http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/authorities_court_records_indi.html
Nasty custody fight preceded Sellwood Bridge tragedy
<snipped>
According to court papers, Jason and Amanda Jo were married in Hawaii April 29, 2001. They lived in Tualatin before separating in September 2008. Jason Smith left their Tualatin home last September, and the children remained with their mother until around Feb. 10, according to court papers. The mother's account said Jason Smith and his mother took the children from her home to Eugene to stay with them.
On March 20, Stott-Smith filed a petition for legal separation. She also asked the court for an order to get her children back, noting that she never gave their father permission to move the children and she had not been allowed to see them.
In court papers, she described herself as a stay-at-home mother, who had walked her daughter to and from Byrom Elementary School in Tualatin every day, and took her 4-year-old son to Living Savior Lutheran Church and Preschool from 9 until 11:30 a.m. each weekday.
She wrote that she fed Eldon lunch and played with him in the afternoons until she picked up his older sister from school and often took them to the library. "I cared for the children 24 hours a day," she wrote.
On March 23, three days after Stott-Smith filed for legal separation and argued for the return of her children, a Washington County judge issued what's commonly referred to as a "status quo order." The ruling, made without input from the father, ordered that the children remain in their "usual place of residence" until custody is determined.
On April 6, with that court order in hand, the children's mother, along with her sister and Eugene police, took the 7-year-old girl out of Eugene's Meadowlark Elementary School. The 7-year-old girl was removed from class and left the school grounds with only her coat and backpack, according to a school employee's account in court records.
On April 8, the couple's daughter attended one day of first grade at Concorde Elementary School in Clackamas. According to court papers, Stott-Smith said she was homeless and living with her parents, and told a Concorde school employee that the girl's enrollment was to be kept secret because she didn't want the girl's father to know.
Meanwhile, Jason Smith obtained a lawyer to petition to return the children to Eugene.
Schantz, the father's lawyer, argues that Stott-Smith obtained that April court order under false pretenses. Schantz said Amanda Jo Stott-Smith had agreed with Jason Smith before he took the children to Eugene that their children would live with him, although that was never written down.
Once their mother took the children out of Eugene, the father's lawyer said she prepared to take the mother to court and point out those "inaccuracies" in the mother's argument, but a settlement was reached, Schantz said.
The mother's attorney, Michelle van Grunsven, declined comment Tuesday.
On April 21, a judge ordered the two children returned to their dad in Eugene. Stott-Smith was given parenting time every other weekend, starting at 7 p.m. on Fridays until 5 p.m. Sundays, with the right to call her children every night. It was to be a temporary order until the legal separation wound it's way through court.
"It is in the best interests of the children that their current school schedule not be disturbed at this time," the judge wrote.
Tuesday, in Eugene's Norkenzie neighborhood, residents said they often saw the children playing at the home of the paternal grandparents, Christine and Richard Duncan.
"They were two of the most beautiful children I've ever seen," said Linda Baker, who lives next door to the Duncans. "Polite, bubbly, sparkly - just happy, happy children." The Duncans appeared to be helping Jason Smith care for the children, Baker said. The children were at the grandparents' home quite often, sometimes daily.
At Jason Smith's apartment about a mile away, a neighbor said he'd met Smith briefly after moving in a few weeks ago. The neighbors said he saw the children playing outside the apartment recently, perhaps on Friday, but otherwise saw or heard nothing unusual.
The April 21 order did mention the possibility that Stott-Smith's time with her children could be extended in the future. If the temporary order remained in effect through the summer, the judge suggested the parents enter into mediation and arrange "extended summer parenting time" for the mom. If Stott-Smith were to move to Eugene, the judge wrote, Stott-Smith could also have mid-week visits with her children, and/or provide after-school care for them.
