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Greene v. Taylor2/27/2002
AFFIRMED.
The plaintiff, Gwendolyn Taylor Greene, appeals a judgment of the trial court designating the defendant, John B. Taylor, the domiciliary parent of their minor children, Mitchell and Jonah, and finding that it would be in the children's best interest to live in Texas with their father, instead of in Lake Charles, Louisiana with their mother. For the reasons set out below, we affirm.
I. FACTS
Ms. Greene and Mr. Taylor were married in 1991 and divorced in 1994. The parties had two sons together, Mitchell born in 1992 during the marriage and Jonah born in 1995 after the divorce. By agreement, Ms. Greene was awarded primary custody of Mitchell in the 1994 divorce, and Mr. Taylor was allowed limited visitation. There was no formal custody agreement with respect to Jonah; however, Mr. Taylor paid child support for both boys. Both parties are currently remarried. On January 14, 2000, Mr. Taylor filed a petition to modify the custody plan with respect to Mitchell and establish custody of Jonah. In large part, Mr. Taylor's petition was in response to an incident that occurred on December 21, 1999, involving a spanking received by Mitchell from Ms. Greene's husband. Prior to filing his petition, Mr. Taylor obtained an ex parte custody order in December 1999 due to the December 21, 1999 incident.
On February 25, 2000, the first hearing on the custody dispute was held. The first issue addressed by the trial court was whether the children should continue to live with Mr. Taylor pursuant to the December 1999 ex parte custody order or be returned to Ms. Greene pending resolution of the custody dispute. In connection with this issue as well as the merits of the custody dispute, the trial court heard the testimony of Mitchell and Jonah in chambers as well as the testimony of Dr. Michael Seep, the Greene family doctor and friend, Ms. Greene and Ms. Taylor, the children's step-mother, Sherry Skarpa, Ms. Taylor's sister, Linda Ferguson, Mitchell's former second grade teacher and Gwen Thompson, an Office of Community Services (OCS) supervisor, who oversaw an OCS investigation into the December 21, 1999 spanking incident. At this hearing, the trial court ordered the OCS report on the spanking incident entered into evidence over the objection of counsel for Ms. Greene. At the conclusion of the February 2000 hearing, the trial court ordered that the children be returned to Ms. Greene pending the outcome of the custody hearing. Mr. Taylor did not obey the court's order to return the children to Ms. Greene. Subsequently, on March 9, 2000, Ms. Greene obtained a court order from a Texas Court ordering Mr. Greene to return Mitchell to Ms. Greene. Pursuant to the Texas court order, Mr. Taylor returned both boys to Ms. Greene. At the conclusion of the hearings in this case on May 23, 2000, the matter was taken under advisement. However, on August 30, 2000, Mr. Taylor moved to re-open the case to have the court consider evidence of Ms. Greene's decision to home school Mitchell and Jonah. The court reopened the case and evidence of Ms. Greene's home schooling was taken. During this time the children remained in Lake Charles with Ms. Greene.
The trial court entered its judgment on May 21, 2001. The court designated Mr. Taylor as the domiciliary parent, and ordered that Mitchell and Jonah live with him. A formal written reasons for judgment was signed on May 14, 2001. It is from this judgment that Ms. Greene now appeals.
II. ISSUES
Ms. Greene asserts that the trial court erred when it admitted the report of the Office of Community Services into evidence over her objection that the report was hearsay not subject to any exception. Ms. Greene also asse
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