Leonard Richards testifies on custody and visitation challenges as a father

Hello, good afternoon.

My name is Leonard Richards.

I'm here part of the Father Speak Up movement.

And myself, I reached out to Dionez because he's the CEO of the movement.

Because going through joint custody with my kids, well, my ex-wife,

I went into joint custody in 2017.

Everything was going good.

Everything was going smooth.

Then next thing you know, she just snapped on me, made it hard for me to see my kids.

Then when I was trying to go to one of my visitations, I went there.

She didn't open the door for me to see my kids.

I called the police.

The police...

They said it's nothing they could do.

I had to go back to court.

So I had to go back through the whole ring around with the court system.

I felt they wasn't hearing me.

And I feel like they want us as a dad to snap and put our hands on the woman, which...

In my case, I'm not going to do it because I know that's what some of the mothers want.

Not all mothers are like that.

But with my ex-wife, I know that's what she's like.

That's what she wants me to do.

And ever since winning the joint custody, I've never argued with her.

I never threatened her.

I never...

scared her, anything like that.

And also, I meant to include, I was picking my kids up from the home.

Then next thing you know, she snapped and said, oh, she feels unsafe for me coming into the building to pick up the kids.

I don't go upstairs to the door.

I just meet in the lobby, text her that I'm here.

She's supposed to come down.

So then she went back to the court, told him she feels threatened, she feels scared.

So now for the past three years, I've been picking my kids up from the police station.

I don't want my kids going through that, but they're going through it now.

I can't.

It's about as much as I can do.

My son recently just graduated college from Auburn University, upstate New York.

My daughter, she's 10 years old.

My kids love me.

They love the ground I walk on.

And the fact that she's trying to paint this narrative that I'm not a good father, a good dad.

It's like I have proof.

I have pictures.

I have everything.

I do everything with my kids.

When I have the time, when I have my weekends with them, I go get them.

We do things.

We go out of state.

We just enjoy it.

And I'm just trying to be in my kid's life, and that's about it.

I want to thank you so much.