Jesse Scheckner
Navarre Republican Rep. Joel Rudman has refiled legislation to better protect parents during child custody exchanges less than a year after a similar measure fell just short of passage.
The bill (HB 385) would require all court-approved plans for shared parental custody to include, unless otherwise agreed to by both parents, a list of “designated authorized locations” to hand off their children.
In cases where a parent provides “competent substantial evidence” that they or their child are at risk of harm, a court may require parents to make the exchange in the parking lot of a county Sheriff’s Office.
The parking lot, designated by the Sheriff, must be well-lit, under video surveillance and identified with a purple light or sign demarking the area as a “neutral safe exchange location.” It must be accessible at all times.
Rudman’s bill is titled the “Cassie Carli Law.” It’s named for 37-year-old Navarre woman Cassie Carli who vanished March 27, 2022, following a scheduled custody exchange of her preschool-aged daughter at a restaurant parking lot near her home.
She was found dead six days later in a shallow Alabama grave. An autopsy deemed her cause of death “undetermined.”
Police quickly arrested her ex-boyfriend and the child’s father, Marcus Spanevelo, in Tennessee for tampering with and destroying evidence, and giving false information in a missing person investigation.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson indicated the evidence in question, which Spanevelo tossed out his truck window before police caught up to him, related to Carli’s cellphone.
Spanevelo told investigators he’d had an “altercation” with someone, presumably Carli, on March 27. He said the person ultimately “jumped out” of his vehicle before he drove away. But surveillance footage investigators obtained contradicted that claim, showing only him in the front of his truck and no one in the passenger seat, including when he stopped to buy a pay-as-you-go cellphone.
Family members told Fox News Digital that Carli had considered buying a gun and obtaining a concealed carry permit to defend herself against Spanevelo before her death. Just days before, a court had ordered him to pay nearly $6,000 in overdue child support.
A trial date has been set for Jan. 24. Spanevelo’s attorneys are scheduled to enter a plea on his behalf Jan. 10.
Rudman sponsored a similar measure during the 2023 Legislative Session. Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book carried its analogue.
The bill cleared the House with unanimous support in April before dying without a Senate floor vote.
Rudman told the Pensacola News Journal the measure “must have run into some roadblocks” and that he and his legislative staff will “investigate and see what happened.”
“It is definitely a bill that needs to be passed.”
He added that he hoped the bill would see success similar to another measure (SB 130), dubbed “Greyson’s Law” after a 4-year-old Broward County who was killed by his father in a 2021 murder-suicide. The measure, which enables courts to consider threats against ex-partners or spouses when settling child visitation and custody policies, failed in its first attempt. But its second incarnation passed with unanimous, bipartisan support in April and received Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature in May.
Of note, the House sponsor of Greyson’s Law, Dania Beach Democratic Rep. Hillary Cassel, is co-sponsoring HB 385 for the coming Session.
The measure, which would go into effect July 1, also does not include consideration for Miami-Dade County, which won’t have an elected Sheriff until 2025.
