Seattle family law attorney Eric Engel of the Engel Law Group was interviewed by KCPQ Channel 13′s Dana Rebik on Tuesday February 7, which aired on the channel’s News at 5 program that same evening. The interview took place just two days after Josh Powell and his two sons were killed by an explosion in his Washington state home. The explosion, believed to be intentional, went off during a home visit supervised by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).
Eric was asked to shed some light on the fact that Josh Powell was allowed to have his children come to visit him at his own home over the weekend, which appears to be abnormal in a child custody case.
“It’s very rare. I haven’t seen it in hardly any of my cases,” said Engel.
Engel said in his experience that when a parent loses custody, supervised visits are almost always at a neutral site like an office, mall or restaurant.
“If you’re going to go from neutral visitation to home visitation, there’s going to be a swing to where one parent is going to get custody back, but given what I know about this case, that wasn’t going to happen at all,” Engel said.
Watch the entire interview and segment at Q13Fox.com
Engel’s skepticism over Powell’s ability to regain custody of his children is based in the unusual circumstances surrounding this case, which have sparked controversy and debate across the nation over the way child custody cases should be handled.
Powell lost custody of his two sons shortly after his father, Stephen Powell, was arrested on charges of child pornography in 2011. Custody of Charlie, 7 and Bradan, 5, was granted to Chuck and Judy Cox, Powell’s parents-in-law. The Coxes had been fighting for custody of the two boys since late 2009, when Josh Powell became the only person of interest in the missing persons case for his wife, Susan Powell. After the Coxes were granted custody, the boys visited their father only through supervised visits coordinated through DSHS.
Sunday, Feb. 5 was the first day that Powell was allowed to visit with his sons at his rental home in Graham, Washington, as the result of a recent court decision. This unusual decision has been the subject of much controversy after the gruesome events of the visit. Seconds after the boys entered Powell’s home, he closed and locked the door, leaving the panicked social worker outside. It was only moments later that Powell allegedly attacked his children with an ax, and blew up his rental home, killing himself and his two boys.
There has been intense media scrutiny of this tragic sequence of events. Police, court officials and lawmakers continue to discuss the case, and its implications for child custody law, both local and national.