Claudia Moreno v. Akeem Wells-Nelson
Case No: 19FL01460
Hearing Date: Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:30

Nature of Proceedings: Req. for order: DVRO

Petitioner’s Req. for Order: DVRO

Attorneys:

Petitioner [“Claudia” and sometimes “mother”] is represented by Stacy Robinson

Respondent [“Akeem” and sometimes “father”] is self-represented

Ruling: The Court has read everything and for the reasons set out below makes the followings orders:

1. The DVRO requested by Claudia is GRANTED; to expire in one year; provided the Court orders the following exceptions: Brief and peaceful contact with Claudia, and peaceful contact with the children, as required for the court-ordered visitation of the children, is allowed unless a criminal protective order says otherwise.

2. Claudia will have sole legal and physical custody of the two minor children; the Court has considered and rejected father’s request for joint legal and physical custody of the two sons.

3. Pending the next hearing Akeem will have visitation with the children every Tuesday and Thursday from 3pm to 6pm with all exchanges to take place at Walmart located at 701 W. Central Ave, Lompoc, CA 93436. The Court has considered but rejected father’s request for visitation on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

4. That all non-emergency and non-urgent communication relative to the children will take place via TalkingParents.

5. Akeem’s request that the Court order Claudia not use, ingest or smoke marijuana or allow others to smoke, use or inject marijuana while the children are in her custody and care has been considered and rejected, without prejudice (means the issue may be raised again at another time).

6. Except for Tuesdays and Thursdays Akeem is allowed to communicate with the minor children nightly between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. via FaceTime, Skype or by telephone. Akeem is responsible for initiating the call to Claudia; if the call has not been initiated by 7:10 pm, Claudia may consider the request forfeited.

7. Mediation is scheduled for _________________________

8. The matter is back on the FL&M calendar at 10:30 am on _________________________ to consider the results of mediation and to make “permanent” orders if mediation is unsuccessful; ; declarations and briefs due one week in advance.

9. Claudia will have property control of:

(a) The Green/Gold Lincoln Aviator, 2003, registered to Claudia Moreno and (b) The Black Buick Regal, 1996, registered to Claudia Moreno.

10. Claudia will have access to Akeem’s home in order to collect Claudia’s personal belongings, baby monitor, babies’ clothes, toys, books and movies, TV, and two side tables.

11. The request that Akeem attend the Positive Parenting Program through CALM is DENIED.

12. Akeem shall provide all the transportation to exercise his visitation; there need to be no meeting or discussion; Claudia will have the children ready at her residence for the pickup exchange; timing on the exchanges will be prompt.

13. The children will be driven only by a licensed and insured driver; the vehicle must have legal child restraint devices.

14. Akeem will not travel with the children outside the County of Santa Barbara, State of California, without prior written permission of Claudia or a Court Order; the Country of habitual residence is the United States.

15. Claudia must notify Akeem 10 days in advance prior to any planned change in residence of the children.

16. The children must not be left alone without age-appropriate supervision.

17. If Akeem fails to arrive at the appointed time and fails to notify Claudia that he will be late, then Claudia need wait for only 15 minutes before considering the exchange canceled. If Akeem is unable to exercise visitation on a given occasion, he must notify Claudia at the earliest possible opportunity; Claudia must give Akeem as much notice as possible if the children are ill and unable to participate in scheduled parenting time with Akeem.

18. Neither parent will make or allow others to make negative comments about the other parent or the other parent’s past or present relationships, family, or friends within hearing distance of the child.

19. The parents will communicate directly with each other and will not use the children as a messenger.

20. Claudia will not schedule activities for the children during Akeem’s scheduled parenting time without his prior agreement.

21. The children will be returned to Claudia with the clothing and other belongings the children had when the children were picked up.

22. Neither parent will change the last name of the children or have a different name used on the children’s medical or other records without the written consent of the other parent.

23. A holiday visitation schedule for the children will be set at a later date.

24. The terms and conditions of this order may be added to or changed as the needs of the children and parents change. Such changes will be in writing, dated and signed by both parents; each parent will retain a copy. If the parents want a change to be a court order, it must be filed with the court in the form of a court document.

Analysis:

Claudia filed this 13 page request for a DVRO on 7/9; have read it all but summarize here; reports that Akeem and she are parents of two children born 9/2017 and 2/2019; seeks to have them as protected persons too; seeks personal conduct orders; stay away orders; she does not have a child custody or visitation order and she wants one; requests property control of Green/Gold Lincoln Aviator, 2003, registered to Claudia Moreno and Black Buick Regal, 1996, registered to Claudia Moreno; seeks “other orders” for:

1. Akeem to complete the Positive Parenting Program through CALM.

2. Access to Akeem’s home in order to collect Claudia’s personal belongings, baby monitor, babies’ clothes, toys, books and movies, TV, and two side tables.

3. Seeks sole legal and physical custody; NO visitation until the hearing;

4. Father not to take children from the County of Santa Barbara.

She testifies via declaration that Akeem and she are the parents of two children, Adrian, 21 months, and Gabriel, five months. On the morning of June 3, 2019, she was sitting on the couch with kids, and Akeem had just returned home from work; he was angry because he had to put down a deposit with the utility company in order to get the utilities turned on. He said to her “While your fat ass just sits around doing nothing!” As he said it, he poked her chest hard with two fingers; she could tell where this was going, so she picked up the phone; it just made him angrier when he heard her on the phone, he grabbed the phone out of her hand broke the screen; he went over to the couch and picked up Gabriel; he refused to give him to her; she called her social worker through Family Service Agency; explained the situation, which was familiar to the social worker because it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened; social worker assured Akeem that mother and children were going to a safe place, and he needed to let her leave with the kids, or she would call the police; Akeem let her have the child; she left with both sons; stayed in a hotel two nights until there was room at the domestic violence shelter; she has been staying there ever since.

Akeem and she have been together since 2015; there were many times during their relationship when he got so angry with her that he lost control; screamed at her, insulted her, put his hand around her neck; spit on her; several times he was so angry he got right in her face; she could feel his breath, his spit, and even his lips on her face; then he screamed at her; when he takes it this far, she knows he won’t stop with words; she usually doesn’t disclose everything to police; doesn’t want him to get arrested; then he gets very angry.

On May 19, 2019, Akeem and she were arguing; he loses his temper easily, and when he does, he yells at their son; she tells him to console the child; she called the police; he got very angry with her; he screamed at her; “I’m not going to make him a sissy, like you!” He picked up the child and sat him down too forcefully on the sofa; it escalated the argument; he was in her face, yelling at her; took his dominant hand and put it around her neck and tried to push her to the ground; he pushed her and she fell back onto the baby’s rocking chair, which broke.

On February 19, 2019, it was about 3:00 a.m.; he slapped her twice across the face and pushed her; she testifies about incidents earlier; sometimes the police were called; on one occasion they continued to argue and she told him he had to leave; he took the baby’s social security card with him; she begged him not to; baby was only four months old; she needed the card; on February 1, 2018, she was issued an Emergency Protective Order; he violated the order; he would call her telling her he loved her; once the EPO expired, he came home and he promised he would go to counseling although he didn’t; she spoke with the investigator from the DA’s office and told him she didn’t want him prosecuted.

She testified that Akeem is not an evil man; doesn’t do drugs; doesn’t drink; doesn’t think he means any harm to his children. But he cannot control his anger, and when he’s out of control, he scares her; has hurt her in the past; does not want him to hurt her again; doesn’t want children to see his rage and physical violence towards her; worried that children will be negatively affected by his fits of rage; when she suggests to him that he might consider a mental health evaluation, he refuses, and says it’s her who’s the crazy one.

TDVRO Issued

The Commissioner granted Claudia the DVRO requests on 7/11/19.

Response from Akeem on 8/12

Akeem filed a 38 page response on 8/12; have read it all; will summarize only; he does not agree to the orders requested; he testifies via declaration that he has not touched Claudia; she has been showing negative behavior for some time now; moved to California to live with her in December of 2015; things started off great; as time went on he noticed particular peculiar behavior; she became more aggressive; was controlling and authoritative; she treated him as though he was her child; it was she who initiated the shouting, cursing, name calling, such as stupid, asshole, black little dick, and so forth; he started packing and moving his belongings on February 3, 2018; Claudia‘s last words were, “I will make you pay for this.” Claudia had some strange notion that he would take son Adrian from her at that time; never crossed his mind; has two other children and never attempted to remove children from their mother; child’s place is with both parents, not just one parent.

Testified about an event at Walmart; she had a bad attitude; her face became full of rage, as though she was about to explode; she shouted through the store, all the way to the parking lot, which alarmed bystanders; carried on so much in the parking lot that he walked home; she drove along side of him; saying forcefully get in the car; walked by strangers; Claudia shouted to them, “what the fuck are you’re looking at.” She has a bad habit of wanting to control any and all situations in their relationship; if she doesn’t get her way, she demonstrates forceful bullying behavior, such as shoving him, striking him; she has punched him in the face, with one hand and slapped him with the other, which broke one pair of his glasses; she broke another pair by stepping on them; he has been slapped in the face repeatedly.

He testified that when there is a disagreement between the two of them; she continually states that “I’m going to get you.” He took this to be terroristic threat because Claudia is a bully and insecure about herself and life in general; she is a very large overbearing woman; she regularly uses marijuana; that makes her paranoid; he has been terminated from two jobs, because of her irrational attitude and unruly behavior; she also recently popped up unexpectedly at his current place of work.

Akeem testifies that Claudia has had some traumatic family issues, such as being molested/raped multiple times; she never received the proper counseling to recover; this is a huge matter in her lack of trusting others, and thinking that everyone is against her; she has a hard time with building relationships; he could no longer fathom Claudia’s jealousy, negativity, authoritative and controlling behavior; she has constantly bullied and threatened him; she will call the cops regardless; they would believe her over a black man; he found out that she is bipolar; she is dramatic and over the top with any issue; the accusations made in her declaration are not true and he is not guilty of any of it; he testifies that he has been followed multiple times ever since the 4th of July 2019.

Reply

There is no Reply filed by Claudia

Akeem’s declaration filed 8/19

The Court has read and considered Akeem’s declaration; he asks that the following requests be adopted by the Court pending the final determination of the DVRO in the within action:

(a) The parents shall share joint legal and physical custody of their two sons, Adrian and Gabriel Wells;

(b) That petitioner not use, ingest or smoke marijuana or allow others to smoke, use or inject marijuana while the children are in her custody and care;

(c) All non-emergency and non-urgent communication relative to the children take place via TalkingParents;

(d) That the parties be ordered to participate in mediation with Family Court Services in order to try and work out a Parenting Plan as well as a Holiday Schedule;

(e) Temporary Visitation pending the Hearing and Mediation as follows:

(1) Father to have parenting time every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. with all exchanges to take place at Walmart located at 701 W. Central Ave, Lompoc, CA 93436, where they both work and live;

(2) At all other times children will be in mother’s custody and care; and

(f) That the non-custodial parent be allowed to communicate with the minor children nightly between 7:00 p.m.-7:45 p.m. via FaceTime, Skype or by telephone. Non-custodial parent is responsible for initiating call to custodial parent.

The Court’s Conclusions

This has been a contentious and acrimonious relationship for many years.

Although Akeem has many complaints about Claudia’s behavior over many years, the fact of the matter is that he has initiated many of the confrontations; that is unacceptable in light of the fact that she has the two very small children to raise. The Court cannot condone his actions, even if provoked.