17 Year Old Runaway from Texas to Michigan to live with uncle

[Unregistered]

Hi,

My nephew is living in Texas and because of the mental abuse he's enduring in the house, he would like to move out and move in with me in Michigan. He is 17 years old. His dad has custody and has recently been preventing my nephew from seeing his mother - he has simply refused to take him to the airport to get on the plane. My nephew has considered emancipation, but is scared of the consequences he will suffer during the process. So my question is; can my nephew move out and come live with me in Michigan? His mother, my sister, also lives in Michigan. Would I be able to drive to Texas to get him and drive him here? Or would he have to drive here himself? What if his mother bought him a plane ticket? Or would he have to buy his own plane ticket? Moving out before is 18, as I understand it, is running away. And while he would be voluntarily coming with me, I don't want his dad to be able to charge me with a crime.... he will.

Thanks for any help!

[ccsmod8]

RE: 17 Year Old Runaway from Texas to Michigan to live with uncle.

Hello,

Thank you for getting into contact with us here at the National Runaway Safeline, we are always here to listen and help in any way that we can. From what you have told us about your situation it sounds like your nephew is going through a very rough time right now. He definitely does not have to be treated that way. Especially at home; a place that is supposed to be a safe and loving place for you. Just so you know he always has the right to report any abuse to your local police department or child protective service in your state. If you don’t feel like they will take him seriously or he might not know of how to do that, you can always tell him to call us anytime he wants. There is always someone here to help him if he chooses to go down that path.

Now unfortunately, here at the NRS we cannot tell you in definite terms on what would happen for someone at the age of 17 years old to leave the house without permission. Laws on that specific subject vary from state to state, so our advice would be call your local non-emergency police number to get more information on that. What typically happens though; your parents are able to make a runaway report in the event that you do run away, but since it’s only considered a statues offense the only thing that would happen is that the police will pick you up and bring you back home. Again this does depend on your specific state laws and police policy.

It also sounds like it might be a problem with getting your nephew to a different state when his father has custody over him. Depending on what the legal agreement and happened between the two parents and the court, it might even state that the youth has to live with the person that has custody and not the other parent. So again not being legal experts in any way, if he were to leave and live with his mother in a different state it might be a violation of that custody agreement and he could choose to press charges and possibly kidnapping. It would, again all depending, we don’t know for sure. So that might be something to explore and possibly find out more about his right according to the custody agreement with the court. It might give you a better any on what you can and can’t do.