The Florida House is moving forward with a bill that would allow courts to require that parents who share custody of children use "safe exchange" locations at county sheriff's offices.
The measure (HB 385) is named the “Cassie Carli law,” after a mother who in 2022 disappeared — and was later found dead — after meeting with the father of her child in Northwest Florida to make what is known as a timeshare exchange.
The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve the bill, which received support from Maj. Roman Jackson of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.
“On March 28, 2022, our community was rocked by the disappearance of Cassie Carli, a young, vibrant mother scheduled to meet her child’s father on Navarre Beach the day prior. Cassie vanished, and the subsequent investigation led our detectives across three states, 1,500 miles, before discovering her lifeless body in a shallow grave in Spring Hill, Ala.,” Jackson told the House panel.
The child’s father faces charges in the case.
Under the proposal, courts could include a requirement that exchanges of children in custody-sharing situations take place at a “neutral safe exchange location” as part of court-ordered parenting plans.
Exchanges at the locations could be required if there is “competent substantial evidence that there is a risk or an imminent threat of harm to one party or the child” and if the court finds such a requirement is necessary to ensure the safety of the parent and is in the best interest of the child, according to the bill.
County sheriffs would be required to designate at least one parking lot at sheriff’s offices or substations to serve as safe exchange locations. The locations would be required to have purple lights or signs on the parking lots to identify the designated areas. The locations also would have to be accessible 24 hours a day, provide adequate lighting and continuous video surveillance.
The bill is ready to go to the full House during the annual legislative session that will start Tuesday. It has received backing from The Florida Bar’s Family Law section, which helped to craft the legislation, according to a December post in the Florida Bar News.
“Having designated safe exchanges grants an added layer of protection to families by reinforcing the courts’ ability to mandate the safe exchange of a child at a neutral, safe location, when it meets the threshold,” Sarah Kay, chairwoman of the Family Law section, said in a prepared statement.
“It also allows sheriffs statewide to designate an additional safe exchange location – of critical importance in our larger counties, where caregivers may be deterred from using a safe exchange location because of distance and time,” Kay said.
Attorney Anya Stern, who addressed the House panel on behalf of the Family Law section, said many exchanges in “high-conflict cases” take place in public parking lots such as grocery stores and drug stores.
“But they don’t have the accountability to ensure that it is always well-lit, that there is always video surveillance. But this bill does just that,” Stern said.
Another part of the bill would revise a form that people can submit to courts asking for protection against domestic violence, to add a section to request that timesharing exchanges take place at safe exchange locations.
Bill sponsor Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, characterized that part of the measure as the most important. Rudman said a similar bill passed the House last year but ultimately died in the Senate. Several changes were made to this year’s version, Rudman said.
“I’ve been trying now for two years to get justice for Cassie Carli and to honor her memory. And I realize that here today, this committee can honor Cassie Carli by voting up on this bill,” Rudman said to the House panel..
A similar Senate bill is slated to be considered Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
