What If One Party in a Custody Case is Engaged in Stripping or Prostitution?

So I want to break the question down into two parts because there's first the stripping part of it and then there's the prostitution part of it. In most states in America prostitution is a crime but I don't believe that it's a crime in the state of Nevada so if I were approaching this case and the party on the other side was prostituting I would talk to the judge about the fact that this person isn't obeying the law unless of course the case is taking place in Nevada.

Anytime a person is not obeying the law it shows that maybe their judgment could affect the best interest of the children and traditionally something like prostitution is considered a crime of moral turpitude. So if a person knows that it's a crime to be a prostitute yet they continue to prostitute they're breaking the law. If it's a situation where it just happened once and maybe it was a mistake in judgment but if they continue to do it then it's a pattern of behavior and I would argue that it could negatively affect the child or children.

I would argue the same thing for any other type of crime. I've had cases where I defended people who were breaking the law who were on drugs who had gotten DUI’s and I've also been on the other side where I'm representing representing one side and the other parent is the one who is continuously breaking the law. So it's not just the crime itself that's going to carry the day and as I've said in many of these videos the judge is going to look at all of the best interest factors, not just one of them. Now with a really serious crime that may be possible for that crying to carry the day. For example if a parent is convicted of sexual abuse or some sort of sexual assault or an aggravated assault or some sort of violent crime and be sure to check your state and local rules.

Because in Arizona there are special rules that apply to sexual crimes and violent crimes when it comes to child custody. Anytime a person is breaking the law the
judge needs to know about it. The judge needs to consider and then that judge needs to know what sort of weight to give it in the scheme of things. So if you're in a state where prostitution is illegal it's definitely something I would bring up. It may or may not change the whole outcome of the case depending on the other factors. For example prostitution combined with drug use or homelessness or something like that could be enough to sway the odds in your favor.

Let’s talk about stripping next. Stripping in most places is not a crime and while most people wouldn't want one of the parent's of the child to be a stripper, it's not illegal. It is a way of making a living and if that parent is a good parent when they're not at the nightclub then really that's probably what the judge is going to care about the most.

Now obviously you are going to want to bring it up to the judge that the person is a stripper and that's probably going to come out if you're in a custody case because usually child support isn't an issue in child custody cases & parenting time cases. So the judge is going to know what that person does for a living.

Now your judges bias will always come into play. Judges are required to be fair and neutral and follow the law. But let's face it they're human and in a case where you might have a judge he's really religious or really strict & really conservative, they may definitely hold it against the person who is a stripper.

Other judges may just see it as another job so it really depends on the facts of your case. The stripper part of it is kind of less defined a little more foggy than the prostitution part of the question because prostitution in most cases is a crime.

Either way I think that you probably would be ok if you brought both of these things up including the stripping even if it's not illegal in your case so the judge could get the weight that the judge thinks it deserves.