Lowe v. Lowe

196 So. 3d 672, 2016 WL 2908170, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 983
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 18, 2016
DocketNo. 50,856-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 196 So. 3d 672 (Lowe v. Lowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lowe v. Lowe, 196 So. 3d 672, 2016 WL 2908170, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 983 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, J.

In this child custody dispute, the defendant, Yadaira Lowe, appeals a trial court judgment designating the plaintiff, Brian Lowe, as domiciliary parent of the minor children. For the following reasons, we reverse and remand.

FACTS

The plaintiff, Brian Lowe (“Brian”), and the defendant; Yadaira Lowe (“Yadaira”), were married on September 3, 2005 in Orlando, Florida. They had two children, L.E.L., who was born on July 18, 2009, and L.G.L., who was born on November 23, 2011. During the marriage, the parties moved to several states in connection with Brian’s administrative career with various professional sports teams. Eventually, the parties established their matrimonial domicile in the state of Tennessee.

In 2013, Brian was terminated from an administrative position in Memphis, Tennessee.1 , Having no financial resources, in February 2014, the parties and their young children moved to Farmerville, Louisiana, to live with Brian’s father. At the time of the move, Brian was hoping to gain employment as the athletic' director at Grambling State University (“GSÜ”),

On July 15, 2014, a domestic dispute ensued between Brian and Yadaira, which resulted in Yadaira calling the Farmerville Police Department. Yadaira accused Brian of “grabbing” her arms and attempting to “drag” her into a bedroom. Numerous witnesses testified with regard to the incident. Brian testified as follows:

| ⅞ [Yadaira] was going belligerent on us, and she was grabbed. She was cursing at iny father, and I told — and she wanted to go. She said, ‘Why don’t we talk?’ And she 'wouldn’t talk, and I grabbed her arm.
* * *
[S]he was upset and yelling and- screaming, and I grabbed her arm just like that to just move her, just like anything would be like grab [sic] her arm and move and say, ‘Let’s go in the room and talk.’ She never wanted to talk.
* * *

When questioned about the bruises on Ya-daira’s arms, Brian responded, “[S]he bruises easily. I mean, ’ I was grabbing her to get her into the room. I did not drag her or, anything like that.”

Yadaira testified as follows: she and Brian began to argue; Brian’s father told him to stop talking to her; she became upset with Brian’s lather because she felt that he did not. “have, a place in what was going-on between my husband and I[sic]”; Brian “kept grabbing me and tried to force me into the bedroom”; Brian hurt her arm and she told him tp stop; she called 9-1-1 and asked for help because she was “being [674]*674harassed and attacked” by Brian; she did not feel safe in the home; she told the 9-1-1 operator that Brian had abused her; “quite a few” police officers responded to the call; she told the first responding officer, Farmerville’s Chief of Police, Earnest Coulbertson, that Brian kept grabbing her, attempting to “pull [her] into a room”; she told Chief Coulbertson that she was afraid and that she needed to take her children and leave the home; Chief Coulbertson remained on the scene approximately “five or ten minutes” then left to respond to another call; she spoke with several police officers at the scene; Brian’s father told her that she could no longer live in the house; a female police officer told her that she had to leave the residence but she could not take the children with her; ¡(¡the female officer told her to take “what she could” and leave; the officer remained with her until she left the residence; the female officer saw that she was “in distress”; and, the female officer provided her with some information about DART (Domestic Abuse Resistance Team).2

Brian’s father, Ellis Lowe, Jr., testified as follows: Brian and Yadaira began to argue; he told Brian to stop talking to Yadaira; Yadaira turned around and told him to “stay out of it”; Brian stepped between him and Yadaira; Brian “got [Ya-daira] and pushed her away”; Yadaira was upset and the argument escalated; Ya-daira called the police; the police officers told Yadaira that she could not take the children out of the state;' he did not hear Yadaira tell the police officers that Brian had hit her; and he did not tell Yadaira to leave the house.

Chief Coulbertson testified as follows: he was dispatched to the Lowe residence regarding a “disturbance, possible domestic”; when he arrived, Yadaira was “very upset” and she “wanted to get her kids [and] leave”; he informed Yadaira that the police officers “could not take the kids from [Brian] to give to her”; he asked Yadaira if she had anywhere else to go; Yadaira told him that she wanted to go to Florida but she did not have the money to do so; he could not recall whether Yadaira made any allegations of abuse; and if Ya-daira had informed him that she had been abused, he would have included the allegations in his report.

On cross-examination, Chief Coulbertson admitted that he did not Lremain at the Lowe residence to complete the investigation because he was dispatched to the scene of an automobile accident. He also admitted that Yadaira could have reported the domestic abuse to another officer. He testified that he prepared the written police report based upon information he received when he arrived at the residence. Chief Coulbertson also admitted that he did not talk to any other officer to ascertain whether a supplemental police report was needed. On redirect examination, he stated that none of the other officers prepared a supplemental report.

Lieutenant Lori Taylor of the Farmer-ville Police Department testified as follows: she and Chief Coulbertson responded to a disturbance call at the Lowe residence; when they arrived, Ya-daira “was wanting to leave the house with her son and daughter”; Chief Coul-bertson interviewed Brian and Yadaira; Yadaira “ended up” leaving the residence without the children; and, she does not recall speaking to Yadaira about domestic abuse.

[675]*675On cross-examination, Lt. Taylor provided the following testimony about her decision to provide Yadaira with information about DART:

Because domestic abuse is not just physical, it’s also mental. She didn’t have a place to go. She said she didn’t have a lawyer. Like I say — so like I say, DART is our — we use it for all sorts of things, not just physical abuse.
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It’s a resource [and] we thought [it] should be available to [her].
* * *

Jackie Hill, a DART advocate for Union Parish, also testified. She stated as follows: Yadaira came to the DART office seeking assistance on July 16, 2014; Ya-daira showed her some bruises on her upper arms and told |5her that Brian caused the bruises; Yadaira told her about past incidents of abuse inflicted by Brian; and, Yadaira chose not to seek a temporary restraining order or an order of protection because Brian was in the process of trying to obtain a job at GSU and she did not want to adversely affect his chances of doing so.

On cross-examination, Ms. Hill opined that Yadaira was a victim of domestic abuse. She reiterated her testimony that Yadaira chose not to complete the intake process because she did not want to adversely affect Brian’s prospects of gaining employment. She stated that Yadaira “just wanted to get her children” and return to Florida because she did not have any family members in the area.

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Related

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 So. 3d 672, 2016 WL 2908170, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 983, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowe-v-lowe-lactapp-2016.