Mother filed a motion to suspend father’s summer visitation time after daughter reported smelling marijuana in the home. Father submitted to a urine test which was negative for all substances, and a hair follicle test which tested positive for marijuana. There was no mechanism for determining the date of marijuana use. At a hearing in front of a domestic relations commissioner, father testified he did not smoke marijuana and rarely drank alcohol. The commissioner recommended Father’s time sharing be reinstated, but the trial court entered an order requiring father’s visitation to be supervised until he had six months of clean drug tests.
Father argues that trial court unreasonably restricted his visitation rights in violation of KRS 403.320(3). The Court of Appeals agrees reversing the judgment of the trial court. In order to modify visitation, the trial court must find that visitation would seriously endanger the child. After considering the evidence, the Court of Appeals finds that there was not sufficient evidence to establish daughter was seriously endangered by Father’s visitation where Father denied smoking or possessing marijuana, immediately submitted to a drug test which came back negative, daughter never saw Father smoking, and daughter did not see drug paraphernalia in the home.
Digested by Elizabeth M. Howell
