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Date: 01-09-2024
Case Style:
Thelonika McCollum v. Jason Shoberg
Case Number: A-1-CA-505-342
Judge: Robert Lara
Court: District Court, Dona Ana County, New Mexico
Plaintiff's Attorney:
Defendant's Attorney:
Description:
Law Cruces, New Mexico divorce lawyers represented the parties in a marriage dissolution action involving a custody dispute.
{¶2} The parties underwent divorce and custody proceedings in the Third Judicial District Court beginning in 2016. In the course of those proceedings, Mother and Father agreed to a joint custody arrangement where they would exchange custody of the children at the end of each semester of school.
{¶3} On December 6, 2021, Mother filed a motion to amend or modify the custody order, and another motion to enforce the current custody order. Mother's motion to modify requested that going forward, she be granted custody of the children during the school year. She also alleged that Father had allowed the children to spend four nights a week at his mother's house, where criminal activity had occurred, and that he had failed to ensure the children received adequate dental care. In her motion to enforce, Mother asked the court to hold Father in contempt for various violations of the current custody order, including that Father allegedly interfered with Mother's ability to communicate with the children's doctor.
{¶4} Mother had physical custody of the children at the time she filed the motions. Later that month, at the conclusion of the fall semester on December 28, 2021, Father drove from Las Cruces to Santa Fe to pick up the children. Mother refused to transfer custody of the children to Father. The following day, on December 29, 2021, Mother filed a domestic violence petition in the First Judicial District court in Santa Fe and
was granted a temporary order of protection against Father. The order gave Mother temporary physical custody of the children.
{¶5} On January 11, 2022, Father filed an expedited motion to enforce the custody agreement in the Third Judicial District Court, seeking an order requiring Mother to return the children to him immediately. Mother responded by stating her reasons for refusing to transfer custody of the children to Father and for seeking the protective order, and went on to restate the concerns noted in her motion to modify the custody order, i.e., that when the children were in Father's custody, he would leave them in the care of relatives who were convicted of drug-related and violent felonies and that Father had failed to schedule or keep the children's dental appointments. Mother later filed an additional motion for temporary order asking the district court in this case to grant Mother custody of the children through the end of the spring semester and change the venue for the custody proceedings to the First Judicial District Court. Finally, Mother filed a motion for sanctions after Father's attorney wrote a letter to the chief judge of the Third Judicial District, advising that there were expedited motions pending that had not been set for hearing due to the retirement of the presiding judge, and asking that the case be reassigned to another district judge or a pro tem judge.
McCollum v. Shoberg, A-1-CA-40342 (N.M. App. Jan 09, 2024)
Outcome: Affirmed
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: