The state Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday that strictly limits the rights of grandparents and others to seek visitation with a child against the wishes of a custodial parent.
The court reversed a lower court decision that required Stan Weston to allow visitation between his children and his dead wife’s mother and sister. The high court ruled that granting the visitation infringed on Weston’s right to decide with whom his children had contact.
Weston opposed any contact between the children and their grandmother and aunt because he believed their “morals, values and ethics were inconsistent with his own and with those he wished to instill in his children,” according to the ruling. The maternal grandmother had placed her own children in foster homes, and the aunt had been a stripper.
Based on its review in the Weston case, the high court also ruled Tuesday in favor of former New Haven Police Chief Nicholas Pastore, who opposed visits between a child born out of his affair with a prostitute and the child’s maternal grandmother.
“I’m certainly glad that the court in its wisdom found fit to reaffirm the parental right in decision making,” Pastore said Tuesday. “I believe this will be the beginning of new laws and legislation on 21st century families. We’re different. The definition of parents is going to be clarified.”
The grandmother of Pastore’s daughter, now 7 years old, sought visitation rights in the courts.
–Associated Press