Bill to protect parents in custody exchanges is ready for a vote in the House of Representatives

A bill that would provide Florida parents with protections in custody exchanges is already on its way to a vote in the House of Representatives after passing both committee stops with strong support.

The measure (HB 385) has cleared its final committee hurdle as members of the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to move it forward.

If passed, the bill would require every sheriff's office in Florida to operate and monitor at least one location per county where parents could safely drop off their children. It would also add a checkbox to state domestic violence protection forms allowing parents to request the use of an exchange location.

The bill is titled “Cassie Carli’s Law,” after a 37-year-old woman from Navarre Cassie Carli, who disappeared in March 2022 after the planned exchange of her preschool-age daughter. She had agreed to a short-term change of location in the parking lot of a restaurant near her home and disappeared shortly afterwards.

Six weeks later, police exposed her body in a shallow grave in Alabama and soon arrested her ex-boyfriend, the child's father and the person who had changed the location. He now is facing charges in connection with her death.

“I have never met Cassie Carli, but you all need to understand that this tragedy happened on my beach,” said the Navarre Republican representative. Joel Rudmanone of the bill's sponsors told the panel Monday.

“It happened in a parking lot, less than 200 meters from where my son went to the beach to play drums. The people – the search parties that were organized to look for Cassie Carli – they were friends of mine. So this bill is very personal to me.”

HB 385 and a companion bill (SB 580) from the Republican Senator from Jacksonville. Clay Yarborough The bill, which received uniform support at its first meeting in the Senate committee on Tuesday, would update Florida's shared parental custody laws.

It would require court-approved joint custody plans, unless both parents agree otherwise, to include a list of “designated authorized locations” for exchanging custody of their children. In cases where parents demonstrate that they or their child may be at risk of harm, a court may require the parents to conduct the exchange in the parking lot of the county sheriff's office.

The parking lot must be accessible at all times, well-lit, under video surveillance and equipped with a purple light or sign identifying it as a “neutral, safe exchange location.”

Both the Senate and House versions of the bill provide immunity from liability for sheriff's offices and their employees for incidents involving the secure exchanges.

Rudman presented his bill Monday alongside Democratic Rep. Dania Beach. Hillary Casselthe bill's other sponsor and one of the lawmakers behind a related measure: “Greyson's Law“, which lawmakers passed last year to protect children at risk of harm to their parents.

He noted that he also wore “Cassie Carli's Law” when it came out last year cleared the house before stalling in the Senate.

Family members said Cassie Carli had been thinking about buying a gun and getting a concealed carry permit to defend herself against her ex-boyfriend before her death. Image via Facebook.

Palm City Republican Representative. Toby Overdorf, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Rudman's bill would help prevent another tragedy like the one that befell Carli. He was talking about a young man who was shot and killed Dec. 30 late last month during a “heated” custody exchange in Port St. Lucie.

“That’s something that really touches me too,” he said.

Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department Major Roman Jackson also spoke out in favor of the bill.

“It is our collective responsibility as elected representatives to address the problem head-on,” he said. “Let’s not turn a blind eye and allow another incident like Cassie’s to happen.”

Other supporters of the bill included lobbyists Barney Bishop, Nancy Lawther the Florida PTA, Anya Cintron star the Florida Bar Association's Family Law Section and two of Carli's friends, Kristy Sullivan and former Alabama police officer Stacy Cole.

“In many of our high-conflict cases, families exchange our children in public parking lots such as Publix grocery stores, CVS or drug stores. But they don’t have the responsibility to make sure it’s always well lit and that there’s always video surveillance,” Stern said.

“This bill does just that, so this is a very organic and natural bill from Greyson's Law that passed last year, and we hope this committee understands how much this could really help Florida's families.”

After the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance SB 580 on Tuesday, Yarborough, the panel's chairman, praised the Senate Democratic leader Lauren book for much of its content. She sponsored the bill last year.

Yarborough called it “a small step” that could “hopefully prevent issues like this from occurring in the future.”

If passed, “Cassie Carli’s Law” would go into effect on July 1.

The legislation does not include consideration for Miami-Dade County, which will not have an elected sheriff until 2025. At the request of Democratic Representative Homestead. Kevin Chambliss Regarding this oversight, Rudman said the responsibility lies with the person now serving as de facto sheriff, which would be either the mayor of Miami-Dade Daniella Levine Cava or their appointed police director, Stephanie Daniels.

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