Endangered Child Alert Issued for Crossville Children
On the heels of yesterday's blog article discussing the offense of custodial interference in Tennessee comes a possible real-life example of custodial interference pertaining to the taking of two Crossville children, 2 year-old Anna Shuey and 5 year-old Kylie Shuey, by their biological father, Richard Shuey, from the apparent custody of the childrens' grandmother. It should be noted that all of the facts surrounding this situation are not known and that this case is merely being analyzed in this blog as a possible case of custodial interference. Mr. Shuey is innocent of any and all crimes until his guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The key to determining whether the situation presented here constitutes custodial interference is to determine the intent of the suspect. For Mr. Shuey to be guilty of custodial interference under Tennessee law, it is not enough to prove that he took his children from his grandmother while they were in her care. The state must also show that he took the children out of state knowing that taking the kids out of state violated a custody judgment or order by the court, violated the custody rights of the mother, or violated some other valid custody determination or detained the child within the state even though his right to visitation had lawfully expired, with the intent to violate one of the aforementioned custody situations.
If the facts of the situation reveal that the father took the kids from the grandmother by physically assaulting her when he had a lawful custody expectation, he might be guilty of another offense, such as aggravated assault or simple assault, but he would not be guilty of custodial interference as defined by Tennessee law. Thus, this situation shows how every element of a crime is important and must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Tennesseans who find themselves charged with any crime should consult an experienced criminal defense attorney who will force the prosecution to work hard to prove every single element of any alleged offense.
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