"Put a Walmart Bag on Her Head … to Keep the Sex Witches Away": Court Upholds Limit on Aunt's Access to Divorced Couple's Children

From Styles v. Styles, decided Wednesday by the Arkansas Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge Kenneth Hixson, joined by Judges Stephanie Potter Barrett and Wendy Scholtens Wood:

In the final order, the trial court ordered that Angela's twin sister, Andrea, not be left alone with the children or communicate with them in any way except as authorized in the order. The trial court found that Andrea "poses a clear threat to the emotional well-being of the children based on earlier findings resulting from her testimony in open court." The trial court ordered that, if Andrea wished to see the children, the visitation would be supervised by a person of Jamey's choosing….

The testimony at trial showed that Andrea had exhibited concerning behavior, including praying in the presence of the children for a spirit of confusion to come upon one of Jamey's sisters and her family. Andrea also thought Jamey's sister was a witch and controlled Andrea's mind, and Andrea shared this with the children.

There was also testimony that, while working at Angela's [dermatology] clinic, Andrea put a Walmart bag on her head and stated that she had to wear it to keep the sex witches away. As a result of Andrea's behavior at the clinic, she was banned from the clinic by the Arkansas State Medical Board. Finally, the children's attorney ad litem, who was very familiar with the case, recommended that the children have no contact with Andrea unless it was supervised by someone other than a relative.

While we agree with the principle that a parent's visitation rights cannot be denied for their religious beliefs, we observe that Andrea is not these children's parent, and we further conclude that the trial court's decision to limit the children's contact was motivated not by religious considerations but rather by the well-being of the children. We hold that, on this record, the trial court did not clearly err in finding that it was in the children's best interest to have only restricted contact with Andrea.

Bart W. Calhoun (McDaniel Wolff PLLC) represents the father.