In re G.M.R.

2025 Ohio 5719
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided December 22, 2025·No. 2025-T-0041·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO ELEVENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT TRUMBULL COUNTY

IN THE MATTER OF: CASE NO. 2025-T-0041

G.M.R.

Civil Appeal from the

Court of Common Pleas,

Juvenile Division

Trial Court No. 2020 JC 00043

OPINION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY

Decided: December 22, 2025 Judgment: Affirmed

Anthony G. Rossi, III, Guarnieri & Secrest, P.L.L., 151 East Market Street, Warren, OH 44481; and Brendan J. Keating, Guarnieri & Secrest, P.L.L., 151 East Market Street, P.O. Box 4270, Warren, OH 44482 (For Appellee Suzette Romig).

John H. Chaney, III, Daniel Daniluk, L.L.C., 1129 Niles Cortland Road, S.E., Warren, OH 44484 (For Appellant Henry Miller).

Mark C. Cervello, 52 Townsend Avenue, Girard, OH 44420 (Guardian ad Litem).

MATT LYNCH, J.

{¶1} Appellant, Henry Miller (“Father”), appeals the judgment of the Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas, Juvenile Division, granting the motions filed by appellee, Suzette Romig (“Mother”) to terminate the parties’ shared parenting plan (“the plan”) for their minor child, G.M.R. (d.o.b. 3/16/16), and to modify Father’s child support. For the following reasons, we affirm.

{¶2} In April 2020, Father filed a complaint for paternity, custody, shared parenting, parenting time, and tax dependency exemption. In June, a guardian ad litem (“GAL”) was appointed, and Father’s paternity was established.

{¶3} In October 2021, the court issued an agreed judgment entry adopting the parties’ plan that included Father having parenting time every other weekend from Friday at 4:30 p.m. through Monday at 8:00 p.m. In April 2022, the magistrate found Father’s monthly child support was $159.30. Thereafter, both parties at various times filed different motions to terminate visitation and/or the plan, raising safety concerns and communication issues.

{¶4} Relevant to this appeal, in November 2023, Mother filed a “Motion to Terminate Shared Parenting Plan and Increase Child Support,” in which she contended the plan was no longer in the best interest of G.M.R. and child support should be increased retroactive to January 1, 2021. In turn, Father filed a “Request for Modifications to Shared Parenting Plan,” contending the plan is in the best interest of G.M.R. and should be maintained. Father requested to: (1) change the exchange location because both he and Mother had moved since the plan’s adoption, (2) expand his parenting time by changing the holiday schedule to the schedule set forth in the court’s standard visitation schedule, and (3) expand his parenting time for additional time and overnights because the current schedule precluded Father from seeing G.M.R. for ten days at a time.

{¶5} The GAL filed his report and recommendation, and the magistrate conducted an in camera interview with G.M.R. A hearing on the parties’ motions followed on August 30 and December 4, 2024. Mother, Father, and the GAL testified, and the parties submitted evidence, including text exchanges.

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{¶6} Mother testified she had a $0 income in 2021 and 2022 because her husband could support her while she cared for her four minor children (including G.M.R.). In 2023, after starting a new job, she earned $11,483, and she currently earns $14/hour and works 40 hours/week. Mother has no childcare or health insurance expenses. Both Mother and her husband have medical marijuana cards. She uses marijuana for her migraines, but always at night and never around the children. On one occasion, Mother’s husband (then fiancé) overdosed on an illegal substance when she and the children were not on the property. She found him unresponsive and called 9-1-1. Ultimately, he underwent treatment and is maintaining his sobriety.

{¶7} Mother wanted the parenting plan changed to Father returning G.M.R. on Sundays because Father was not giving G.M.R. his epilepsy medication and G.M.R. was not completing his homework. She did not want Father to have extended weekends or alternating weeks of parenting time in the summer. Mother further testified the parties have no ability to communicate and have hostile exchanges where G.M.R. is exposed to Father’s offensive language. Further, Father interferes with her phone calls with G.M.R., refuses to communicate with her, and refuses to take G.M.R. to his extracurricular activities during his parenting time (all of which she pays for). Lastly, Father took G.M.R. to a neurologist for a second opinion of G.M.R.’s epilepsy diagnosis that involved a three- day hospitalization stay for testing without consulting Mother or telling her about it. Father also gave G.M.R. a toxicology test after Mother’s husband overdosed. Around that period, Father stopped giving G.M.R. his epilepsy medication. Mother also complained of Father’s unsafe activities with G.M.R., in part due to G.M.R.’s epilepsy. These activities included G.M.R. riding on a motorcycle without a helmet, hunting from a 15-foot tree

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stand, fishing without a life jacket, walking back to Father’s house unattended, and being left alone in the house while Father was hunting.

{¶8} Father testified he is the owner and operator of a truck he is lease-

purchasing for $500/week ($26,000 a year). On his 2023 tax form, Father listed his gross receipts as $101,457, and profits for the year as $12,000. He previously had a trucking job where he earned $65,000 a year. He quit that job because he did not have a good relationship with the owner, who was an alcoholic. Father admitted he is not making enough money and is “going broke.” He has been using his savings account and inheritance and has borrowed money from family to help pay his bills. Father does not want to work with other trucking companies because of their restrictions and inflexibility, he cannot have passengers, and he does not want to use electronic logbooks because they are “unconstitutional.” Father acknowledged he is delinquent on paying child support because he did not work for a few weeks when he took G.M.R. for testing and to perform maintenance on his truck.

{¶9} Father further testified his United States Department of Transportation truck registration currently prohibits passengers, but he has taken G.M.R. with him in the past. Father clarified that while transporting passengers is prohibited, it does not mean he cannot have passengers riding with him. He does not respond to Mother on Family Wizard (a court-based messaging application) because Mother is argumentative. Father feels he cannot make joint decisions with Mother because she refuses to and/or does not give him the option. He believes there is no reason to communicate with Mother “if he can talk to his son.” Mother and Father currently live 62 miles apart from each other. Father is willing to drive G.M.R. to his extracurricular activities if the activity is not far

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away. He has not let G.M.R. ride his all-terrain vehicle or dirt bike since G.M.R.’s epilepsy diagnosis and Mother raised the issue. Father reviewed the type of gun he purchased for G.M.R. for when they go hunting and how he stores his guns in a gun safe.

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In re G.M.R., 2025 Ohio 5719 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

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