Hanke v. Hanke
Court of Special Appeals of Maryland
615 A.2d 1205 (1992)
Mary Elizabeth Hanke (plaintiff) and Dan Hanke (defendant) separated after Mrs. Hanke's daughter from an earlier marriage disclosed sexual abuse by Mr. Hanke, who admitted to the single incident, was criminally charged, and received a suspended sentence. The couple later had a daughter together and divorced. Despite the abuse history, the court awarded Mr. Hanke unsupervised visitation with the young daughter; after the daughter later made an inappropriate-touching disclosure and physical findings couldn't rule out abuse, a court-ordered evaluator recommended no unsupervised time with his daughter, a recommendation joined by all attorneys involved. Nonetheless, the court granted Mr. Hanke overnight visitation supervised only by one of his own friends, and when Mrs. Hanke refused to comply, the child was removed from her custody. Mrs. Hanke appealed.
Whether it is within the discretion of the trial court to grant a father overnight, minimally supervised visitation with his young daughter where the weight of the evidence suggests he committed child sexual abuse.