Wife posts pics with boyfriend on MySpace, loses child custody

And you should have heard what the judge said in open court!

Lipps v. Lipps, 2010 Ark. App. 295, 2010 WL 1379803 (Ark. App. April 7, 2010). [Read the opinion]

This is one of those cases that’d do well as a movie on Lifetime Television for Women. Unlike other cases I talk about on this blog, this one only kind of deals with the internet Here the husband (an Iraq war veteran) saw pictures on MySpace of his wife in bed with another man, so he filed for divorce and sought child custody.

What’s worth paying attention to in this case is the “disparaging and intemperate remarks” made in open court by the judge.

At a hearing where the judge entered a temporary order granting joint custody of the couples’ infant son, the court admonished the wife/mother, characterizing her situation as “a nightmare every parent faces . . . when you have got a child that acts like a slut, quite frankly, a slut.”

Later in the case the judge granted sole custody to the husband. The wife sought review with the Arkansas appellate court. On appeal, that court affirmed the trial court’s order on custody.

The wife had argued that the trial court judge was biased, and asked for a new trial with an impartial judge. Although the appellate court was “deeply troubled” by judge’s rude remarks, it held that because the wife had not raised that argument in the trial court, and had not asked the judge to recuse himself, the court could not consider that question on appeal.

So the court affirmed the foul-mouthed judge.

The appellate opinion is embedded below:

2010-04-07_lipps_v_lipps