I got permission from a client to write about him a while back, and I'm in the mood now. So here goes. Note that the disclaimer at the top of the page applies double here. I'm deliberately mixing up some of the details both to protect privacy, and because I would probably have gotten some of the wrong anyway, and I do not want to be sued.

Jack is about 5'7" and in his early 20s. He has brown, receeding hair, and a beard. He always has a large friendly smile. He likes baseball caps. His personal charm overcomes his tendancy to ignore personal hygiene.

Jack is disabled. He is mentally retarded, speaks with a lisp, and he has a poor memory. According to his mother, he used to have seizures when he was a child. Jack is also the father of a daughter who was four when I became involved in his case. I'll call his daughter Mia.

I will call Mia's mother Lisa. Lisa is very overweight, and I would estimate has an IQ in the low average range. More intelligent than Jack by a few notches, but no genius. I'm guessing that Lisa didn't have a lot of boyfriends before Jack. Lisa and Jack broke up shortly after Mia's birth when Lisa found another boyfriend. Occasionally over the next few years, Lisa and Jack would get together, mainly when Lisa was between relationships with other guys. He became sort of the backup boyfriend. Then Lisa got married and had a new baby with her husband.

Jack isn't really capable of living on his own. He can't hold a job, and can't really take care of his money, or keep track of things in general. He splits time between living his mom and his dad, neither of whom like each other, but both of whom love Jack. Mainly he is at his mom's, who is a teaching assistant, and her second husband, a retired worker of some sort.

After Lisa and Jack split up, Jack would see Mia whenever Lisa would let him. When Lisa was angry with Jack, he wouldn't get to see Mia, and when they were getting along he would see Mia about once a week. After a two years of this arrangement, with his parent's help, Jack filed for formal visitation. He was given supervised visits once per week with his parents as supervisors.

Shortly after the visits started, Lisa unilaterally cut them off, for the usual reason that she was mad at Jack. Jack filed a petition in court alleging that she had violated the order. Lisa got a court appointed attorney and that person told Lisa to let Jack see his daughter, so she did, and Jack dropped his petition. I wasn't involved at that stage.

Well things between Lisa and Jack got worse and worse after that point. She would always have some reason that something was done wrong during visitation, and there were frequent nasty phone calls. None of this is very unusual in a custody arrangement of this sort.

Then came the sexual abuse allegation. Which was where I became involved. (more later)