Standing her ground: Reena Reunited with Dad

Over the summer, our client Reena—an accomplished student living in Brooklyn with her mother and regularly visiting her father in Ohio—disclosed to her father that she was experiencing emotional and physical harm at home. Heading into her senior year of high school with dreams of becoming a doctor, she also shared that her mother was preventing her from taking the SAT or applying to college.

Reena’s father traveled to New York and brought her back to Ohio, where an emergency temporary custody order was issued. Soon after, her mother filed a petition in New York, alleging that her daughter had been kidnapped and “brainwashed.” The Ohio custody order was later vacated after New York was found to have proper jurisdiction.

What followed was a months-long legal and emotional ordeal. Over CLC’s objections, the court issued multiple writs that were repeatedly weaponized by the mother to harass and intimidate the client and her father in Ohio. She involved police and prosecutors in both states, appeared at her daughter’s school and home with law enforcement, tried to disenroll her from school, and even contacted colleges where her daughter had been accepted with claims that she had been kidnapped.

CLC filed an Order to Show Cause to vacate the writs and grant temporary custody to the father, requesting an in-camera interview before any further orders were issued. Although the client was afraid to return to New York, CLC created a safety plan to ensure she would not be forced to reunite with her mother if the ruling did not go in her favor.

In court, Reena was finally able to speak for herself. After hearing from her directly and reviewing the facts, the judge granted custody to the father until her 18th birthday and marked the prior writs satisfied.

Reena has since been accepted to 16 colleges. CLC has written letters of recommendation on her behalf as she prepares to begin this next chapter of her life.