District Court for Dawes County, District Judge Travis O’Gorman
Attorney for Appellant: Adam R. Little (Nebraska Legal Group)
Attorney for Appellee: Amanda M. Vogl (Douglas, Kelly, Ostdiek, Snyder, Ossian and Vogl, P.C.)
Civil Action: Modification
Action taken by the Trial Court: Following trial, the district court modified the decree of dissolution which had originally awarded joint legal and physical custody of son and daughter and equal parenting time. The modification order awarded mother sole legal and physical custody, denied the father any parenting time, and ordered the father to pay child support.
Assignments of Error on Appeal: The father assigns that the district court (1) abused its discretion by unconstitutionally denying the father all rights to be involved in his children’s lives; (2) abused its discretion by ordering an absolute bar on parenting when there was not a preponderance of the evidence that exceptional circumstances exist to merit such significant measures; (3) abused its discretion by entering an order that was a constructive termination of the father’s parental rights without the due process protections afforded under a statutory termination proceeding; (4) abused its discretion by placing significant weight on unqualified expert testimony; (5) abused its discretion by impermissibly permitting the mother to collaterally attack an expert’s report where she was not qualified to do so; and (6) violated the father’s procedural due process rights by unfairly denying him the opportunity to be heard in full on the second day of trial in light of the nature of the proceeding and the character of the rights which were affected by it.