Ask Me Help Desk - Georgia fathers rights

My son and his girlfriend recently had a baby. They had been dating over two years, when she became pregnant. Her parents seemed to love my son, of course until the pregnancy. But after nine months, we all accepted it and we were all at the hospital when the baby was born. My son has given financially and takes very good care of the baby. Even goes over to her house, bathes, feeds, rocks and puts the baby to bed. Within the last two weeks, her mom has decided that the baby's mom who is 16 and will be 17 the end of May cannot see my son, who has just turned 21 anymore until she turns 18. Things have started to get nasty, we don't know what to do. The parents of the baby want to get married, but would like to wait until she finishes high school and maybe even college. She is a straight A student. My son wants her to move in with him, he lives in our back yard, in our Mother-in-law house and that would not be a problem for us. I would like for them to be married but under the circumstances I would let them live together for now. Her parents have threatened her that if she leaves they will call the police, and if they find out they are having sex, will have my son arrested. What can they really do. Both of the kids are afraid, her mom has been very mean and hateful to her lately and my son can not even go to their house anymore. She comes over here a lot and I play with the baby. But just a few minutes ago we were cooking dinner and her mom called her and told her to come home now! And she had to go and didn't even get to eat her dinner. What legally can we do, or what legal actions could she take against her own daughter if when she turns 17 she moves out, and can she do anything to my son who has just turned 21. Please help!! Thank you

The age of consent in Georgia was 18 for years, it was changed to 16, so as long as they did not have sex when she was 15, ( date of conception would be evidence if she was 15 when conceived )

But if she was 16 when they had sex, there is no stat rape and nothing she can charge the boy with.

She can keep the boy from seeing the daughter. But the boy can file for paternity as soon as child is born and file for custody, joint custody or at least visits. The other mother can not stop him from seeing his child.

This link contains some current challeges to GA law plus GA laws

Also they can not get married, till she is 18 unless both of her parents will sign.

If she moves out before 18, they may claim her as a run away and any adult who helps her could be interfering with custody. Keeping child from parent.

I have found unofficially most do nothing on a 17 year old in GA but if they find a case worker that will fight for them, it is against the law, so they can cause trouble.
Georgia -- Age of Consent

Your son needs to go to court and establish his rights to the child. He needs to set up support and visitation. Also he needs to be established as the father of the child. If he does this then the mother won't have much to say about it because violating a court order can be serious trouble.

Age of consent is 16 in Georgia but the upper limit for that is 21. The mother is mistaken I believe. How old was she when she became pregnant ?

Lexis nexis refference:

§ 16-6-3. Statutory rape

(a) A person commits the offense of statutory rape when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with any person under the age of 16 years and not his or her spouse, provided that no conviction shall be had for this offense on the unsupported testimony of the victim.

(b) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this Code section, a person convicted of the offense of statutory rape shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 20 years; provided, however, that if the person so convicted is 21 years of age or older, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than ten nor more than 20 years. Any person convicted under this subsection of the offense of statutory rape shall, in addition, be subject to the sentencing and punishment provisions of Code Section 17-10-6.2.

(c) If the victim is at least 14 but less than 16 years of age and the person convicted of statutory rape is 18 years of age or younger and is no more than four years older than the victim, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Ga did just change the law last year, it used to be 18 not 16. So most people don't know of the changes yet. GA is well known for putting young men in prison for years for stat rape, I know several personally in jail right now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by myrtice

Her parents have threatened her that if she leaves they will call the police, and if they find out they are having sex, will have my son arrested.

I'm confused by this statement. They had a baby, how could they not know they were having sex?

But as Chuck said, the time line here is very important. You don't say how old the baby is, but it sounds like its at least a couple of months old. Since she will be 17 in May, that means she didn't turn 16 until last May. If you add a couple of months to 9 months, its very close to proof that they started having sex when she was 15 and he was 19 or 20. So he is VERY close to being prosecuted for statutory rape. You need to nail down the date of conception. Because if he had sex with her when she was still 15 (and what business does a 19-20 year old even dating, let alone having sex with a 15-16 yr old?) then her parents can make good on their threat to prosecute.

So he is in a very tight position. If he had sex with her when she was 15, he needs to stay away until she turns 18. If they can't prove that he had sex with her before she turned 16, then he is safe from prosecution for statutory rape. In that case, he can go to court and file for visitation rights.

I would advise consulting a Family Law attorney who can advise you of his risk for prosecution and how to file for visitation if there is none.