Need advice in regards to moving my daughter to Texas

[Tex2011]

This is going to be a bit long but I feel it is important to know exactly where my concern is coming from as well as the situation in order to understand why I am asking this. My daughter is 8 years old and lives with her mother up in Missouri. A little over 4 years ago it was made known that the guy my ex was dating at the time had been molesting my daughter as well as his own daughter. Exactly to what extent I do not know. But it was severe enough for the state to step in and force him out of the picture. Well my ex never did follow through with therapy for either of the girls. And the guy she is with now is not much better in my opinion because of all the yelling and screaming that takes place around the residence. I did not find out about my daughter until after all this went down. Since finding out about her and all that happened, I have been trying to take as active part of her life as I can being that I am in Texas and she is in Missouri. I found out yesterday that my daughter has been acting out and staying in trouble here lately. I am scheduled to go get my daughter directly after school lets out for the summer. There is no custody papers in place n my daughter. So the question I have is this,...once I get my daughter and we get back to Texas, if I have a DNA test done so that it will show she is biologically mine, can I get in trouble in any way if I allow my daughter to remain with me beyond the summer? I already plan to get her into therapy pnce she gets down here so that it will minimize the possibility of her acting out on what happened to her when she gets older. Her mother was molested as a child as well as several people that I am close to so I am rather familiar with what roads the person can take. And I want a better life for my daughter than that. So I am trying to figure out what all I can do about it. Thank you in advance for any information and help that is offered.

[retdetsgt]

You need to talk to a lawyer. I sympathize, but custody issues like this are out of the realm of law enforcement. We would only act at the direction of the court and a lawyer can take care of it before that happens.

[DeltaV]

Removing a child from the state where they live with one parent could be considered a parental abduction or interference with custody depending on what the laws of Missouri say. Also, whether or not you were married at the time of her birth can make a huge difference. In Florida for example, a father has no parental rights whatsoever if the child was born out of wedlock and there are no custody orders in place by the courts. I would echo the previous advice and not do anything without first speaking to a family law attorney.

[TEXASCOP]

As far as Texas goes (I'm unsure about Missouri) if their is no court paper work regarding the custody of the child. Normally who ever has custody of the child keeps custody till their is some type of paper work/court order dictating days times ect. they are with either parent. For example, If i responded to your residence at the end of the summer because your wife called. When I arrive and its clear the child has been living with you and is in good condition. I'm going to tell your wife I can't force him to release the child without some sort of court order. Many times I deal with these ex's who just have a verbal agreement and at some point one of them decides they are just going to keep the child (forcing the other to take it to court). She could obtain some type of court order from Missouri and then it kinda gets hard for us to decide. You have to remember that in many states, most definitely Texas the courts award primary custody to the mother even if the father is more financially stable (cause they will just "court order" the money outa your pay check). Probably speaking to a lawyer is the best idea.