Lawyers Without Billboards
Real lawyers, real talk—without the billboards. Lawyers Without Billboards is an unfiltered look at family law, hosted by the partners of Shewmaker & Lewis: Steve and Patty Shewmaker, and Jimmy and Alexa Lewis.
With decades of experience in divorce, custody battles, child support, alimony, and criminal law, they break down legal myths, share expert insights, and dive into real cases (sometimes with a side of humor).
Expect candid conversations, legal deep dives, and the occasional sidebar on pop culture, legal movies, and life as family law attorneys. Whether you're navigating a family law issue, practicing law yourself, or just enjoy courtroom drama, this podcast offers valuable insights with a dose of levity.
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Lawyers Without Billboards
What If Your Ex Runs Away with Your Child? | Lawyers Without Billboards S2-Ep23
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What happens when a parent takes a child and disappears?
In this episode of Lawyers Without Billboards, the attorneys at Shewmaker & Lewis tackle one of the most frightening concerns parents face during custody disputes: child abduction by a parent or family member.
The discussion explores real-world cases of domestic and international child abduction, the controversial story of Faye Yager and Children of the Underground, and the legal tools available to help prevent a parent from fleeing with a child. From custody orders and passport alerts to travel restrictions and court-imposed safeguards, the hosts explain what parents can do when they fear a child may be taken.
You'll also learn how Amber Alerts actually work, why most family abduction cases don't qualify, and what courts can realistically do when concerns about child abduction arise.
Whether you're navigating a custody dispute or simply want to understand your rights, this episode offers practical insights into one of family law's most serious issues.
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:55 What Is Family Child Abduction?
02:15 The Story of Faye Yager & Children of the Underground
07:10 Family Abductions vs. Stranger Abductions
10:15 Real Cases of Parents Taking Children Across State Lines
12:10 International Child Abduction Concerns
13:25 How Courts Can Help Prevent Child Abduction
14:15 Passport Alert Programs & Do-Not-Depart Orders
16:10 Habitual Residence and Hague Convention Considerations
17:30 Why a Custody Order Is Your Best Protection
18:20 Are Amber Alerts Effective?
22:40 Using Bonds to Deter Child Abduction
25:35 Can Child Abduction Ever Be Justified?
27:50 Final Thoughts
🔔 Subscribe for candid conversations about family law, relationships, and the legal system - without the billboards.
🎙️ Hosts: Steve & Patty Shewmaker, Jimmy & Alexa Lewis
🎧 Watch here: https://youtu.be/9y0vPomVCn8 or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more.
📩 Contact: pshewmaker@shewmakerandlewis.com
| (770) 939-1939
🌐 Website: https://www.shewmakerandlewis.com
🎧 Podcast Library: https://shewmakerandlewis.com/lawyers-without-billboards
🎼 Music by Ben Hernandez – Dragonsong Productions
🎥 Produced by: Bleeding Edge, Inc.
🎬 Audio & Video Production: Rob Burgner
📍 Recorded at: Shewmaker & Lewis, Atlanta, GA
Welcome to Lawyers Without Billboards, where we break down family law and other areas of the law.
No gimmicks, no legal jargon, just real unfiltered talk from real lawyers.
Every episode they tackle the legal questions that matter most.
divorce, custody, child support, alimony, and everything in between.
Whoop! Lawyers without billboards, y'all.
I'm here with my partners, Patty and Alexa and Jimmy Lewis.
What are we talking about today?
return of children that have been abducted internationally.
We want to be complimented on our forbearance.
Jimmy's not going to be happy till we break and he does it.
Do we want to break now so Jimmy can do it?
No, Do we want to break now so Jimmy can do it?
There's going to be little bits of Julie everywhere.
Do you have a passport to any other country?
No, I don't even have a passport from this country.
You know, we're talking about it could be within the United States.
Didn't we watch a like a documentary of the
You're talking about Faye Yeager.
And we might have to educate Jimmy on it.
Faye Yeager was, she passed away in 2024.
The whole story is kind of unfortunate.
Faye Yeager was, she would have been 20, 30 years older than me and Steve.
And she was married in the early 70s, about 1972.
She walked in on her husband molesting their toddler daughter.
Well, no, she walked in and she said she saw it.
No, that doesn't mean it happened.
I'm going to finish telling you the story, okay?
She then, of course, calls the police.
They go through a nasty divorce.
He gets custody of her daughter.
It's all out there on the internet.
And he actually got put on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list for child molesters.
So, legit, so it sounds like it legit happened.
Right, I've always wanted to be on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.
Not for child molestation, but I've always wanted to be like 10 most wanted.
You just want to be most wanted something.
You're on my top 10 most on list.
Yeah, most wanted to take the trash out.
What were you going to say, Jimmy?
Are there different categories?
Like murder, child molestation, bank robber.
I don't know, maybe, probably.
I probably wouldn't be on the bank robber one.
she started an organization called Children of the Underground.
You remembering all this or is it in your underground?
But in the lady, she started this organization called Children of the Underground.
And really it was her and she had some other ladies that would help her.
She would get fake IDs for them.
She had this network where she would hide them.
She would get them out of the state.
Because some of the cases actually were very legitimate.
No, it wasn't one specific case.
And so the jury acquitted her because some of these were cases of legitimate abuse.
And so some of these children who were then adults or older teenagers did testify.
But then where she ran into trouble, there were a few cases.
And she had, if you can watch a documentary, it's on Hulu.
And she talks about how she would vet this or try to vet this.
And in one of the cases that she did, and a couple cases she got sued for defamation.
One guy got an actual judgment against her for $5 million.
And so he was coming after her and that's when she stopped.
It really kind of fits into what we're talking about.
Of that, just in the US, or this is just in the United States.
Of that, they say $200,000 are abducted by a family member.
So we're not children, 200,000 children, children, 200,000 children, children.
Patty's money is like another child to her.
Yeah, 6,000 children only worth about $200,000.
that's really what we're talking about when we're talking about preventing child abduction.
You don't need some nefarious reasons.
We're talking about a family member, you know, very often a parent.
Sometimes a grandparent, sometimes a grandparent.
Therefore, the court systems are corrupt.
And I would not put it past some of these people to abduct a child and disappear.
Well, yeah, and that's kind of what Faye Yeager was doing, and that was the problem.
That's exactly what Faye Yeager was doing.
was helping these moms abduct their children away from the fathers.
And she was the one that was determining whether or not the evidence was sufficient to.
She was recently, as recent as the last five or six years, just very active in helping moms.
And helping, because if a mother doesn't get her kids, then obviously the system is corrupt.
I happen to be on a calendar one time and her case resulted in me
my case not going until about 7:00 that night, had to sit there and watch her case all day long.
And no, there is a definitive reason why that woman lost custody of her children.
It was everybody's fault but her.
I believe it was only mothers.
Right, So, we do get that question a lot and it comes up as a concern for parents.
How do I keep her from running away with the children?
How do I keep him from running away with the children?
That was a year or so ago, but that's a good case.
And frankly, the luckiest break we got is I started texting this woman directly.
And the first few text messages were pretty direct.
They were like, hey, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.
And she started getting belligerent before she just totally ghosted me.
Well, and they're using fake IDs and stuff like that.
That's what clandestine means.
But the point being, like I thought clandestine was the KKK.
a lot of assistance from other people and money that most people don't have lying around.
And it's also very hard in this.
It's getting harder in this day and age.
I think the two I hear the most are
And then the other one I hear a lot is, she is a citizen of another country.
Because you frequently have to ask, does this country even do joint citizenship?
And you can today be a joint citizen of United States of Belarus.
Then the next question I ask is, when's the last time any of you went to Belarus?
Oh, we haven't been to the 15 years.
Okay, then probably we're not worried about that thing.
Are they on property in that country still?
Yeah, and I can't tell people, I tell people all the time, I cannot predict the future.
It is, and I can't prevent every damn thing.
So what are some of you all's thoughts and ideas on how do you prevent child abduction?
And beginning of Casino Royale and they just.
put the little chip inside bonds so we can track him everywhere and track all his vitals.
We do it on the hats and dogs.
And our horse is going to happen.
Yeah, we don't want to lose him.
You don't need to get a face, but it's just going to wear itself down.
So, things of that nature, right?
alert program, which you can submit your child's name to this program with the State Department.
And the State Department will notify you if anybody applies for a passport in your child's name.
So that's one option, absolutely.
Another thing you're talking about, then Jimmy, also was do not depart language in a court order.
So if you get a do not depart order, you can submit that to the State Department.
And they're supposed to provide that to Customs and Border Patrol.
Now, the problem with that is that's only as good as the agent that's doing the checking.
Yeah, so you're telling me if I get in a car in San Diego,
And I crossed the border there at, what was it, Mexicale down in Tijuana?
Oh, I have more faith in it today than I would 10 years ago.
Yeah, it's all electronic now.
Yeah, 10 years from now, yeah.
because she looks like an adult.
but then they're not checking anything to see.
Now, maybe they just assume, since both of us are traveling with her, that we're her parents.
Well, and she kind of looks like both of you, so that helps.
And I've done this in some cases where you have a concern that.
No, because I should say that the child in that particular case is like 16.
I'm like, I've seen a big years.
But you know, once a child turns 16, nobody wants that child.
They're like, oh, can you take it back?
Yeah, the biggest insult would be to steal my child and then send me the bill.
A lot of things you can do though, and this is really with
That's assuming we have a court order, right?
To have a court order adjusting custody and adjusting parenting time.
And, this is hard to do, and you really have to have something that there's been some historical.
Things like that is like one of the number one things that you guys can do.
What do you guys think about AMP Alerts?
Helpful in preventing child abduction.
And one of them was like, hey, is that truck that we saw on that Amber Alert sign?
And the other one's like, I don't know.
And then you see this little girl get out of the car.
And I think it was actually her aunt who had kidnapped her.
And they were like, that looked like that kid.
And one of them's on the phone with the cops.
He was like, hey, I think this is it.
And he reads the license fine number and the cop's like, yeah, that's it.
We'll have someone there immediately.
And they just pulled the movie truck up right behind that truck.
So in that situation, it was very helpful.
Which is interesting because, so
Amber Alerts, it's a federal, it's a federal, it's a federal law.
And it was named after a little girl named Amber who was nine years old.
She was abducted by a stranger who then raped and killed her.
I mean, very horrifying, very horrific, right?
So an Amber Alert, and every state has their own variation of the Amber Alert system.
The Department of Justice, they have guidelines of when an Amber Alert should be issued.
And those conditions are, local law enforcement has confirmed that an abduction has occurred.
The abducted child must be at risk for serious bodily injury or death.
There's sufficient descriptive information about the child, the abductor, and the vehicle.
And the abducted child is under the age of 18.
So, you know, based on that second prong, the abduction child.
And there's some organizations
I mean, when you get an Amber Alert on your phone, do you really pay attention to it anymore?
Now, Department of Justice says yes, they have over the years helped us stop.
Because really what you're trying to do is stop it in the process.
You got to get them within three hours.
And so that was the whole point of the Amber Alert.
Rise them was that while they're in the process, just to catch them fast.
Yeah, basically before they can get to wherever it is they're going to do what they're going to do.
Yeah, Department of Justice says that they've saved 800 children.
Well, yes, but remember, Amber Alert's not really designed for a family abduction scenario.
So when you go back to 200,000 out, 260,000,
children are family abduction.
It's usually a situation where it's a parent or a relative abducting the child.
The child's willingly going to go to that because they don't know better.
So I always think that's interesting about Amber Alerts because I've actually had
clients say, we need to do an Amber Alert, we need to do an Amber Alert.
And I was like, well, it doesn't fit the criteria.
It's not really an Amber Alert.
Like the vast majority of these, it's just, it's my custodial time, they won't get the kid back.
So having a parent put up a bond to exercise visitation.
I don't remember that case, but I'll take your word for it.
And when they turned over the passport, they got the check out.
that Jimmy would have to bring all of his guns to us.
And if he didn't come back on schedule, then he forfeited all his guns to the state.
He would never, ever jeopardize his guns.
I know what you're talking about.
any case law in Georgia regarding the use of bonds for visitation.
And so there is case law support out there for the use of bonds.
But again, the challenge that you have is there's got to be some sort of indication
typically to support, a child court doing that.
So if you did that with the bond, I guess.
if they didn't return with the child, the funds go to the other parent.
Essentially, they're going to pay that to an attorney to file something.
That's exactly the thought process.
They have enough family in that country that I'll pay.
Yeah, because they're going to have to go to that country and fight it.
As attorneys, we have to say, look, there's only so much we can do.
They happen, but they're not common.
It's possible, but it's not likely.
And you can't always prevent every damn possibility.
You can't foresee every circumstance.
And these are just some tips and tools.
You can only drag a leash so far.
Hey, Molly, we're coming to get you.
We're coming to get you on Saturday.
We're going to go get your chips.
I mean, why not put a little chip in her ear?
Well, that's, you know, unless you guys have something to add or other ideas, I'd love to get them.
I mean, it's just like a hard.
If in a Hague Convention case, it's determined that the child shouldn't be returned.
Abduction, remember, abduction is not just international.
Yes, there can be cases where the child is not returned.
So that would sort of fit the criteria.
So it sort of fits that criteria-ish.
You got to be very, very careful, and you better make sure that it's justified.
That's a good question, though.
I think that is an awesome question.
And this so concludes this riveting, rivet, riveting episode of Lawyers Without Billboards.
That's it for this episode of Lawyers Without Billboards.
For more resources or to get in touch with us, visit shoemakerandlewis.com.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.