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Gabriel v. Pritchard9/26/2001
ENTRY ORDER
In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:
Father, Brian Pritchard, appeals the order of the family court suspending indefinitely visitation with his daughter, Briana, and granting sole legal parental rights and responsibilities (PRR) to Briana's mother. Father argues that (1) the court's rulings are not supported by the record, (2) he was not properly noticed for the hearing on mother's motion to modify legal PRR, (3) the court improperly admitted a "past recorded recollection" of mother, and (4) the court abused its discretion when it appointed mother's uncle to supervise father's past visits. We affirm.
Mother and father were living together in Florida at the time of Briana's birth on January 1, 1993. Shortly thereafter, mother moved to Vermont with Briana to live with mother's family, and father remained in Florida. A Florida paternity decree awarded physical custody to mother, granted father visitation, and awarded joint legal PRR. Father did not exercise visitation regularly at first under the Florida order. Father then moved to Massachusetts in August or September of 1994, at which time he began visiting with Briana regularly for a period of several months. A pattern developed, however, in which father would schedule visitation and then would make changes when the visit approached. Briana then began resisting his visitation.
Father's last visit during this period occurred in March 1995 when he absconded with Briana following an argument with mother, forcing mother to call the police. Father then returned to Florida in August 1995, but mother did not become aware of this until December of that year. Between March 1995 and July 1996, father did not have any contact with Briana, with the exception of a Halloween card he sent. Mother sought to modify the portion of the Florida decree governing parent-child contact. While the action was pending, the family court entered a temporary order setting up supervised visitation. In a final order dated July 18, 1996, the court modified father's contact schedule with Briana, gradually increasing visitation to allow Briana to readjust to contact with her father and ultimately reestablishing the schedule set forth in the Florida court order.
Only one day of visitation took place under the court's July 1996 order. Because of the prior incident involving the police, mother's uncle was present at the drop-off following this visit. Mother's uncle is a former police officer and volunteers as a guardian ad litem with the Windham Family Court. According to uncle, father would not at first bring Briana inside, and when he did finally, he stood at the end of the hallway with the crying child in his arms, goading mother with questions about whether she really wanted Briana back. Briana was having trouble breathing because father was squeezing her so hard, and he did not let go until uncle approached him, at which time Briana ran to her mother. Mother did not bring Briana back the next day for visitation because of this incident.
Mother testified that in the months following this isolated visit, father called her several times and left messages, but he did not leave a phone number where he could be reached and did not mention that he was interested in visitation. Mother also indicated that father did not make any contact during Christmas or on Briana's birthdays. They did receive a box of toys before Christmas of 1996, but there was no note or return address with the package. Mother sent two certified letters to father regarding visitation, both of which went unclaimed. Mother indicated that Briana did not ask about her father during this period of no contact.
Following thi
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