Greg’s Story

Greg wanted desperately to be a good father.  But first he had to get his son back.

It had been barely five hours since 19 year-old Greg had told his girlfriend that he wanted to break up when he got a text message from her with some startling news.  “She said she was pregnant,” he recalls.  “It’s a real shock to be that age and realize you’re going to be a father.”

After Gregory Jr. was born, Greg and his former girlfriend shared care for their child with some help from their parents and grandparents.  Over time, Greg says, he began to take on the lion’s share of the parenting duties, as the boy’s mom would come for him less and less frequently.  But everything changed abruptly not long after Gregory turned one, when the mother took the child and refused to let Greg come near him.

Greg looked into hiring a lawyer to help him get his son back, but found he couldn’t both pay for a lawyer and support the boy financially.  Determined, he took matters into his own hands, going to the courthouse where he figured out how to file a complaint against the boy’s mother.  “You don’t see a lot of fathers stepping up to care for their children,” he says.  “I couldn’t turn my back on my son.  It was important to me to be in his life.”

Eventually Greg sought help from MVLS.  “He enjoyed being a father and was willing to fight for it,” says MVLS volunteer Jason Ridgell, an attorney with Fishbein & Fishbein, P.A.  “He was the most prepared MVLS client I’ve ever had.”

That preparation paid off when the case went to court.  After hearing testimony from the child’s parents and from witnesses, the judge awarded primary physical and legal custody to Greg.  “As soon as the words were out of the judge’s mouth it felt like the heaviest weight had been lifted,” Greg says.  “It was a good feeling.”

Mr. Ridgell says that the one-sidedness of the decision resulted from the mother’s unwillingness to agree to any kind of compromise and from the high level of maturity with which his client handled himself in court.  “The judge felt the child had a better chance in life if sole custody went to Greg,” says Mr. Ridgell.  “The decision was the right one.”

To celebrate, Greg, who has a job with a temp agency and is taking classes at a local community college, decided to take the next day off.  He spent the day playing in the yard with his son.