Stolen Childhood: Mom Allowed to See Her Children for Only Seven Days in Four Years

The battle to get to see her twin children on a regular basis has consumed Katherine Diamond’s life for the past seven years.  She described these as stolen years, especially the past four years, when she has hardly been allowed to see her children at all.

The battle was taken everything she had or was provided by others — more than $200,000 in attorney fees.  It has left her physically and emotionally exhausted.

For most of the last year, she had to represent herself before the East Baton Rouge Family Court. Family Court is supposed to cut through legal complexities and operate in the best interests of the child, but this case looks like business litigation involving hundreds of millions of dollar.

Ms. Diamond has been pelted with legal filings — hundreds so far.

Now she has two of the best attorneys in the state — Lewis and Lance Unglesby. They are providing their services pro bono because they were so disturbed at how Ms. Diamond has been treated by the legal system.  But now her husband’s attorneys are trying to have the Unglesby firm disqualified from representing her.

Lance Unglesby said, “I’m deeply concerned about how Ms. Diamond was treated by the court and counsel when she had to proceed pro se.  There is no way to describe it but perplexing.”

He said, “How is it in the best interests of the children to go from seeing the children regularly as she did briefly last year to not seeing them at all? It’s the duty of the court to insure the relationship with both parents.”

“I’ve never seen any behavior by Katherine Diamond that would justify any of this.  She has only good qualities to offer her children.  Also, I went back and examined the video of the alleged abuse. But no matter how many times I watch it, there is no abuse. She has the right to see her children and it doesn’t need to be supervised visitation. She’s not a danger to her children and never has been.”