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Bizarre custody case returnsBy JIM ROSS
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- Many child custody battles have unusual circumstances. But few battles are as strange as the one Jim and Alannah St. Hilaire have waged the past six years. In 1995, Ms. St. Hilaire, 36, piled herself and the couple's three children into a car and tried to kill herself and them by carbon monoxide poisoning. A good Samaritan happened upon the scene and saved their lives. The St. Hilaires already were divorced. Their children lived with relatives and in foster homes while Ms. St. Hilaire underwent mental health counseling, found a job and got her life in order. She now has custody. But her court battle isn't over. Jim St. Hilaire, 40, is enrolled in drug court and is on community control, otherwise known as house arrest. He tried to kill himself last year and recently emerged from drug rehabilitation. Later this week, Ms. St. Hilaire will ask a judge to cancel her former husband's summer visitation with the children. The reason: "He's not safe," she said. The irony is not lost on Alannah St. Hilaire: The woman who once tried to kill herself and her children now argues they are safer with her than they would be with their father. Shake your head if you wish. But don't expect her to join. She said she has earned her way back into the children's lives -- something her former husband has not done. "I didn't see my kids for a year and a half" after the car incident, she said. "I had to jump through hoops of fire" to get them back. Prosecutors didn't file charges against Ms. St. Hilaire because of her emotional state at the time. But the Department of Children and Families later established a rigorous set of requirements Ms. St. Hilaire had to meet before she could visit the children again, no less take them back. Ms. St. Hilaire passed with flying colors; she underwent counseling, found a job, did everything asked of her. Indeed, in the end, her greatest supporters came from Children and Families. Those same social workers argued against the father. He had custody at one point when his former wife was rehabilitating, but the state removed the children from his home because of his drug and alcohol problems. He had to fight just to get visitation rights. Ms. St. Hilaire now lives in Illinois with the children and her new husband. She said the kids -- girls ages 11 and 10 and a boy age 8 -- are safe and secure. Ms. St. Hilaire said the children don't want to visit their father and have told him so. "It's about me," she said. "It's about how much he despises me." Her former husband said he has gotten his life together. He has a job, a home, a new wife and two stepchildren. The suicide attempts and drug use are behind him. He agreed to enter drug court after he was caught smoking marijuana while on probation for criminal mischief. "This really bothers me," Jim St. Hilaire said of his former wife's legal request, which Circuit Judge Ric Howard is scheduled to consider at 2 p.m. Friday. He said the court order awarding him a month of summer visitation was issued a year ago; why did Ms. St. Hilaire wait until now, a week or so before the visit should begin, to file her motion? He said his former wife was deliberately trying to make things difficult. She said she acted late because she never thought a judge would grant Jim St. Hilaire permission to leave the state, while on house arrest, to drive to Illinois and pick up the kids. But that's what County Judge Mark Yerman did last week despite protestations from Ms. St. Hilaire, who flew from Chicago to attend the hearing. She contacted her former Citrus lawyer and secured a spot on Judge Howard's family court docket. Jim St. Hilaire said she's wasting her time and money. "They would be safe," he said of the children. He also said his probation officer has assured him the house arrest wouldn't interfere with his visit with the children. Jim St. Hilaire said, "I might not be a saint, but I never tried to murder my children. I did nothing close to what she did."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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