Chapter 13 - THE COURTROOM VIDEO
My kick remained the strongest evidence against me.
I entered a diversion agreement on the misdemeanor assault case.
Parenting course.
Anger-management sessions.
Community service.
No contact with Emma unless therapeutically arranged.
No criminal conviction if successfully completed under the program terms.
I accepted.
Ashley looked surprised.
“You’re not fighting it?”
“I kicked your daughter.”
“Mom set you up.”
“I kicked your daughter.”
Both were true.
In family court, my parents played the video.
Noah shoved into cake.
Me rushing.
Emma falling.
Without context, ugly.
With context, still ugly.
The evaluator wrote:
Mother demonstrated one serious retaliatory act but has accepted responsibility, shown no pattern of violence toward her child, and engaged promptly in corrective treatment.
My parents’ petition for guardianship failed.
Then their lawyer introduced another exhibit.
A hospital note from Noah’s accident.
Mother extremely emotional, repeatedly demands staff “do something.”
I stared.
Of course I was emotional.
My child had been struck by a van.
The judge looked unimpressed by the attempt.
Then she asked:
“Where are the settlement funds?”
May you like
My parents’ lawyer requested recess.
That was the moment the guardianship case stopped being about my temper.
