Why a dad wanted a judge to keep two sons away from stepmom of missing Lucas

Twelve days before Emily Glass reported that her 5-year-old stepson — Lucas Hernandez — was missing, the father of her own young sons reported a safety concern to police after the boys visited her home.

On Feb. 5, the day after one of his two sons returned from visiting Glass and had red marks with visible fingerprints on his chest, the boys’ father filed a report with police “for the safety and welfare of the children,” a court document says.

According to the document — an affidavit from the father — Glass blamed the red marks on her boyfriend, Jonathan Hernandez, who is Lucas’ father.

On Feb. 17, in what would quickly turn into a massive police investigation, Glass reported Lucas missing from her rental home on South Edgemoor. She had just moved there with Lucas, his father and her daughter.

The father of her two sons, who has sole custody of them, filed his affidavit in Butler County District Court on Feb. 26 along with an emergency request that a judge suspend Glass’ parenting time with her sons. The father contended that they needed to be kept away from her for their safety.

A judge’s decision on the matter has been sealed.

The affidavit was filed five days after Glass was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of two counts of child endangerment. Wichita police announced at the time of her arrest that she was suspected of endangering Lucas and a 1-year-old child. She has a 1-year-old daughter. Police have described Lucas as her stepson.

She remains in jail on a $50,000 bond after a judge refused a request to lower it so she could be released. She is charged with endangering her daughter, but not Lucas.

Lucas remains missing after an investigation assisted by the FBI, volunteer search teams and thousands of people who have plastered his photo across the internet. The police investigation of Lucas’ disappearance continues.

The Eagle obtained the court documents detailing the father’s concerns about Glass on Thursday. Her attorney couldn't be reached for comment.

According to the affidavit filed by her sons' father, Glass was allowed to have her sons for two and half hours every Wednesday and for seven hours every other Sunday.

She did not complete a court-ordered class on “parenting in a home with anger/violence nor a co-parenting class,” the affidavit says.

The father says in the affidavit that Hernandez, identified as Glass’ boyfriend, “got physical with our youngest son” on Sunday, Feb. 4. The injured boy is about 6 years old, according to the birth year listed for him in the court document.

“The children reported the incident to me as soon as I picked them up after parenting time,” the father said in the affidavit. He took photos of the injury. “And although it was 4-5 hours later, there were still red marks on (the boy’s) chest with visible fingerprints. His chest was still red the next day.”

Hernandez couldn’t be reached for comment. Sedgwick County District Court records don’t show any charge against Hernandez related to those allegations.

The father said in the affidavit that Glass told him “that her boyfriend (Jonathan Hernandez) said that the mark was ‘an accident’ and that she kicked him out after it occurred.”

“She then became angry, blamed the children’s behavior and hung up on me.”

Because it was the second time in six months “where a physical altercation occurred while the boys were in her care, I made a formal report for the safety and welfare of the children to the police the next day,” he says in the document.

On Feb. 17 — 12 days after the father made the report to police — he saw on the news that Glass had reported Lucas missing while he had been in her care, the affidavit says. Glass told police that she took a nap that day and that when she woke up, Lucas was gone. Relatives have said that Lucas’ father, Hernandez, often worked out of town.

When the father of her sons called her that day, she told him that police with dogs were on the way to look for Lucas, and she agreed to reschedule her parenting time that had been set for the next day, the affidavit says.

On Feb. 21, the father found out that Glass had been arrested and jailed on suspicion of child endangerment.

By the time he filed the affidavit on Feb. 26, there had been “numerous news stories” about “family members who have had concerns of possible child abuse” in Glass’ home and “numerous reports made to authorities, which were unknown to me.” The father cited news stories about police being called to Glass’ home “multiple times” and about her being found guilty of disorderly conduct, “which also was unknown to me.”

“I am afraid for the safety and welfare of our children as I don’t know what is going on with (Glass’) criminal charges on child endangerment, how long she will be in jail or the full details as to why she is there now,” the father’s affidavit says.

“I am afraid that our children’s physical, mental and emotional health and welfare could be endangered at this time due to (Glass’) circumstances and the disappearance of Lucas.”

He said he was “concerned that (Glass) has not been forthcoming with me regarding her situation.”

He said he worried that her “situation could be traumatic for the boys to deal with. I have worked to shelter them so that they do not know their mother is in jail nor the full circumstances surrounding it. … I don’t know what (her) living arrangements will be when she is released from jail … .”

The affidavit ends with the father saying that she should have no contact with their sons.

This story was originally published April 6, 2018 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Why a dad wanted a judge to keep two sons away from stepmom of missing Lucas."