78B-16-107 - Factors to determine risk of abduction.
78B-16-107. Factors to determine risk of abduction.
(1) In determining whether there is a credible risk of abduction of a child, the court shallconsider any evidence that the petitioner or respondent:
(a) has previously abducted or attempted to abduct the child;
(b) has threatened to abduct the child;
(c) has recently engaged in activities that may indicate a planned abduction, including:
(i) abandoning employment;
(ii) selling a primary residence;
(iii) terminating a lease;
(iv) closing bank or other financial management accounts, liquidating assets, hiding ordestroying financial documents, or conducting any unusual financial activities;
(v) applying for a passport or visa or obtaining travel documents for the respondent, afamily member, or the child; or
(vi) seeking to obtain the child's birth certificate or school or medical records;
(d) has engaged in domestic violence, stalking, or child abuse or neglect;
(e) has refused to follow a child custody determination;
(f) lacks strong familial, financial, emotional, or cultural ties to the state or the UnitedStates;
(g) has strong familial, financial, emotional, or cultural ties to another state or country;
(h) is likely to take the child to a country that:
(i) is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International ChildAbduction and does not provide for the extradition of an abducting parent or for the return of anabducted child;
(ii) is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International ChildAbduction but:
(A) the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is notin force between the United States and that country;
(B) is noncompliant according to the most recent compliance report issued by the UnitedStates Department of State; or
(C) lacks legal mechanisms for immediately and effectively enforcing a return orderunder the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction;
(iii) poses a risk that the child's physical or emotional health or safety would beendangered in the country because of specific circumstances relating to the child or because ofhuman rights violations committed against children;
(iv) has laws or practices that would:
(A) enable the respondent, without due cause, to prevent the petitioner from contactingthe child;
(B) restrict the petitioner from freely traveling to or exiting from the country because ofthe petitioner's gender, nationality, marital status, or religion; or
(C) restrict the child's ability legally to leave the country after the child reaches the age ofmajority because of a child's gender, nationality, or religion;
(v) is included by the United States Department of State on a current list of statesponsors of terrorism;
(vi) does not have an official United States diplomatic presence in the country; or
(vii) is engaged in active military action or war, including a civil war, to which the child
may be exposed;
(i) is undergoing a change in immigration or citizenship status that would adverselyaffect the respondent's ability to remain in the United States legally;
(j) has had an application for United States citizenship denied;
(k) has forged or presented misleading or false evidence on government forms orsupporting documents to obtain or attempt to obtain a passport, a visa, travel documents, a SocialSecurity card, a driver license, or other government-issued identification card or has made amisrepresentation to the United States government;
(l) has used multiple names to attempt to mislead or defraud; or
(m) has engaged in any other conduct the court considers relevant to the risk ofabduction.
(2) In the hearing on a petition under this chapter, the court shall consider any evidencethat the respondent believed in good faith that the respondent's conduct was necessary to avoidimminent harm to the child or respondent and any other evidence that may be relevant to whetherthe respondent may be permitted to remove or retain the child.
Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 3, 2008 General Session