Thank you for your responses. I had partial custody. Went to funeral home to see my daughter. She had just left with someone. I sat quietly in the front while my older daughter (he had been her stepfather for a period of time) and her boyfriend (he is actually a step nephew of the deceased) went to the back to pay respects. Ex-husbands neice(older daughters boyfriends stepmother), told me to leave, I said I wanted to see my daughter. Ex husbands daughter came up front and told me to leave. I said either bring her here or tell me where she is, I don't think I'm asking for too much. She said leave, I have papers, I have custody. I said I want to see my daughter. They were saying I had picked a fine way to choose how I was trying to strong arm them into letting me see her. I was calm and respectful of the funeral home. A police officer came in and sat beside me and told me I had to leave. He said I should've been served papers. A constable came in and gave me an envelope. The lawyers letter said I was not allowed at the viewing or the funeral. There were papers signed by the judge giving her 2 older half sisters emergency custody. I left and went straight to the attorneys office I'm to have a phone conversation with Friday. The secretary copied the papers and told me to come to the office tomorrow instead of the phone conversation. I asked if he was friends with the opposing attorney and she said they had an amicable relationship. Also one other note, the papers say her 2 half sisters will have co-guardianship pending a hearing on April 14, the older "half" sister is a step sister. But is listed in papers as half sister.

Were you informed about this hearing? This whole thing smells! There should not have been an emergency custody hearing without you being notified of that fact. But the bottom line is you need to get in front of this judge and ask why, as the surviving parent, custody of your daughter was not given to you.

I wasn't notified.

I agree that something is off. You should have been notified of any hearing that was set to happen so that you could attend. Your new attorney may press the issue and get you into court sooner so that all the details can be ironed out.

Something here is not right - I am horrified by the scene at the funeral parlor. I buried a husband fairly recently and I can't imagine anything similar to this happening.

Curious to see how this plays out.

How do I find an attorney who will take this to a higher court. I have decided this towns system is truly corrupt. The attorney I spoke with today said if these 2 wouldn't have asked for co-guardianship, ex could have had her put in foster care. He told me it's my fault ex wasn't made to abide by the visitation orders. He told me my attempt with legal aid was lame. He said it looks like I didn't care for her. I asked him about a different judge, he said that would never happen.

Make sure you document everything and do not embelish on anything. Keep close records and get all past records together. What were the accusations that were made against you that caus you to lose custody in the first place?

If you answer the questions that have been asked "we" will be able to provide some answers. Too much is being left unsaid and I cannot believe that every Attorney and Judge in your Town and County are against you.

Something is being left out of the story.

Well, I'm out of greenies again (what a surprise). But again I agree that there is information being left out. Why did you loose custody to begin with? If you had court ordered visitation and you didn't get it as ordered did you go to court to have the order enforced? If not then it kind of is your fault, not completely but you didn't do all that you could. How big is your county? Are there really only three different attorneys and they all say the same thing? The only way to get it to a higher court is if you one find an attorney to take it there which means even more money from you and two proving that the judge made an error in assigning custody to the sisters. This isn't just an I don't like the way it turned out error but prove that you had no idea that there was ever a hearing and that girl is worse off with them than with you. If you didn't push the visitation then that won't look good on your part. Start getting all your proof in order THEN go see an attorney so you have something to put on the table.

This town is so small, when I went to courthouse on Wednesday to see about getting my daughter, the head of probation tapped me on the shoulder and told me to go see my ard officer before I left. He actually just wanted to tell me my time was up for ard. Ard is like probation, but it takes away your charges if you stay out of trouble for the time ( I had 2 years for the incident I have described here, I didn’t initially want to take it because I felt like it was pleading guilty). I don’t know what they call it in everyone's state. When we went to cross the street to go into funeral home, an officer let us go in front of him. It was the same officer that escorted me out of funeral home. Coincidence? I don’t know how the streets are safe with me on them. Also,would they have done that to me in front of my daughter if I had caught her there. Sometimes my internet connection isn’t good, but I’m always thinking about amhd. If it seems that I’m not answering questions, that’s not my intent, believe me, I’m glad you are asking them. I just have so many things in my head and sometimes I just want to keep you posted so there will be less questions you might have to ask. Oh, my town is so small, that the night of their fathers funeral, step sister had called finally, and said do you want your daughter right now (out of the blue). That was Friday about 4pm. The letter from attorney said she would call on Saturday and set up a visit for me. Well I had gone through beer distributors(pa.) on way home from attorneys office. It was time for a beer and a cigarette. So I was sitting on front porch keeping my beer down anyway, and she calls. Am I just paranoid. When I got her SATURDAY morning (I’m not THAT stupid), my older daughter, her boyfriend, his little girl, my son and my sister where with me. Only half sister there with my daughter, step sister is strangely uninvolved. Let me have her from 10am to 6pm. She told me guardian half sister is taking her to Maryland (did I ever say this is Pennsylvania). She said she would live with me when she grows up. The step sister lives in this town. The papers don’t say half sister can’t leave pa, with my child and these papers nullify previous papers, right? I told her when she picked daughter up she can’t take her to Maryland. She said OK, like we will see. I thought last night though if she does take her to Maryland, I’d go to Maryland too. I’d get in front of another judge that way, and she wouldn’t have her dad’s attorney down there. Or are there standard rules for guardians and taking her out of state is out of the question. Or since they have co guardianship, the one in state guardian can let the out of state guardian take her out of state. I just know whatever blocks they run into they will overcome. Also, the instate guardian lives in a different school district than her father just registered her in, can they change school registration. If not, I could move myself to that school district. I don’t think everyone is out to get me as much as I feel that his attorney gets what she wants in front of that judge. And everyone knows it. That attorney was harsh on Friday, but I know he could have just said oh my this is ridiculous, of course we’ll win, give me your money and not done anything like the first guy did. I have to get an out of town attorney, I would like to be in the loop and know who wins against his attorney. A guardian ad leitum has been appointed. How do they get picked, is this just another lackey for his attorney. I’m scared. Not if it’s genuine and legitimate. Can children services help us, I know they like to keep families together at almost all costs (except when they listen to dirty cops)? The papers I got served on Thursday say child will suffer irreparable harm without the granting of emergency guardianship. They want permanent guardianship. Because she was in the custody of her father for 2 and a half years. That she has a very close and loving bond with her half sisters. She has virtually no bond and no relationship with her mother. (this is the lady who sent me registered letters telling me and my mother not to call my daughter on the phone) that I live a highly unstable lifestyle which presents significant risk of harm to the child. That I might take her to Florida, where my parents live. The risk of her being with me and them not being able to moniter whether I am abusing her or neglecting her is far too great. Also I won’t care about her emotional response to the trauma of her fathers death(so every child who has divorced parents and one dies, should go to deceased families relatives because surviving parent might not be so sad about deceased parent, I would never say anything like I was glad he is dead to her!) And again this will cause irreparable harm if permanent
Guardianship is not granted. I also wanted to say the family asked my sister to leave funeral home. She had been told by deceased, she was going to get her (and with that promise, he kept her baited). So now my sister is back on my side. I bet his attorney didn’t think to tell them to let my sister view, they needed her on their side. It is so long and thanks for the brainstorming . I will go back and see if I left more questions unanswered. Yes I know if I heard this story I would say “no way, there has to be something else!!”, but there is not. That is why I can’t understand why the judge continues with what seems so ridiculously, obviously wrong. This town is so small the magistrate who should have thrown it out in the beginning, is my neighbor now. He is out at the back of his yard burning trash. He said hi to me while I am on the phone trying to get a co guardian to answer or call me back.

I believe all conceivable advice has been given and this should be moved to something other than the legal board -

A time waster that has turned into a blog/diary full of unnecessary info.

Cannot believe a whole Town, whole judicial system, entire Police force is against one person. (I grew up in a very small town.)

Sorry you feel that way, jkt, you're the one who said too much was being left unsaid. But I will continue to "waste" my time trying to get my daughter back. I guess I'm done here?

Half sister took her to Maryland.

Isn't there a court date coming soon for custody? If so you need to review all the paperwork with it because most have an order of restraint that goes with them barring anyone from taking the child out of the state without the courts permission.

There is an April 16 hearing for permanent guardianship. I went to see an out of town attorney this morning. I think she thinks she can help, but she doesn't understand how it got this far. She is going to file immediately for visitation. And half sister is going to have a difficult time getting her to me at least 3 times a week and evaluated by guardian ad litem when she lives over 6 hours away. She said it's OK for her to take her out of state at this time, which I don't understand either, but it wasn't in the paperwork. Halfsister and stepsister won't have to have psych evals done either. I'm getting another drug and alcohol evaluation done. And we are going to get another kind of impartial evaluation of me and daughter that will advantageous to show the judge. I will tell the judge I will wear alcohol monitor bracelet (scram) and "sisters" can have the social security. I just want child. Last night, half sister called to rub in the fact that she had gone to Maryland with my daughter. I talked to daughter on the phone and she said "you're not going to like it mommy...i'm in maryland". I said you're right I don't like it, but you're probably having fun with the big kids, right? She said no not really. I am really, really scared. I don't understand why the judge would award temporary co guardianship if I wasn't on the fast track to permanent guardianship. I told attorney I had researched permanent guardianship and it is really permanent, custody doesn't have to be permanent, but guardianship is. She did tell me that's not the case. My opinion is small towns are the worst, can be the worst.