What if the father wanted custody and claimed that the escort wasn't fit to raise the child? Could happen. Does anyone actually know of a case like this?
Originally Posted by ElisabethWhispers
About 4 years ago I was contacted about EXACTLY that situation. A provider got pregnant from a hobbyist. The provider agreed to leave the business and the two began living together, but after the birth of their child she returned to tricking without telling him. This may be hard to believe, but the baby daddy claimed the provider gave the baby her old cell phone to play with when she got a new one, and on the phone were over 200 text messages to and from hobbyists seeking appointments. He filed for sole custody of the child, claiming her profession made her an unfit mother.
I specialize in criminal defense and civil litigation, and I normally don't practice family law (the cases are too emotional -- I prefer murder or assault -- haha), but I agreed to help her because she was the friend of a good friend of mine who's a provider and the young lady didn't have any money for a lawyer. Ultimately, the case settled with the parties having equal rights to possession of the child.
The standard for deciding child possession is what is in the best interest of the child. I pulled my old file and did some new research (lawyers: I ran "best interest of child" & possession or custody & prostitute or prostitution through Westlaw). There are 23 published and unpublished Texas cases in which the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services or some other government agency obtained the termination of a mother's right of possession because there was evidence she worked as a prostitute, although there were also allegations of abuse, neglect, and illicit substances in the cases. I didn't find one case involving a parent versus parent custody contest in which it was alleged the birth mother was a prostitute. This may be because the mother likely would not have had the resources to pursue an appeal from an unfavorable judgment.
Thomas v. Thomas, 852 S.W.2d 31 (Tex. App.--Waco 1993, no writ) is probably closest to being on point. In that case, the mother, a prostitute, surrendered her parental rights, and the father and maternal grandmother each sought custody, with granny winning out.