Police retake custody of singer’s son

After a days-long search by law enforcement authorities in multiple states, the 5-year-old son of country singer Mindy McCready is back in the custody of his grandmother. According to police reports, McCready took her son during a court-approved visit late last month. She then reportedly sent text messages to several members of her family and even made a statement to the press, stating that she would not be returning him to his grandmother as is ordered by the child custody arrangement.

In 2007, a family court judge ordered McCready’s mother, the boy’s grandmother, to have full child custody after repeated allegations of drug abuse and domestic violence in the home of McCready and the boy’s father, singer Billy McKnight. Since then, McCready and her mother have been engaged in a contentious battle over custody of the boy.

Last month, while the boy was visiting McCready’s father in Florida (her parents are divorced), McCready reportedly took him and brought him to her home in Tennessee. She sent a text message to her brother in which she told him that her mother would never see her again. Then, she made a statement to the Associated Press, claiming that her son had suffered abuse at her mother’s home, and again stating that she would not bring him back from Tennessee.

But after police in Arkansas got word that McCready had entered that state with her son, they began a search. McCready, the boy and a friend of the singer were eventually found in an unoccupied summer home. None of the three had permission to be in the home, but local police are not pressing charges. It is not yet clear whether McCready, who is reportedly seven months pregnant with twins, will face criminal charges for taking her son in violation of the custody order.

Source: CBS News, “Mindy McCready’s 5-yr-old son is in custody,” Dec. 3, 2011