GLASTONBURY, CONNECTICUT · FAMILY LAW + FAMILY-VIOLENCE DEFENSE
This is where family court and criminal court collide, and most people do not see it coming.
A parenting dispute escalates. One parent keeps the children past the scheduled return, or takes them out of state, or will not disclose where they are. The other parent calls the police. What was a custody problem on Tuesday is a criminal charge on Wednesday.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233
CT Safe Connect: (888) 774-2900 — 24/7, by call, text, chat, or email
Custodial interference in the second degree (C.G.S. §53a-98) is a class A misdemeanor. It covers taking or keeping a child from the lawful custodian when there is no right to do so.
Custodial interference in the first degree (C.G.S. §53a-97) is a class D felony. The degree rises where the conduct takes the child out of state, or exposes the child to a risk of harm.
Where the charge arises from a domestic or family violence incident, it is handled on the family violence docket, with the arraignment timing and protective order consequences that come with it.
A custodial interference case almost always has a family case behind it, and the two interact constantly.
The criminal case asks whether you unlawfully took or kept a child. The family case asks what serves the child’s best interests. A protective order from the criminal case can restrict your contact before the family judge has weighed in. What you say in one proceeding can be used in the other. And a conviction, or even the allegation, lands squarely in the best-interest analysis.
Most criminal lawyers do not see the custody case driving the conduct. Most family lawyers have never handled the criminal charge. The combination is uncommon, which is a problem for defendants and the reason this firm exists in the shape it does.
It is a criminal case with a docket number.
Whatever the provocation, acting again while charged compounds the exposure substantially.
The custody order, the parenting plan, the communications, the history. The criminal defense frequently lives inside the family record — what the order actually permitted, what was agreed, what the other parent had done.
Calling the police is one option, and it is not always the most effective one. Family court enforcement — a motion for contempt, compensatory parenting time, a modification — may produce a better result for your children and will not put a co-parent’s record at stake. There are circumstances where a criminal response is the right one. It is worth understanding the trade before making the call.
Parenting orders are enforceable by the same contempt process as financial orders. What courts can do when a schedule is not being followed.
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Arrested for a family violence offense in Connecticut? What happens at arraignment, what a protective order does, and how the Family Violence Education Program works.
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Every case starts with a conversation about what you’re facing and what it would take to handle it.
