Ford v. Ford

Tara Ford (plaintiff) sought divorce from Jay Ford (defendant) alleging domestic violence, and a six-day custody hearing produced testimony, including from a court-ordered custody evaluator recommending Tara have primary custody as the more emotionally stable parent, corroborating her allegations, while Jay gave inconsistent accounts and, in one incident, took Tara's car to block a scheduled visitation transfer and then used that same incident to accuse Tara of withholding their daughter Kylee from him. Despite this, the trial court found Tara had manipulated visitation, favored Jay on the mental-health factor, and applied the state's friendly-parent statutory provision to conclude Jay was more likely to foster Tara's continuing relationship with Kylee, ultimately awarding Jay primary physical custody while ordering shared parental responsibility; Tara appealed.