Judge Takes Deployed Sailor's Daughter And Gives Temporary Custody To Her Mother

The deployed sailor who was given an ultimatum by a Michigan judge to appear in court or lose his daughter suffered another setback in his custody battle when the judge awarded temporary custody of the girl to her mother, according to Military Times.

Matthew Hindes is currently deployed aboard the submarine USS Michigan in the Pacific Ocean, but that didn't stop Judge Margaret Noe from ordering him to appear in court over threat of arrest and loss of his daughter Kaylee. After a public outcry, Noe moved the custody hearing to October, only two days after Hines is scheduled to return from deployment.

After announcing the stay however, Noe conducted a hearing the next day where she rescinded an order that Kaylee's mother Angela Hindes have a custody evaluation done, according to the Daily Telegram.

The reason for ordering the custody evaluation was the same reason that Kaylee was taken from her mother: A previous investigation by Child Protective Services into child abuse and Angela's plea of no contest to a reduced assault charge, according to the Daily Telegram.

Judge Noe then had another hearing without Hindes present on Aug. 4th, where she awarded temporary custody to Kaylee's mother and ordered that Hindes' current wife, and stepmother to Kaylee, arrange travel from her home in Washington to Michigan, where Angela currently resides, according to Military Times.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a law designed to provide certain protections to military members from judicial proceedings, contracts, and rental agreements when they are called to active duty, would seem to apply in this case.

Judge Noe claims to the contrary however, ordering the child placed in the care of her mother until the proceedings take place. But Hindes' lawyer Patrick Foley disagrees, and he's filed a motion for a reversal of Noe's ruling, according to Military Times.

"The law provides no exception for 'temporary' issues and no exception for 'parenting time' issues," Foley told the Daily Telegram. "It demands a complete stay of proceedings."