CITY ATTORNEY WANTS CUSTODY, TO BE PAID CHILD SUPPORT

By Juan Montoya
For the better part of two years, contract city attorney Mark E. Sossi has had a common-law relationship with a woman he met at a strip club in Brownsville.
That relationship blossomed and she went to live with him at his home as did two of her children from a prior relationship.
Then, on July 4, 2016 – Independence Day – the couple had a love child.
Now, six months later, things have soured and Sossi wants a court to kick her out of his house, grant him custody of the child, a boy, and to make her pay him child support. He does not deny paternity of the child.

In response, the woman, Yessica Belen Larios, charges that she should be granted custody and charges that Sossi has had a long history "or pattern" of family violence as defined by the Texas Family Code for at least two years before he filed the lawsuit. She wants the court to order a possession order that protects the welfare of the child and any other person who has been victim of family violence, "including but not limited to to ordering that visiting be continuously supervised," and  ordering that Sossi refrain from the consumption of alcohol or controlled substances within the 12 hours before visitation.

Further, she also wants the court to order Sossi to attend and complete a battering intervention and prevention program or a treatment program if one is unavailable.

In addition, she charges that Sossi has committed offenses listed under the Section 481.01, of the Texas Health and Safety Code, specifically the abuse of controlled substances identified as cocaine in the woman;s affidavit attached to her response. She asks that the court order that Sossi submit hair follicles to determine his abuse of that controlled substance.

Sossi – who earns $10,000 a month from the city and another $5,000 a month from the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation for a total of $180,000 – petitioned the court on January 18 to name both he and Larios as joint managing conservators, but that it appoint him as the conservator who has the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the child, in effect, to give him custody.  He asks that the court to "dispose with the necessity of a bond" or security.

He also wants the judge to restrict the woman from removing the child from Cameron County. specifically to prevent her from taking him to Mexico without notifying him or the court.

In her lawsuit, Larios charges that Sossi has been in continuous violations of Texas law, saying that although he is the city attorney and drives a car, he has not had been issued a Texas driver's license since January 6, 1989 when his license was suspended and he is "an unlicensed driver who continues to drive to violate Texas law."

Until he took care of them, Sossi, was named in warrants dating back to offenses in April 2012 when he was caught by the Texas Department of Public Safety in Harlingen and cited for No Valid Inspection Sticker (12-TR-000227) , Expired Registration (12-TR-000220), and then for Failure to Appear (12-TR-000227) when he didn''t show up in Eloy Cano's JP 5-2 court that April 4.
These offenses carried fines of, respectively, $242.50, 267.50 and 242.50, for a total of 752.50 in fines.

In Sossi's original petition, he says that since he was the owner of the house where she, her children from a former marriage and his son now live, before he met her, she has no legal right to reside there and that the court order her to vacate the home. He said he has offered to pay her deposit and first month's rent, the first month's utilities and "reasonable" child support pending the outcome of the case. He claims she had demanded he buy her new furniture and later modified her position asking him for a cash payment of $5,000 plus his refrigerator, washing machine and dryer with an estimated value of $7,500.

He countered that those objects were in his possession before he met Larios and charges that Larios has prevented him from seeing his son and refuses to respond to his inquiries as to the welfare of the boy. He wants the court to:
1. Issue a restraining order to prevent Larios from coming within 100 feet of the house

2. Prevent her from disturbing him or the child if he is granted custody or attempting to take possession of the child,

3. Keep her from hiding him, to speak bad about him in front of the child, and

4. Order her not to consume alcohol within 24 hours before or during the period of possession of or access to the child.

In Larios' response to Sossi's petition she says that Sossi, as father of the child, is obligated to pay child support and to provide medical child support in the manner specified by the court. This might have been made easier by the recent actions of the Brownsville City Commission at their meeting of January 3, an time was considered in executive session to make Sossi a city employee. Currently, he is employed as a contract attorney and has had no deductions in his salary for FICA, health, or retirement for benefits or retirement.

Although the item was tabled during the meeting, we understand that Sossi's contract has been scrapped and he as made a full-time city employee  (January 17) to allow him to participate in the health insurance and retirement programs under a new arrangement. That arrangement, however, has not come before the city commission. We have filed an information request to see whether in fact, the city has extended the health insurance benefits that would cover his child as well.

A hearing on Sossi's petition and Larios' counter petition is scheduled for Feb. 2 before Judge Arturo Nelson's 138th District Court.