Indianapolis—
A father of three is fighting the system he claims wrongfully took his young children. He says his visitation was cut because of his religious beliefs. The father argues being agnostic cost him everything.For the past four years, Craig Scarberry lived his life like many divorced dads; sharing 50/50 custody of his three children. Last week, Craig Scarberry got news that his time with his kids would be cut to just four hours a week and every other weekend.
"Anybody who's been around me and my children for five or 10 minutes can see the love and the bond that's there," Scarberry told Fox59 News.
Searching to find out why, he found Judge George Pancol wrote, "the father did not participate in the same religious training as the mother, and noted that the father was agnostic. It goes on to say that when the father considered himself a Christian, the parties were able to communicate relatively effectively.
"I had never imposed by religious beliefs on my children, matter of fact, our kids go to a Christian daycare, that when we had joint legal, I had to agree to it for the last 3, 4 years," said Scarberry.
Aside from all the friction and emotion with his ex-wife, Scarberry, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, says the constitutional rights he fought for, have been trampled.
"And at the highest degree, because nothing else is as important to me other than my relationship with those kids," he said.
Scarberry says he will appeal the judge's ruling. He'll have until Dec. 1st to do that. Two weeks later he'll hold a protest here in Madison County, for father's rights.
Fox59 News tried to reach the man's ex-wife, her attorney and the judge in this case. So far, we have not been able to reach them. The Indiana Civil Liberties Union says it has not been contacted regarding this case. Scarberry told Fox59 he tried to involve the ICLU but he was told the organization did not intervene in custody matters.
