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Soldier Returns Home to Custody Battle
Filed under: Divorce & Custody, In The News

Leydi Mendoza, left, spent 10 months serving in Iraq; now she's fighting for custody of her daughter. Credit: Juan Arredondo, The New York Times / Redux
It's a soldier's worst nightmare: Returning home from military deployment only to find herself without her children. That's exactly what happened to Leydi Mendoza, a specialist with the New Jersey National Guard. The mom-soldier, who returned home from Iraq in May, is fighting for custody of her 2-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. The battle began when the child's father, Daniel Llares, decided that allowing Mendoza joint custody would be too disruptive for their toddler, according to a story in The New York Times.
Llares' lawyer, Amy Lefkowitz, told The New York Times that her client believes it is disruptive for Elizabeth to spend more than a few hours at a time with "a mother she doesn't really know or recognize that well."
Passaic County Family Court Judge George Rohde granted Mendoza daily visits with her daughter until the legal dispute is fully resolved. She will also be allowed to have her daughter for weekend sleepovers, according to an Associated Press report.
"It was hard," Mendoza told The Associated Press. "I'm just glad the judge granted me these visitation days."
Several of Mendoza's fellow soldiers attended the hearing, dressed in fatigues and combat boots, to support their friend.
The young woman, who is studying to be a math teacher, has already racked up more than $6,000 in legal bills, according to The New York Times.
Master Sgt. Minnie Hiller-Cousins, a National Guard family assistance coordinator, helped create the family care plan for Mendoza and Llares, which gave Llares temporary custody of Elizabeth while Mendoza was serving in Iraq. The plan also stipulated that the two parents would resume joint custody upon Mendoza's return home.
The military does not, however, enforce the plan.
Hiller-Cousins told the AP that the case highlights one of a soldier's many fears: That they will come home only to find their jobs, houses and children have slipped away.
"When a soldier comes home, the first thing they want to see is their family," Hiller-Cousins told the AP. "People were kissing and hugging all around, and (Mendoza) was standing there by herself."
The final custody agreement for Elizabeth has not yet been settled, but for now the child is reunited with her mother, who planned to serve spaghetti -- the toddler's favorite dish -- for their first mother-daughter dinner.
Should the military be responsible for creating and enforcing custody agreements for soldiers?












ReaderComments (Page 5 of 15)
9-06-2009 @ 2:56PM
Jan said...Why should the military be any different than any other employer.?
I am ex-military..no one held a gun to my head to enlist..there is no draft..so those who are serving are doing so because they want to.
It is a job...and believe me...other employers would not spend money to pay for legal sources for their employee..why should the military.
I support our troops in every way but not this.
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9-06-2009 @ 3:11PM
Richard Baerlocher said...This reply is to Jan! As an ex military person she does not support this woman that may lose custody of her child to a man that feels neglected while his wife/ex is away at war. I am also an ex-military member, and I retired from the military after 20 years hard service and combat duty. I am totally on the side of the mother. Should she have to go to a trail to determine the custody I feel that she should gain full custody, and the father lose custody, and only have visitation rights. The father is attempting to do irreparable harm to his daughter!
9-06-2009 @ 6:39PM
Tripace said...As a Soldier, Mliatary spouse, and mother. I had to sign the same parent care plan as this young mother. We made the chose to continue to support our Military and in return for our service/dedication hope for their support in our time of need as she must hope.
9-06-2009 @ 3:14PM
Kathleen said...The best interests of the child should be the primary consideration in any situation. Of course everyone involved thinks they have the child's best interests at heart. This mother and father should have agreed without the need of court and military tribunal intervention that it is in this child's best interests to have her Mother back in her life on a daily basis. Dad should have thought of that and introduced this baby to her mother by daily contact, easing into longer and longer periods of time. Mother should have known that she needed to ease back into this child's life, and made concessions not demands. Oh well, people screwing up their children is why I have a job.
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9-06-2009 @ 2:59PM
Roy Cantwell said...The military should not only support this mother's actions, they should be paying for or providing the attorney fees.
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9-06-2009 @ 2:59PM
JennyOpines said...I just wished this would make the news when it happens to men, and it happens to them quite often....not just to women. It's no worse for a mother to lose custody than it is for a father....not in an equal society anyway, and I'm rather sick of the double standard that only takes up a mother's cause.
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9-07-2009 @ 11:24AM
Tripace said...totally agree
9-06-2009 @ 2:59PM
ConnieJ said...This is just another example of the 'Big Brother' mentality that has so infiltrated the minds of today's citizens. The courts insert themselves into the lives of all citizens, ever encroaching on their lives and freedoms. In EVERY child custody case, there should be 'shared custody', with each parent given equal, undivided time with the child, UNLESS one parent is proven to be of imminent danger to the child. It takes two people to create a child; it also takes two people to raise a child. Too many people are too quick to walk away from their marriage vows, and the child always suffers. In today's world of ever-increasing permissiveness, people no longer have the virtues of honesty, decency, integrity, and personal responsibility. As a result, too many children have no sense of what a 'family' really is. Their loss.
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9-06-2009 @ 3:01PM
joe dimeco said...There are so many loop holes in the laws but instad of plugging them to help us the industry at large takes great pains to deny veterans their rights. For example Citi Bank refuses to comply with VA Streamline Loan process. Banks charge fees for atm useage to active duty but will correct it if you bring the bank print out in to the bank every 30 days and they will give you the fees back. Whay active duty person has time to go to the bank every 30 days to retreve atm fees especialy if you are in Iraq, etc.
I could go on and on about the abusive behavior of indutry toward veterans it seems that the vious hatried of soldiers from the Viet Nam era is back again if it ever left at all.
Joseph DiMeco SSGT RET
100% Disabled Retired Veteran
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9-06-2009 @ 3:01PM
ruthygutierrez4 said...I agree with you, and I do feel for the soldiers who's lives are interupted because their families can't handle them being gone, but what the family doesn't understand is that thees soldiers are the ones keeping all of us safe in our homes & in this country we all live in safely. I do think all solidier parental rights should be safe while away fighting, now when they come back & they can't habdle it then that's spmething diffrent because I know not everyone is cut out to be a parent, but at least let them try. Also it sad that you had to go through something like that it's not right, but thank you for all you do for this country I wish you & your family well.
Ruthy
So.Cal
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9-06-2009 @ 3:03PM
Kevin said...Put Him in a uniform send him over for a year and a half to server our country . And see if his child remembers him !
Keep it real And what is best for your child . Hard enough on the child parants should grow up .
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9-06-2009 @ 3:20PM
David said...They must if they expect soldiers to put themselves on the line to protect our freedoms. David
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9-06-2009 @ 3:06PM
john said...You know if this was a father returning from duty you wouldnt even be hearring about this at all. Fathers have very little rights all the courts say is pay her.
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9-06-2009 @ 3:08PM
ruthygutierrez4 said...JennyOpines: I agree with that it isn't right that the fathers suffer as well but they don't have the support that a women soldier gets when she loses custody. In this day in age women want the same rights as men, well why can't men get the same rights as women especially when it comes to their kids fathers are just as important in a childs life as the mother & not many people think that its unfair, but I would support the father as well as the mother.
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9-06-2009 @ 3:10PM
lizaisblue said...When a man goes into the military and the woman is left alone to care for a child and then the father returns home the mother has taken the child into her own custody because the child does not know the father and has been raised completly by the mother. Most often people agree that it is fair for the mother to do this, they believe it is best for the child to be raised by the parent that knows them.
Why is it such a big deal when it's the other way around?
Next time a man comes home from war and his children have been taken from him, I hope he will get this same kind of support.
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9-06-2009 @ 3:11PM
SFCommo said...After serving over 22yrs on active duty I heard many, many commments about equal treatment everyone wears green, we're all the same etc. etc. ...Well now you have it. This has been happening to male soldiers since there were standing armies. I myself saw it on many occasions when a soldier(male) returned from a war or long deployment only to find his entire residence empty and his children taken from him.
The military as powerful as it is does not have the jurisdiction in a case such as this, and will in my experience guide/counsel the soldier to make resolution on the case as quick as possible for the betterment of the soldier and more importantly the unit. The military is not in the business to decide custody cases and although as a general paractice they support families because it is for the all around benefit to the unit by keeping its memebers grounded so to speak,it is all secondary to the bottom line of the military which is to win those battles and wars that they are called upon to do.
Don't try to overthink this one. The sadnes that this situation brings to bear becuase of the seperation of a mother and child is noteworthy, but once again falls secondary to the main goals of the U.S. military which is to enguage the enemy, defeat him and achieve the mission/goals that it was called upon to do; even at the detriment to a mother and child.
I'll step off my soapbox now.
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9-06-2009 @ 3:11PM
dr.gerald brickner said...children of all ages are very resilient. this has been proven in times of war, family tragedies and forced removals. it is amazing how they get over the situations by tender love. taking a child away from its mother with trumped up excuses is abominable. if our country refuses to help these parents then there will be fewer enlistees.
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9-06-2009 @ 3:11PM
seth said...The military may not enforce the family care plan but if it was put in writing and signed by both parties then this guy doesn't have a leg to stand on. The plan shows intent..it was his intent to return to joint custody upon her return and he stated that intent to someone else then he must show a justified reason why he feels his ex is now unfit to be a mother. Being deployed for war does not make a parent unfit to be a parent. Had she come home with both legs and an arm missing then yeah he might have had something. my ex wife moved from arkansas to florida because she would rather be close to her family than her son..even though she made that decision i still have to drive to mobile alabama so she can take him to florida twice a year because the court thinks aaron still needs a relationship with her.
This womans ex sounds like a jackass...
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9-06-2009 @ 3:47PM
Joellen said...I feel that this woman has the right to have at the very least joint custody of her child. She is 1 of millions that are out there fighting for our country and fighting to keep our country free. For her ex husband to say that it would disrupt the childs life is absolutely not true. This child has the right to know who her mother is. It should not matter if the mother is in the military or not. Give her a break. She is fighting for our country! Let her have her child!
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9-06-2009 @ 3:12PM
eduvigest said...WHY DO YOU SEE KIDS OF ALL AGES: Confurse, Rebellious, in drugs etc.... They don't know who to follow, it's always The kids who suffer they are involve in all kinds of Conflict; Who is to Take Responsability? THE PARENTS. Now the Law is to protect the vulnerable, the weak, The fatherless & widows. GOD is Angry yet He"s Merciful Just Look at The Weather! here and around The World. Some think they can do all they want to, Judment is coming!!!
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