Time Served, Preacher’s Widow Gets Supervised Visitation

Family Law

Time Served, Preacher’s Widow Gets Supervised Visitation

Posted Sep 20, 2007, 01:46 pm CST
By Martha Neil

Although her request for custody was not granted, the Tennessee preacher's widow who served less than a year in prison for killing her husband may have supervised visitation with her three daughters, a judge has ruled.

Mary Winkler may visit the children on a schedule to be worked out by the parties' lawyers and speak on the phone with them every other day, Chancellor Ron Harmon decided yesterday, according to the Jackson Sun and the Christian Chronicle.

Winkler's psychologist, Lynne Zager, doesn't consider Winkler likely to harm herself or others, but psychologist Robert Kennon, who counsels the girls, said the oldest, age 10, is afraid of her mother and wonders if Winkler might kill her, too, reports the Sun. Another psychologist, John Ciocca, testified that it can be emotionally harmful to deny young children access to a parent without good reason, according to USA Today.

The girls have been living with their paternal grandparents, who are seeking to terminate Winker's parental rights and adopt them. Winkler reportedly testified that she has been able to visit her daughters once or twice since her arrest last year, apparently because the grandparents have limited her access to them, according to news accounts.

Winkler, who is now on probation, was originally charged with first-degree murder but was convicted of the lesser included crime of voluntary manslaughter for shooting and killing her husband as he lay in bed at home. Further details are provided in an earlier ABAJournal.com post.

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