Mom's Emergency Motion Backfires – Judges Give Dad Custody Instantly

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]party. Ryan council announce appearances for the record, please.

[00:00:03]>> Thank you, honor. May I please appear on behalf of petitioner Ryan Window, who appears uh via Zoom.

[00:00:11]>> Brian on behalf of Britney Renan, who appears in my office via Zoom.

[00:00:16]>> This matter comes before the court at this time. I think for the first time, uh there was an agreed upon order for mediation approved by this court earlier.

[00:00:28]Subsequent to that, there's been an emergency motion filed for change of custody and modification of parenting time. Council law, I want to ask first, is there any other case from any other court uh that has an impact on custody or visitation rights here?

[00:00:45]>> No, your honor, not to my knowledge.

[00:00:48]>> All right.

[00:00:48]>> His other daughter.

[00:00:49]>> Second of all, I think council verified that there's there is no existing order in this case.

[00:00:55]>> That's correct, your honor. I did file a motion to send temporary orders along with my petition, but that has not been heard yet either.

[00:01:02]>> All right. So, what has the de facto custody arrangement been, Miss Broyals?

[00:01:07]>> Your Thank you, your honor. The de facto, according to my client, up until New Year's Eve was week on week off with the exchanges occurring on Fridays and then um after this emergency motion was filed is when Miss Renan began withholding parenting time. And my client did see the child for about 4 hours. this past Saturday, but otherwise has not had parenting time since New Year's Eve.

[00:01:33]>> All right, Mr. are you and your client still pursuing this emergency motion at this time?

[00:01:38]>> Yes, we are, your honor.

[00:01:39]>> What is the emergency?

[00:01:41]>> Uh, the petitioner has uh provided alcohol and marijuana to his underage uh girlfriend. I guess for marijuana, there is no age, of course. Um this has been uh disconcerting to uh the respondent.

[00:01:59]Uh in addition, they've had some violent incidents as well with him pushing things into her um and screaming and yelling um some behavior that is into the range of unreasonable behavior.

[00:02:15]uh because of the drugs and the alcohol that have been provided to his girlfriend, we are seeking an emergency order uh giving custody to the uh the respondent until such time drug and alcohol and anger management can be uh undergone.

[00:02:36]>> All right. Um the information regarding marijuana use in his home comes from where?

[00:02:44]Uh >> it comes from his from the girl that he was seeing.

[00:02:48]>> It it was um it was third party information from the uh girl that he was seeing, Miss Liliana Clut.

[00:02:57]>> In other words, hearsay.

[00:02:58]>> Yes, your honor.

[00:03:00]>> The oldest, right?

[00:03:07]>> Right. Are there any other grounds that you're uh relying upon to seek emergency relief pursuant to your motion?

[00:03:17]>> So, he's his oldest daughter has said that he left them together and then two drink alcohol.

[00:03:24]>> The the other daughters as well have been watching him uh drink unreasonably.

[00:03:29]The older daughters as well from another relationship.

[00:03:35]>> Yes, your honor.

[00:03:36]>> Okay.

[00:03:38]And apparently based on information you sent to the court, the Cedric County District Court has taken action in that case.

[00:03:46]>> Is my understanding? Yes.

[00:03:48]>> All right.

[00:03:50]>> Miss Royals, what would your response be?

[00:03:53]>> Yes, your honor. Thank you. We did file a formal response um with the court in response to this emergency motion. Um, but just to kind of paraphrase on the first on the issue or the allegation that my client provided Miss Cluth with alcohol and marijuana, my client categorically denies that. Um, but as the court noted, that is entirely hearsay. Um, they did not provide any sort of affidavit of Miss Clute. They have not produced her for testimony today to my knowledge. Um, so any allegations, which frankly the the majority of their allegations in this emergency motion are hearsay allegations from Miss Clue, who is clearly a very disgruntled um troubled young woman. Um, and the fact that she's not here to testify that I can't cross-examine her obviously causes huge issues. Um, but however you are, I think it's important to note, frankly, even if he did provide this, which he again categorically denies, that has nothing to do with the party's minor child. Um, Ler, who is four years old, they're not alleging any allegations of harm coming to this child. Um, and the child, his other child from a previous relationship is a 9-year-old. Um, so I would frankly take, you know, again, hearsay, but a lot of grains of salt with a statement from a nine-year-old. Um, who again, you know, we we don't know how this all came up.

[00:05:11]Um, so any allegations from the 9-year-old who's providing information to, I'm assuming, to her mom who's in cahoots with Miss Renion. Um, and I think Liliana seems to be in cahoots or all these ex-girlfriends are in cahoots with each other to, you know, gang up against my client. Um I I mean procedurally there's an evidentiary wise um there's no basis to grant um any sort of emergency relief here. There are no allegations of imminent harm to this child, this 40-year-old child um in their motion or from council's statements. They have not alleged any harm to this child. Um, so pursuant, we're asking the court to adopt the de facto arrangement and the court is allowed to do that pursuant to KSA 232224 that allows the court to make orders to confirm the existing deacto custody of the child. And so that's what we're asking the court to do today because their motion does not rise to be the level of an emergency to warrant um a a modification of the deacto parenting time. And I would also point out to the court that in their motion, they're requesting um the modification of his parenting time, of dad's parenting time, be every other weekend, 6 pm on Friday to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. And frankly, your honor, if you're so worried for your child's safety, you give him a full every other weekend. Um I think frankly all this is, this motion is a way to try to get primary residential custody of of this child and probably some child's support. Um cuz I you're so afraid for your child's life. You're asking for every other weekend for dad, you know, on a weekend if you're worried about drugs and alcohol, you know, assuming that would be the time when that would most likely occur. So, it just it's extremely disingenuous to file this emergency motion um on the on the eve of this hearing um this hearing date that we have. Um, and again, and I think the court has previously taken evidence um, between these parties on a P a PFS a few weeks ago, and Miss Ren has filed two PFAs that were summarily denied. So, frankly, from my position, we're dealing with the the girl who cried wolf here.

[00:07:19]Um, she filed three PFAs, and those didn't work. So, let's try this emergency motion and see if that works.

[00:07:25]Um, but there's just not enough here to warrant a modification of the deacto.

[00:07:29]This is just frankly a a a ploy to get primary in my opinion. Um so we're asking the court to confirm the deacto today.

[00:07:39]>> Uh Mr. any reply argument that you desire to make?

[00:07:43]>> Um the U respond did file a police report after the petitioner shoved a shopping cart into her stomach uh at the petitioner's home while the respondent was picking up the minor child. There's a Witchah Police Department case number that is firsthand and that did occur directly to uh my client >> and minor.

[00:08:07]>> Mr. Windam has a shopping cart at his home.

[00:08:09]>> It was a toy shopping cart.

[00:08:10]>> A a toy shopping cart.

[00:08:12]>> Oh, one made out of plastic.

[00:08:16]>> Yes, my understanding.

[00:08:20]And then he rolled over on her intoxicated the 26th. On the 27th they got the call >> and on the 26th he had rolled over on the minor child intoxicated. And on the 27th was when she received the call from the Liliana >> asking clear because they were all afraid of him hiding.

[00:08:45]>> Okay.

[00:08:46]All right. Anything else you want to say about that, Miss Broyals?

[00:08:50]>> Um, I guess regarding the allegation of the rolling over, that's not in their motion, which they say occurred on the 27th, I think, is what I heard. And this was filed on the 31st. So presumably, if that happened and it was reported to Miss Renion, it would have been included in their motion, and it wasn't. But again, unless Miss Ren was in bed with Mr. Windom when this happened, I'm assuming she got this information from Miss Clue, which again would be hearsay allegations. and Miss Flute is not here to testify. I'm not a able to cross-examine her. Um they had every opportunity to provide to produce her of her testimony and they have not done so.

[00:09:25]So any allegations that Miss Flleuth would like to bring or any al that she witnessed personally should be disregarded by this court.

[00:09:33]>> Morals, what is the current status of the mediation that was ordered by the court?

[00:09:37]>> Yes, your honor. That was originally scheduled for last Friday, but the mediator had a funeral. Um, and so she had to reschedule it. And they are currently scheduled for mediation this Thursday.

[00:09:48]>> Oh, all right. Who is the mediator?

[00:09:52]>> Sarah Spar.

[00:09:54]>> Okay.

[00:09:56]>> And your honor, the police report was included as number eight on my motion.

[00:10:02]If Miss Royos wants to check number eight.

[00:10:11]Well, yeah. I I guess I should I I guess I can clarify my point. The rolling over incident where he was intoxicated, rolled over on the child, if that's what they're saying, was not included in the motion. Number eight, I I was aware that it says that about the shopping cart incident, but again, that has nothing to do with this minor child. So, I don't I don't see think that that gives any additional basis to restrict his parenting time from the de facto.

[00:10:37]Are these exhibits individually marked and numbered?

[00:10:45]>> I'm trying to scroll on on the screen here, council. So, I apologize. They don't appear to be. I I apologize.

[00:10:57]>> And somewhere in here there's a Witchtop Police report.

[00:11:01]>> Yes. Uh towards the uh end, I believe.

[00:11:04]Sure.

[00:11:12]And I did receive um council's exhibits that he submitted last night around 4. I think it was around 4:50 and I did have a chance to review those. There were amended exhibits that were submitted around 2:30 um that I briefly was able to glance at, but I've been in a meeting with my client since 2, so I didn't have a chance to fully review those and frankly they're hard to read. They're grayed out. And um all of these police reports, your honor, they're highly redacted. I mean, obviously we have foundational issues. Where did these come from um and again additional hearsay issues? But the way these are redacted is very suspect. Um I there's huge portions of it that are redacted that um from the ones that I was able to review um that I don't know, you know, did they redact the things they didn't like about them that weren't helpful for their case. So I would ask the court to disregard any of the police reports for lacking eving foundation and for hearsay from court >> any other >> I trust since this was filed as a paternity action that there's no uh dispute that Ryan Windam is the natural father of Law a minor child.

[00:12:25]>> There's no dispute.

[00:12:26]>> No dispute your honor.

[00:12:27]>> All right. will first make that finding that he is the father and has the rights and responsibilities connected with being a father to this child.

[00:12:39]Uh the court has uh read and considered the emergency motion for change of custody and modification of parenting time or has also considered the response that was filed in this case. board has also had an opportunity to at least uh scan or look through the documents that were just uh provided to the court earlier this afternoon.

[00:13:02]Um the court shares the concerns about the redaction and in fact the pertinance of some of this police information to this case. This court does not feel bound by any determination a separate court has made uh regarding a child uh belonging to one of these parties. Uh the court simply does not see that there are emergency circumstances here that would warrant uh some dramatic change in parenting rights in this case. Uh at most in the view of the court what's alleged is some questionable uh decisionm and perhaps even a suggested lack of morality. Nevertheless, there's there's no verification uh of some of these incidents which are deemed to be serious, and the court's not inclined to interfere with the constitutional right for Ryan Windham to parent his child.

[00:13:55]With that said, the court's going to enter an order at this point that neither parties to drink alcohol during their parenting periods with the child.

[00:14:05]Furthermore, under no circumstances does this court authorize either party to use marijuana.

[00:14:12]Uh that's an illegal drug in Kansas.

[00:14:14]Well accepted in other states, but not in this state and certainly not by this court.

[00:14:21]So that will be a specific order that the court will make. Um, since the parties have apparently had a de facto custody arrangement, the court will adopt it. Uh, the court will, uh, temporarily order joint legal custody with a week- toeek shared custody plan exchanging what time on Friday, Miss Broyals?

[00:14:51]usually picks her up the >> Is there a consistent time and place?

[00:14:56]>> It was usually around 3, like 3:00 p.m.

[00:14:58]>> Around 3:00, my client says, >> "Okay, I I want to hear from the mother on this."

[00:15:03]>> He drops her off at my house at 7:30 every morning on Friday when it's his day. His mom has never watched her on Friday, but she does watch her on Tuesdays for me. And his parents were supervising his contact with her because even they were concerned about his mental state.

[00:15:19]>> I just want to I just want to say that They even but but I have no problem with him having her but it's 7:30 in the morning on Friday is when he drops her off.

[00:15:29]>> Your honor, 7:30 in the morning on Friday is fine.

[00:15:32]>> All right, Miss Bars, I'm going to ask you to to draft an initial order in this case.

[00:15:40]Since um you represent the filing party, we need to have u have a finding of fraternity and for this court to make initial orders in the case. The court will reiterate its order for mediation in this case. There's some issues here that these parties need to work through and that need to discuss. And I think that the mediation with Miss Farrar would be very helpful in perhaps parties being able to express their concerns and to try to reach appropriate agreements regarding the best interest of their minor child. I also want to specifically note here that even though there are some areas of concern here, uh it does not appear that at any time this 4-year-old child who's the subject of this case was ever in imminent danger.

[00:16:27]Um this rollover incident, uh let's just say uh Mr. Windom, these things happen.

[00:16:35]You need to make sure though that at all times you conduct yourself in a way to keep your child safe and be ever mindful that you're a lot bigger than her and even rolling on her could cause injury.

[00:16:48]So be careful. That's just you do.

[00:16:53]>> All right. Um, regarding initial orders in the case, uh, Miss Broyals, from your perspective, is there anything else that needs to be addressed at this time? Uh your honor, the only other issue would be the issue of child support. Uh we did file a DRRA and a proposed child support worksheet. I don't see that um Miss Ren has filed a domest or DRRA and we haven't exchanged income information. So I think I between council and I we probably can do a agreed um child support worksheet. We would just need to exchange income information and and confer regarding child support. Um >> what is your what is your proposed effective date for the child support order?

[00:17:31]Oh. Um, your honor, we filed our motion on October 24th. Um, so I November 1, I think, would be appropriate.

[00:17:44]>> Mr. would you like to be heard on the effective date of child support in this case?

[00:17:49]>> That seems reasonable, your honor.

[00:17:50]>> Very well. November 1 would be the effective date. community >> council. I would just ask you to immediately exchange any pertinent information necessary to do the child support worksheet so that there's there's no further delay. This case has been pending since October. So, the sooner we get an appropriate child support order in effect. It'll be based on a shared residential custody schedule.

[00:18:13]Uh but, uh the better uh I think things are if we get that order operative and and going.

[00:18:21]Your honor, if yes, if if the uh exchange of the child could occur at the police station, that would be greatly appreciated.

[00:18:30]>> Why is that necessary?

[00:18:32]>> Um, my client is in fear of her safety.

[00:18:38]>> There's been your honor, I would object to that. I I mean, the parties have been exchanging fine up until the sessation of his parenting time by Miss Renion.

[00:18:47]And I think a lot of times um my client's parents help facilitate the exchanges. Um but she's filed two PFAs and they've both been found they were both dismissed. Um so I to say she's in fear of her life. I don't think there's enough found by this court and by judge Hart that she didn't have enough for a PFA. So I don't think she has enough for and I think that would be traumatic for the child to exchange at a at the police station. Um and I don't see what benefit that would have.

[00:19:13]>> Great.

[00:19:15]Mr. Windon would otherwise be dropping off and apparently picking up at the mother's house. Is that right?

[00:19:23]>> We we've been meeting sometimes at Dylan's. Um sometimes it'll he'll drop her off at my house. I I'm okay if he comes to my house to do it because I have cameras, but I'm not comfortable going to his. Last time my daughter was there when he shoved me his There's even a police report from his girlfriend.

[00:19:39]>> Okay. All right. With that said, with that said All right. Apparently, the mother is agreeable that um the drop off can take place at her residence, which makes all kinds of sense. Where does the father live?

[00:19:52]>> Yeah, I guess.

[00:19:53]>> I guess he's fine with exchanges occurring at mother's house. Um that's fine.

[00:19:58]>> All right. So, he'll do his pickups there as well.

[00:20:03]>> All right. Um >> I feel I feel comfortable with that.

[00:20:08]>> Mr. Windom, you can have another responsible adult person in the car with you when you do your pickup, but they're to not interfere in any way with your business with the mother or the child.

[00:20:17]Okay.

[00:20:20]>> Okay. All right.

[00:20:25]Preferably a family member of some kind if they're available. If not, uh you're certainly authorized to do it on your own.

[00:20:34]Okay.

[00:20:35]So, the next exchange will be Friday morning. Is that what's contemplated here?

[00:20:42]>> That that would be my number.

[00:20:43]>> All right.

[00:20:45]>> Well, since his parents have a right now, will he just go pick her up from them since it's supposed to be his week?

[00:20:54]Currently, my understanding is the uh child is with the uh petitioner and so >> his parents, excuse me.

[00:21:04]>> From the parents, >> you're in my client's position. I mean, we're it's Tuesday evening. He would like his full week. I think it makes the most sense to mom can have this week. We start fresh on Friday with him picking up from mom's house at 7:30 and then we alternate from there. So, we're >> inclined to agree. Remember at all times parents that this uh is all intended to be in the best interest of your minor child. So I would ask you to participate in mediation in good faith.

[00:21:37]Try to work with each other. You know your child better than anyone else in the world to try to work out the best possible plan for her long-term welfare.

[00:21:45]Good luck in that regard.

[00:21:47]Again, Miss BRS, if you'll draft an appropriate uh journal entry of paternity and documenting the temporary orders which have been implemented by the court here today.

[00:21:58]>> Yes, your honor. I will do that.

[00:21:59]>> Do you need any further clarification regarding those orders?

[00:22:02]>> I do not believe so. Thank you.

[00:22:04]>> Mr. do you?

[00:22:05]>> No, your honor.

[00:22:06]>> All right.

[00:22:08]Then, if there's nothing further at this time, the Windham and Renan matter will currently be in recess. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court entered several initial orders in the case. The court made a finding of paternity establishing Ryan Windham as the natural father of the minor child Lyric and confirmed the deacto week on week off custody arrangement as the temporary custody order with exchanges to occur at the mother's residence at 7:30 a.m. on Fridays beginning the following week. The court ordered joint legal custody on a temporary basis and reiterated its prior order for mediation with Sarah Ferrar, encouraging both parties to participate in good faith.

[00:22:49]The court set the effective date for child support at November 1st, the first of the month following the filing of the petition and directed council to immediately exchange income information so that a child support worksheet could be prepared without further delay. Under Kansas law, KSA23 to 3001 through 23 to 3007 governs child support calculations and the Kansas child support guidelines provide a formulaic approach based on the income of both parents, the custody arrangement, and the costs of health insurance and child care. When parents share equal residential custody, the support calculation accounts for the substantial time each parent spends with the child, which typically results in a lower support obligation than would be calculated under a primary residential custody arrangement. This case illustrates several important principles in Kansas family law. First, it demonstrates the high evidentiary bar that must be met to obtain emergency custody relief. A parent who seeks to dramatically alter an existing custody arrangement on an emergency basis must present credible firsthand evidence of imminent danger to the child, not hearsay allegations from third parties who are not available for cross-examination.

[00:24:04]Second, the case highlights the court's obligation to protect a parents constitutional right to parent their child, even when that parents judgment or lifestyle may be questioned. The court's observation that it was not inclined to interfere with the constitutional right for Mr. Windam to parent his child reflects a recognition that the fundamental right to parent is not forfeited by allegations of poor decision-making absent evidence of actual harm to the child. Third, the case underscores the importance of mediation in high conflict custody disputes, particularly in cases that are in their early stages. The court's strong encouragement that the parties participate in mediation in good faith and work together for the best interest of their child reflects the judicial preference for parent-driven solutions over court imposed orders. Fourth, the court's handling of the exchange location dispute illustrates the practical considerations that accompany custody orders. by directing that exchanges occur at the mother's residence, which she confirmed was acceptable and equipped with cameras.

[00:25:07]The court balanced the mother's safety concerns against the father's right to access while minimizing the trauma to the child that could result from exchanges at a police