Redneck Ignorance

There are a lot of positives about living in a small town. We still have full service gas stations. Officers will help you get into your locked car. People bring you meals when you are recovering from a hospital stay. Their are also some major negatives. One of which is lack of common knowledge. Not everyone of course, but some people with important roles in our community. I will now give an example. Ever since we split Fernando uses his time off of work to harass me and my children. I don't think he fully understands that is what he is doing, but it is. He is supposed to be supervised IF he spends any time with the children. I do not have to allow him to see them at all due to an ex parte custody order I have signed by a state circuit judge. Friday Fernando came home and wanted the girls to spend the night with him. He has his own place, which I don't know where it is. He had no one with him to supervise so I said no. He then decided to tall Talise what a bitch he thinks I am. Great! Then Saturday I get a call from him while I am at work. He is telling me that I better tell my mother to send the children outside. He is there and he wants to see his kids. He WILL see them! I called my mother and she tells me she has to go, she is on the other line with the sheriffs department. It took them about twenty minutes to arrive and it was the new guy. He wasn't sure if they should arrest Fernando for violating the order or not so he called for back up. Turns out that their are only two deputies that serve my area, great, dumb and dumber. The more experienced of the two told me they couldn't honor the order because it was issued in another county. What? That can't be right. I could not get it through his thick skull that he was mistaken. He was being very insensitive and careless. He made absolutely NO sense. He kept telling me I didn't want to step on the DA's toes. I honestly don't care about stepping on toes, I care about protecting my children. Meanwhile Fernando is pacing the front of the driveway and calling me at work. I told my co-worker to just tell him I'm with a patient. He leaves me a message that HE'S calling the police so he can see his kids. Go for it buddy! The deputy advises me to go to the sheriff's office Monday after noon to pick up a copy of the report and to go to the circuit clerk to file a harassment warrant. Once they ran Fernando off and warned him not to come back I called my attorney to leave a message as to what had just gone down. Monday morning my attorney calls me completely flabbergasted at the deputies lack of knowledge. He called the sheriff's office and spoke with the sheriff. The sheriff did not believe that his deputy told me the order was no good. It IS valid and should be honored!  I wrote down my case number and the judges name gathered my ex parte order, kids and supplies and headed to the court house. Once there, after obtaining a copy of the report I spoke with the sheriff. He assured me that they would NOT allow Fernando to take my children. They would honor the order and he would be sure that his deputies would be educated on honoring ex parte custody orders regardless on which county it was issued in. Then I went down to speak with the circuit clerk who, after listening to my side of the situation, issued a criminal (I think) trespassing warrant. Next time Fernando shows up at my house whoever is there with the children is to call the sheriff's department and tell them he has an active warrant against him. I really don't want him arrested because I'd like to eventually get child support out of him, but I will NOT allow him to harm or take my children. I also found out my divorce case is just sitting there, waiting to be set. The circuit clerk told me that one of the attorney's has to file a motion to set the case before it will be put on the docket. I called my attorney again to ask him to do that. He told me NO! He said that he found that rude and after a few months if it hasn't been set and Fernando's attorney withdraws then he may file a motion. I asked him if he'd please go ahead and do it. He told me I have full custody of my kids so why should it matter how long it takes. I told him that I would like to get some child support. He told me good luck with that, that Fernando probably won't even pay it. I just let him go and went back to the circuit clerk's office. I informed them of what my attorney told me and asked if their is anything I can do to speed things a long. They had me write out a request to set and sign it and said they'd give it to the judged and inform them of why I did it. Hopefully that will get the ball rolling. I am ready for this to be over with.