Posted on 11/19/2002 8:43:41 AM PST by Libertarianize the GOP
11.18.02 GJ court gives child molester custody rights
By MIKE WIGGINS The Daily Sentinel
By this time next month, Lynda Darden hoped she would be in Denver, starting a new life with her fiancZ and preparing her young daughter for elementary school.
Instead, she will likely still be in Grand Junction, locked in a custody battle with her ex-boyfriend over their child.
As upset as Darden is with a man who has never paid child support, she's even angrier with a Mesa County magistrate's decision to allow Toby Smith to have unsupervised visits with the 5-year-old.
Why? Because Smith is a convicted child molester.
"He has no right to be around a small child," Darden said. "I don't care what he thinks."
Smith, however, says he has never been ordered to undergo sex-offender treatment and has been shown not to be a risk to commit another crime against children.
The struggle for custody began last month when Darden attempted to enroll her daughter in a private school in Denver. It was part of plan to move across the state to be with her fiancZ, who she hoped would eventually adopt the girl.
As part of the school registration process, Darden filled out one list of names of people who were allowed to pick up the girl and another list of names of people who were not allowed to pick her up. She included Smith's name on the latter.
School officials told Darden they could not keep the father of the child from picking her up from school unless Darden showed proof that she had full custody of the girl.
Darden returned to Grand Junction and filed to have full custody of the 5-year-old. Smith counterfiled, asking that he be granted full custody.
On Nov. 6, Mesa County Magistrate Cynthia Cyphers issued a temporary order granting Smith unsupervised visitation rights. According to the magistrate's ruling, Smith can see his daughter every third Sunday of the month for seven hours each visit. The first visit was Sunday.
Cyphers' decision enraged Darden.
"It's absolutely asinine that they would allow my daughter in a room with (Smith) alone," Darden said.
Cyphers did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Smith, 24, was arrested in April 1998 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty that September and received a four-year deferred judgment and sentence, according to court records.
The sentence mandated that Smith meet several conditions, including committing no other offenses, meeting with a probation officer once a month, undergoing a sex-offender evaluation and having no contact with children under 10 years old.
If Smith could abide by the conditions, prosecutors would drop the case against him, court records said.
Smith, though, was arrested in February 2001 on drug charges. The case was overturned this year by the Colorado Supreme Court, but a judge revoked Smith's deferred judgment and sentenced him to one year probation. Smith completed probation two months ago.
Darden claims Cyphers did not offer a reason for granting Smith visitation rights.
Smith, who lives in Grand Junction with his wife and 3-year-old son, says he received those rights because two psychosexual evaluations have shown him to have no sexual deviancy.
Darden and Smith are scheduled to meet Tuesday with a court facilitator to further discuss the custody issue.
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