Nevada family-law case summaries

Karyl Clarke and Tanesha White were never married but have a daughter, T.C., born in 2016. After a tumultuous relationship, they separated in April 2020 following an incident on April 28, 2020, in which Clarke allegedly held a butcher knife to White's neck, choked her, took her phone to stop her from calling for help, blocked her from leaving her apartment, and eventually drove off with the apartment keys, leaving White and the child locked outside late at night. The child was wearing only a shirt and underwear. White obtained a temporary protection order (a TPO — a short-term court order meant to protect someone from harm), which gave her temporary custody. A hearing master found that although he did not believe White's specific knife claim, an act or threat of domestic violence had occurred, or that Clarke posed a credible threat, and extended the TPO for six months. White then moved to Ohio with the child. The TPO was later dissolved when White missed a hearing. Meanwhile, Clarke filed a custody complaint but could not find White to serve her, so he served her by publication (giving notice through a public notice rather than in person). When White did not appear, the court entered a default against her, and about a year later entered a default custody decree giving Clarke sole legal and physical custody. In that decree — issued without hearing anything from White — the court found White's domestic violence allegations false. The court also ordered White to produce the child or allowed Clarke to pick the child up with law enforcement. White moved back to Nevada in 2021, and she and Clarke reconnected. Clarke did not actually get physical custody until March 31, 2022, when he picked up T.C. with police help and took her to Ohio. He did not notify the court that he had done so. The day after Clarke took the child, White appeared in the custody case for the first time and asked the court to set aside (undo) the default decree, saying she had not known about the case. The court held hearings, ordered the child returned to White, and set aside the default decree, explaining that resolving custody on the merits — with both parents heard — was in the child's best interest. After an evidentiary hearing, the court issued an amended decree awarding White primary physical custody. The court found White had committed an "act of abduction" by disappearing with the child for about 22 months, which triggered a legal presumption against giving her custody. But the court found White overcame (rebutted) that presumption because she showed by clear and convincing evidence that she left to protect herself and the child from Clarke's domestic violence. The court found White's testimony about the knife incident credible and did not believe Clarke's denial. Clarke appealed. The Court of Appeals affirmed. It held the district court did not abuse its discretion in setting aside the default decree, because the "catch-all" provision of the rule governing relief from judgments allows relief in extraordinary circumstances, and the need to hear from both parents to determine a child's best interest qualified here. The court also rejected Clarke's argument that setting aside the default was the same as "modifying" custody — once the default was set aside, there was no custody award left to modify. Finally, the court held the domestic violence finding was supported by clear and convincing evidence, and that even if the trial court had wrongly cited a criminal statute to explain how White rebutted the abduction presumption, any error was harmless because the court had independent authority and substantial evidence to reach the same result.