County of San Francisco v. David Stewart

1 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA 2 COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 3 UNIFIED FAMILY COURT 4

5) 6 COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO,) Case Number: FCS-11-346715) 7 Petitioner) Hearing Date: May 19, 2026) 8 VS.) Hearing Time: 9:00 AM) 9 DAVID STEWART,) Department: 404) 10 Respondent) Presiding: AI MORI) 11) 12 REQUEST FOR ORDER FOR CHANGE OF CHANGE OF CHILD CUSTODY, VISITATION 13 (PARENTING TIME) 14 TENTATIVE RULING 15

16 The parties are ordered to appear in person or via Zoom at 10am on 5/19/2026 in Department 404 17 to discuss Father's parenting time. If a party chooses to appear by Zoom, that party must abide by 18 the Notice and Instructions for Remote Appearance in San Francisco Family Court set forth above 19

20 A. Procedural History 21 1) David Stewart (Father) and Lilia Scott (Mother) have one minor child together, Cybelle (DOB 22 12/8/2010, age 15). Mother has sole legal and sole physical custody of Cybelle. 23 2) In an order filed 3/26/2025, the Court noted it had “just recently granted Father unsupervised 24 visitation after essentially a lifetime of estrangement.” The Court issued various orders including 25 an order for unsupervised parenting time for Father twice a month for 2 hours per visit in a public 26 place, and for Father's younger son Bruce to attend the visits until and unless the parties agree 27 otherwise. 28 3) On 1/27/2026, Father filed a request for joint legal custody and 70/30 physical custody “or some 29 form of equal shared parenting,” “for any weekend or weekday with a ‘Step up’ . . . strategy in

1 place.” He states that Mother allowed him to see Cybelle only 17 times from March to December 2 2025 and was inflexible in the scheduling of visits, including using Bruce's unavailability as a 3 reason to cancel visits. He states he is developing a bond with Cybelle and that Cybelle told him 4 she wants to spend more time with him but “sound[ed] timid about discussing more Dad time 5 with her mom due to fear of retaliation.” 6 4) Mother filed a response in which she notes that she and Cybelle participated in Rally visits and 7 two rounds of reunification therapy before the current parenting time schedule was put in place. 8 She states the custody orders are final, Montenegro orders.

She states Father saw Cybelle only a 9 few times when she was a baby and then disappeared for 9 years. She states Father exercised only 10 8 of his court-ordered visits over the past year, or 16 hours total, and that Father has repeatedly 11 said he is willing to spend less time with Cybelle if he is able to pay less in child support. Mother 12 denies that she interferes with Father’s relationship with Cybelle. She states that when Father 13 does not schedule his visits or does not confirm in time, she asks Cybelle if she would like to 14 suggest alternatives, and she says she would like to skip the visits.

Cybelle also says she does not 15 want Father to have her phone number or contact her directly. Mother requests a Tier II interview 16 if the Court is inclined to order significantly more parenting time for Father. 17 5) On 4/9/2026, the parties appeared at the hearing on Father's request, but the matter was continued 18 to 5/19/2026 after Father informed the Court that he wished to retain counsel before proceeding 19 with the hearing. 20 6) On 5/7/2026, Mother filed an update declaration informing the Court that Father has not 21 scheduled any visits with Cybelle since the last hearing. 22 7) On 5/15/2026, Father filed a Notice of Limited Scope Representation by attorney Tracy 23 Henderson as well as a request for judicial notice of various documents. 24 B.

Findings and Orders 25 1) This Court has jurisdiction to make child custody orders in this case under the Uniform Child 26 Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. A violation of this order may subject the party in 27 violation to civil or criminal penalties, or both. The country of habitual residence of the minor 28 child is the United States. 29 2) Mother shall continue to have sole legal and sole physical custody of Cybelle.

1 3) The parties are ordered to appear in person or via Zoom at 10am on 5/19/2026 in 2 Department 404 to discuss Father's parenting time. 3

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