00:07:51]>> [clears throat] >> We'll stand in recess for 15 minutes.

[00:07:53]When I come back, we'll be taking up the first contested case, which is the one that Mr. Roberts indicated. Your honor, when my client came to me, I explained to Ms. Neblett the difference between parental visitation and grandparent visitation.

[00:08:14]I explained to her that the hurdles that we have that are given to us in 36-6-306 are very specific that we must show first off that my client was blocked from seeing her granddaughter.

[00:08:33]And secondly, that she did have a significant relationship with her granddaughter, and you will see in the testimony today that that was true at the beginning of the granddaughter's life, and then it was sporadic throughout the rest of the granddaughter's life depending upon whether the father would allow it or not.

[00:08:56]Thirdly, we must show, and I explained to her that having no visitation at this point would put the daughter in danger of substantial harm.

[00:09:07]So, you'll hear testimony today that that was a significant relationship, not only testimony from the grandmother, but also uh from those who were in observation.

[00:09:18]And then finally, I explained to her that the court must determine if it's in the best interest of the grandchild to have that visitation with her grandmother.

[00:09:29]So, I told her that this is certainly not a done deal.

[00:09:33]She said that she wants her Oakland to know that she did everything that she possibly could to see her, to be with her, and to love her.

[00:09:45]And that the only reason that they couldn't be together during this period of time was that the father wouldn't allow it.

[00:09:53]So, with this hearing on the record, she can at least demonstrate to the granddaughter, even if she doesn't prevail down the road, that she tried her best to get with her.

[00:10:08]Robert, do you wish to make an opening statement?

[00:10:18]Principles that a parent has, um, is to raise their children in the manner that they see fit. And it is a vi- it And in order to infringe on my client's constitutional rights to raise it, there's a high burden that the grandmother has to prove in this case.

[00:10:34]Um, again, Your Honor, I have filed with the court a, um, some admissions that I filed a request for admissions. I have filed those with the court, and I would ask those to be deemed right now before the onset, for those to be deemed admitted.

[00:10:53]All right, no objection. Then any request for admission that has not been answered are now deemed to be admitted.

[00:10:58]And then at at at an onset, and getting into it, as you will recall, this matter, um, was first filed by Mrs. McNugget, um, where she only sued the my client, Mr. Donald Colt Riddle, the biological and the and the primary residential parent of the minor child.

[00:11:17]Um, I filed a motion in that to dismiss, um, and for and I actually filed Rule 11 sanctions.

[00:11:25]Um, had to come before the court to get that dismissed.

[00:11:29]Uh, had to proceed in the court to get that done.

[00:11:33]Uh the court granted leave. Uh it was dismissed and then it was refiled wherein Mrs. Lori Nablit, the maternal grandmother of the minor child, sued both Morgan Shay Morehead and Donald Cole Riddle for grandparent visitation.

[00:11:48]Um to my knowledge, Morgan Shay Morehead has failed to file a response. That's correct, Your Honor.

[00:11:55]And is not present. Correct. So I want that of the record that she that the mother is not here. Um has been duly served now on the second petition.

[00:12:10]All right. But has failed to appear. Um I don't know how notice was provided to her of the hearing. Um but I do want to clear it up and and to make sure that she was provided notice of this hearing.

[00:12:28]And so I would you know, again, if counsel would address that she how she served how he certified She was served at the very beginning with the petition and she never responded in any way whatsoever.

[00:12:39]And and that that that is ex- exactly correct. She didn't respond, but there's been no motion filed for default.

[00:12:48]And there's no notice [clears throat] to her.

[00:12:51]Um again, you know, there was a motion to set that was filed. Right. And so I just want I just want it clear so that we're not coming back and saying that Well, there was I'm here there was an order entered on March 16th that states the following. This matter came on for hearing on the second day of February 2026 with the Honorable Larry J. Wallace presiding on the petitioner's motion to set. It appearing to the court that counsel for the petitioner Lori Nablit and respondent Donald Cole Riddle agreed to set the matter for hearing on May 12th, 2026. The respondent Morgan Shay Morehead having been provided notice of the hearing failed to appear.

[00:13:27]It is therefore ordered and judged and decreed that this matter shall come on for final hearing on the 12th day of May 2026.

[00:13:36]And then there was a certificate of service that you had served on Morgan Morehead a copy of that on the 9th day of February.

[00:13:48]Again this is this is the the maternal grandmother's daughter. So again I just want the record clear that there's nothing and again not alleging that there's any subterfuge or anything. I just want the record clear that Record is clear that she has been given notice. She was served and she's been given notice and that there is no problem as far as this court is concerned just because there was not a default judgment. She's she's not present so we'll proceed without her. Right. Just I just again wanted to make sure that the record was clear to that. All right. And again on those admissions your honor again your honor's well-versed I'm sure in the in the statute on the grandparent visitation rights. The parties are divorced so that gives rise to the permission to file.

[00:14:33]But again the standard is is that that Mrs. Neblett in this matter must prove severe emotional damage or the threat thereof to this child in order to infringe on my client's constitutional rights. There's no presumption raised based on the admissions that have been filed that there is a significant relationship. So again the significant relationship has to be proven and then that the severance of that significant relationship will cause severe emotional trauma to the child.

[00:15:10]All right.

[00:15:15]Mr. Myers you may call your first witness. Yes your honor I'd like to call Lori Neblett.

[00:15:20]Ms. Neblett will around, please.

[00:15:39]Counsel, let me see you, if I may.

[00:15:45]>> [snorts]