The happy time was not to last -
but now Levi wants to make sure that Tripp has a father as well
By Kathleen
UPDATE MAY 2014: Mentioned below are all our posts in which we reported the details of the new custody proceedings between Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin concerning their son Tripp. We published the complete legal exchanges between the parties, including the new affidavits and court orders. Almost all of these documents have never been published elsewhere.
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014
BREAKING - The heat is on: Levi Johnston files for joint custody and asks court to hold Bristol Palin in contempt and return Tripp to Alaska - UPDATE: Read Levi's new court filings! Levi asserts that Bristol took Tripp out of state against a court order, seeks a court ruling about the custody, provides detailed affidavit
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Thursday, March 13, 2014
New filings in the custody case between Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin - Exchanging legal arguments and new affidavits, and Bristol is on the defensive: No sign of necessary "written consent" by Levi to remove Tripp from Alaska, just the opposite
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Saturday, March 22, 2014
Custody trial Levi Johnston vs Bristol Palin, the next round - Levi's lawyer tears Bristol's legal arguments apart and shows that Alaska case law is not in Bristol's favour - "A child is not a chattel to be bargained away for consideration"
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Thursday, April 3, 2014
First court order in new custody case between Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin: None of Levi's motions have been dismissed, trial setting conference scheduled, evidentiary hearing required, court notes that "a best interest finding" in regard to their son Tripp has never been made in the past
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Sunday, May 4, 2014
Levi's and Bristol's custody trial is now scheduled not just for one, but two days!
It has been a long wait, but now things are getting serious: Levi Johnston wants Tripp to have a father who is able to see him on a regular basis. In addition, he wants to stop Bristol taking Tripp away, often for months, whenever it pleases her.
A court battle against a member of Palin family is not something which most people would fancy. You don't just fight against Bristol and her lawyer. You also fight against Sarah, who doesn't like to be challenged and also hasn't hesitated to call Levi a "deadbeat dad" in public, and you also fight against Sarah Palin's propaganda machine with lots of fake "grassroots" blogs and a group of fanatic, rabid fans who are willing to trash anyone in posts and comments on the internet who dares to challenge their Queen.
But Levi doesn't care. He is not a coward, and he's fighting for his child, as any good father would do.
The motions are now available in the public court records. To see the filing, one has to visit the website for the court records, then click on "Search Cases Since About 1990", then give in Levi Johnston's name in the search mask, then click on case number "3PA-09-02261CI", and the scroll down to see these latest filings:
The Palin-family has an atrocious track record when it comes to custody trials. After Sarah Palin became the Republican nominee for Vice President, the media discovered court records which put members of the Palin-family, and Sarah Palin in particular, in an awful light - as well as their lawyers. A judge went so far as too severely criticize the members of the Palin-family for their terrible behaviour during the trial.
Newsweek reported in September 2008:
An Anchorage judge three years ago warned Sarah Palin and members of her family to stop "disparaging" the reputation of Alaska State Trooper Michael Wooten, who at the time was undergoing a bitter separation and divorce from Palin's sister Molly.
Allegations that Palin, her husband Todd, and at least one top gubernatorial aide continued to vilify Wooten—after Palin became Alaska's governor and pressured state police officials to take action against him—are at the center of "Troopergate," a political and ethical controversy which has embroiled Palin's administration and is currently the subject of an official inquiry by a special investigator hired by the state legislature.
Court records obtained by NEWSWEEK show that during the course of divorce hearings three years ago, Judge John Suddock heard testimony from an official of the Alaska State Troopers' union about how Sarah Palin—then a private citizen—and members of her family, including her father and daughter, lodged up to a dozen complaints against Wooten with the state police. The union official told the judge that he had never before been asked to appear as a divorce-case witness, that the union believed family complaints against Wooten were "not job-related," and that Wooten was being "harassed" by Palin and other family members.
Court documents show that Judge Suddock was disturbed by the alleged attacks by Palin and her family members on Wooten's behavior and character. "Disparaging will not be tolerated—it is a form of child abuse," the judge told a settlement hearing in October 2005, according to typed notes of the proceedings. The judge added: "Relatives cannot disparage either. If occurs [sic] the parent needs to set boundaries for their relatives."
(...)
In a press release issued last week by her new lawyer, Palin continued to attack the character of Wooten—still serving as a state trooper in Palin's hometown of Wasilla. The release repeats allegations that Wooten had threatened members of her family, including her father, with violence; that Wooten had threatened to "bring" Palin and members of her family "down;" and that Wooten had once been the subject of a court-imposed domestic-violence protection order. A court filing by Wooten's lawyer indicates that within months of being issued, the violence protection order was dismissed.
There was a court-imposed domestic-violence protection order against Wooten in place, Sarah Palin's lawyer claimed in September 2008?
A very bold claim indeed! We at Politicalgates reported about this particular chapter of Sarah Palin's history already in a detailed post from June 2012. It turned out that the judge dissolved the order immediately after he discovered that he had been lied to, and even scolded Sarah Palin's sister Molly for keeping Wooten's kids away from him.
This was explained in detail in an old post by (former) Alaskan blogger Andrew Halcro, which is still available today via the Wayback Machine:
In a statement released on September 2 through her attorney Thomas Van Flein, Palin once again shows how her propensity for a misrepresentation of the facts got her into trouble to begin with.
Palin is attempting to get the investigation moved into the executive branch so it is reviewed by the personnel board.
In her statement, Palin writes, "In 2005 and early 2006, State Trooper Mike Wooten was the subject of a court-imposed Domestic Violence Protective Order."
As has been the governor's history with this issue, she offers up another twisted fact.
In 2005, Palin and her sister Molly went to the Palmer Courthouse while Mike Wooten was in Portland with his stepson. They convinced a judge to grant Molly a domestic violence restraining order against Wooten. This was done so Molly could retain full custody of the children.
When Wooten returned from Portland, he realized that there was a order prohibiting him from seeing his kids. Three weeks later, Wooten was granted an appearance in front of the couple's divorce judge.
In front of Judge Suddock, Molly testified that Wooten never hit her or never physically abused her or ever touched the children. She told the judge she was feeling pressure from her family to file the order.
Suddock immediately dissolved the order because there was no proof of any domestic violence and called the order an abuse of the legal system. He then scolded Palin's sister for keeping Wooten's kids away from him.
This appears to be Palin's classic approach to deflecting attention away from situations she has created; blame the other person.
Money quote:
"In front of Judge Suddock, Molly testified that Wooten
never hit her or never physically abused her or ever touched the children.
She told the judge she was feeling pressure from her family to file the order."
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So we do hope that Levi Johnston will not be subjected to the same type of awful treatment, but that the Palin-family finally will have the best interests of Tripp in their minds. One can only hope!
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UPDATE:
The gossip-website "TMZ" today published a very short piece about the new motions filed by Levi Johnston's attorney, however, the accusations by Levi Johnston against Bristol Palin are much more serious than it appears from this short article at "TMZ."
First, let's correct some false information which was recently spread around the media: Levi Johnston did not "lose his custody case." I don't know if Bristol and Sarah Palin wanted to believe this, and therefore leaked this false piece of information to the media, but the facts are as follows: Levi Johnston filed for custody on October 19, 2013. This case was closed, but only because this "new" case was consolidated by the Alaska court with the "old" custody case, which was started in April 2009 and was closed due to "lack of prosecution" in July 2012. The 2009 case has now been reopened.
Screenshots from the Alaska Court Records website:
So clearly there was a good deal of "wishful thinking" involved on the part of the Palin-family or people close to them. In addition, they were clearly caught completely "off-guard" by Levi Johnston new filings. Levi has finally found a lawyer who truly represents his interests, which unfortunately appears to have not been the case in the past. Now the time has come to correct mistakes - and the new court filings show that Levi means business! He's fighting for the right to see his son, and rightfully so.
There are two separate motions which were filed by Levi Johnston's attorney, Darryl L. Thompson in Anchorage:
- First, Levi's attorney asserts that Bristol Palin is in contempt of a court order, which does not put Bristol Palin in a good light, as she clearly completely ignored the order, and removed Tripp from Alaska without Levi's or the court's WRITTEN CONSENT, as she was obliged to do..
Let's take a look at this motion (the "first" motion, "Motion For Order Shortening Time") by Levi's attorney. "TMZ" rather surprisingly did not publish the original court filings by Levi's attorney, in contrast to 2009, when Bristol filed for custody. Fortunately we had already utilized our well developed network in Alaska to get hold of the original documents. (Many thanks!)
This first motion has already been granted by the Alaska court on February 25, 2014 (see the above screenshot)!
The first motion:
DOWNLOAD LINK 1
DOWNLOAD LINK 2
Screenshot of the first page:
Regarding the legal background of this motion:
On October 19, 2013, the court issued a "Court Domestic Relations Pretrial Order", which is standard procedure in these cases.
This official Alaska website explains the exact content of these standard "Domestic Relations Procedural Orders" (in addition, see here).
Bristol very conveniently overlooked this part of the order:
A. Neither party shall allow the removal of any child who is the subject of this action from the State of Alaska without written consent of the other parties or an order from the court.
Screenshot from the official website:
As Levi's attorney explains in the second motion, Bristol Palin removed Tripp from Alaska after October 2013 against Levi's will (and of course also without his "written consent", we might add). Bristol not only took Tripp away from Alaska for days, but for several months!
Therefore Bristol Palin obviously "in contempt" of this court order, and that's why Levi's attorney asks in this motion that Bristol Palin should
"...appear in court and show cause why she should not be held in contempt and for sanctions for her failure to comply with the Court Domestic Relations Pretrial Order in Case No. SPA-13-0251 1 CI dated October 19, 2013 and for fees associated with having to file the motion as a sanction."+++
So let's now take a look at the second motion which was filed by Levi Johnston's attorney.
The second motion:
DOWNLOAD LINK 1
DOWNLOAD LINK 2
Screenshot of the first page:
This second motion, "Motion for Interim Custody Schedule", is much longer and includes an incredibly interesting and also very moving affidavit by Levi Johnston.
Screenshots of Levi Johnston's affidavit:
Levi's affidavit is self -explanatory and Levi explains at length why he is seeking joint custody of his son, Tripp. We believe that Levi has an excellent case, and we stand with him. He is a great father, and he has a right to see his son, just as any father has. As shown above in detail, fighting against a member of the Palin-family is not a very pleasant thing, but the law is on his side.
