Bill facilitating safe exchange of minor children ready for Gov. DeSantis’ signature

Divorced parents arguing about child custody on light background
The bill passed the House unanimously, with a 'no' vote in the Senate.

State law soon could address how divorced parents hand their children off to each other during split custody scenarios.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has received HB 385, bipartisan legislation introduced by Republican Rep. Joel Rudman and Democratic Rep. Hillary Cassel. The Senate companion bill was introduced by Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough.

The bill honors someone who perished due to a custody exchange gone horribly wrong.

The bill is referred to as the Cassie Carli Law to honor Cassie Carli, a 37-year-old Navarre woman who vanished in March 2022 following the scheduled exchange of her preschool-aged daughter, only to be found in a grave in Alabama weeks later.

The legislation would require court-approved plans for shared custody to include, unless otherwise agreed to by both parents, a list of “designated authorized locations” to exchange custody of their children. Estranged parents can opt out with a written waiver, however, should they be able to work things out more amicably.

In cases where parents provide evidence that they or their child may be at risk of harm, a court may require the parents to exchange in the parking lot of a county Sheriff’s Office.

The parking lot must be accessible at all times, well-lit, have video surveillance and include a purple light or a sign billing it as a “neutral safe exchange location.”

The bill also entitles domestic violence victims to the same protections, mandating a court order to enforce the condition.

The legislation passed the House unanimously, and had just one no vote in the Senate, from Democrat Lori Berman.

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Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


6 comments

  • Unsafe Florida, Christian Death Peninsula

    May 21, 2024 at 5:18 pm

    A Florida man was arrested for allegedly decapitating a pet dog named Dexter that he had adopted from an animal shelter just one day earlier.

    Deputies began looking for Domingo Rodriguez on 14 May, after they received reports of a dead dog wrapped in plastic at a park in Fort Desoto, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

    Officers called to the grisly scene found a bulldog mix dog that had its head chopped off and had been stuffed into a bag floating in a mangrove swamp in the park.

    • Dont Say FLA

      May 22, 2024 at 5:19 pm

      Mr Rodriguez is another person wanting to be Trump’s VP, I presume?

  • Dont Say FLA

    May 21, 2024 at 10:21 pm

    There go today’s G0P again claiming to be pro-family and thus pro-life while instead making it easier to be divorced. Such hypocrites

    • Ocean Joe

      May 22, 2024 at 5:05 am

      Actually, no fault divorce, has been around awhile and has made the process a lot more civilized and easier. Horrible things happen during that hand-off all the time. If this helps, then for once GOP legislation has been about making life better instead of always cynically trying to stuff the pockets of the wealthy with money diverted from the rest of the taxpayers.

      • Dont Say FLA

        May 22, 2024 at 5:17 pm

        I mean living life as a divorced person. The family values G0P is making life easier for divorced people here.

        While I agree added safety for MAGA Dad hand-offs with Sick-of-MAGA-BS Mom is a good idea and the G0P is doing good here, it’s just funny to call the G0P out as being anti-family for their making it easier to live life as a divorced person.

        If the G0P really cared about keeping families together, they wouldn’t remove reasons not to be divorced like they’re doing here. LOL

  • Playing with ?

    May 23, 2024 at 7:48 pm

    But, let’s remove restrictions on money laundry stocks and call to the dealing crypto ones.yes safe things to come

Comments are closed.


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