Those dedicated to family preservation, child welfare, human decency, morality, father's rights, Indian rights, and ethical adoption practices are shedding tears
over the culmination of Dusten Brown’s long, brave and determined battle to
simply be a Daddy to his beautiful daughter, Veronica. Still facing a lawsuit,
extradition and charges of felony custodial interference, he has very sadly
lost the battle for his beloved Veronica.
Veronica – the child whose years-long legal custodial battle
riveted a nation – has just turned four. Having happily settled in to life with
her devoted Daddy and a large, loving extended blood-related family – not to
mention her Cherokee Tribe - Veronica is now being made to suffer their loss in her
life while simultaneously having to get to know people she has totally
forgotten.
In the final dissenting decision,
Justice Noma Gurich wrote:
“We cannot
ignore the fact that (Veronica), at the age of 27 months, has already been
moved from one set of ‘parents’ to another, after lengthy judicial
consideration of her best interests… Under the issues present to this court, an
immediate change of custody without any consideration of her best interests
will require a four-year-old child to resolve her feelings of loss and grief
for a second time.”
Dr. Naranjan Karnik, a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry
at Chicago’s Rush University, commenting on the final decision to disrupt
veronica’s life yet again, spoke of the courts to consider her best interests
at all. Dr. Philip Fisher, a psychologist specializing in childhood trauma at
the University of Oregon, said the final change in custody at 4 years old could
result in “traumatic changes can actually hamper development in the part of the
brain that helps someone make good decisions.”
There are many issues yet to play out while this child
adjusts to the insanity of a life that just may disprove the old adage that you
can never have too many people love you!
Will there be visitation?
How can we anticipate such an arrangement to be
voluntarily carried out now when Matt and Melanie Capobianco who have already initiated
a half million-dollar lawsuit against Dusten for their legal fees?
They have initiated a lawsuit to recoup their expenses in the drawn out legal battle they CHOSE to
continue instead of doing the moral – albeit difficult - thing and ending it
the day they learned that Veronica had a father who was duped and wanted
custody of HIS DAUGHTER! Every
penny they spent from that point forward was of their own choosing and opposed
to the best interest of the child they coveted. Both Dusten and the Capobiancos
should sue Christie Maldonado for orchestrating the whole thing and for
perpetrating FRAUD.
Will Veronica have had
the opportunity to know her Daddy – to see and FEEL
his love? To hear HIS side of the story? If they do allow visitation, what will this child think? If not, in ten years, when teenaged Veronica is at a computer and enters her name into a search engine…. what will she think?
It is hard to imagine how the Capobiancos can spin this into something that makes sense to Veronica and justifies their actions. After all, it's not like they can say your mommy and daddy died...or, "they" CHOSE us...or, we "rescued" from an awful life of abuse and neglect, poverty... Yet, one must assume that they justify it to themselves every day, and have since the start.
It is hard to imagine how the Capobiancos can spin this into something that makes sense to Veronica and justifies their actions. After all, it's not like they can say your mommy and daddy died...or, "they" CHOSE us...or, we "rescued" from an awful life of abuse and neglect, poverty... Yet, one must assume that they justify it to themselves every day, and have since the start.
Will they continue the vindictiveness that Christie
Maldonado engineered, put it into motion with deceit, and kept it going for
years out of sheer vengeance? Will Veronica spend the rest of her life being
brow-beaten by Christie and the Capobaiancos to the point of not being able to
decipher truth form lies; a classic Stockholm Syndrome victim? How else can
they justify their actions but to deify Dusten?
Adoption reform, Indian nation, fathers rights, and family preservation Bloggers must keep
the truth out there for her to find. We must revisit the truth every year on
her September birthday by sharing her daddy's parting words with her.
The Broader Legacy and
Implications of Veronica’s Traumas
The effect on the Indian Nation and their national
sovereignty is loud, clear and palpable. This case set devastating precedent
for the ICWA – all but gutting it entirely, rendering it another treaty trampled on by US courts.
The effect on adoption practice and it’s continued war
against family preservation – and most viciously, the war on fathers – has
intensified.
“Once these agencies and lawyers get the birth mother on the
hook ... they tell these birth moms not to answer any calls from the dads,”
said Shannon Jones, the Charleston attorney who represents Simmons (Desaray’s
dad and grandmother) and Brown. “Of course, then they argue the dad is a
deadbeat.
“It usually wins the
day.”
Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Donaldson Adoption
Institute and an adoptive parent, said of the current state of adoption:
“It’s a system that deep-sixes the rights of birth moms and
dads.” “We give lip service to the best interests of the child, then we do
things that constantly prove that the adoptive couple are the only people we’re
concerned about.”
Lip service indeed. Spoken by the king of adoption
lip service himself, who like the attorneys in these cases has a livelihood
dependant upon the continuation of the redistribution of children through
adoption and cannot bit too hard on the hands that feed him. Yes, adoptive parents are the only ones
the system favors because they are the
only paying customers. It is their demand that sets the wheels in motion
and it is they who pay all the bills for the scum-sucking baby brokers and
“facilitators,” industry lobbyists and spokespersons.
Desaray:
Another Veronica?
Another case already looms: that of Desaray Simmons, being challenged by the Absentee Shawnee Tribe. The contested adoption of Desaray begins by following in the
same footsteps as Veronica, involving OK and SC and employing the very same South Carolina attorneys: Raymond Godwin and James Fletcher Thompson.
One difference that hopefully might prove major: the couple
trying to adopt Desaray did NOT secure interstate compact approval before
leaving Oklahoma with her. Shawnee attorney Charles
Tripp of Owasso, Okla., has argued that the baby was removed secretly, that
neither the tribe nor the father got proper notice of the proceedings. An
Oklahoma judge has since ordered Desaray’s return, but Godwin is fighting the
move in South Carolina.
Godwin gets referrals from pastors, hospitals,
attorneys and businesses that advertise for pregnant women. He then,
conveniently sends them to his wife’s agency: Nightlight Christian Adoption. Which in turn steers women
toward what they consider one of the best options — and the one that pays both
Goodwins’ fees - adoption.
“If she decides to parent, she’s going to be
living in a life of poverty,” says Beauvais-Godwin, the attorneys wife and head
of Nightlight, a statement that indicates the brainwashing applied to mothers
in crisis and contradicts that the agency’s major concern is preventing
abortion. “Savior” wanna-be adopters are allowed, in South Carolina, to pay:
down payments on housing or a vehicle, rental fees, food and utility bills, in
addition to medical expenses.
Remove profit in adoption and remove tragedies such
as Veronica and Desaray,
Adoption reform is in dire need of more than lip service.
There is far too much money to be made and far too few laws in place to curb
abuses in private adoptions.
Put an end to pre-birth matching and direct payments from
pre-adopters to expectant moms and loopholes on “expenses” – all of which is
contrary to laws against pre-birth contracts. Pre-birth matching creates false
expectations for adopters and expectant moms creating feelings of indebtedness
and obligation.
Disallow the accepted predatory practice of adopters in the
delivery room and allow new moms a time to bond and make a decision based on a
real, live human descendant in her arms, not a concept.
Set appropriate time limits for taking a relinquishment and
for the mother to revoke her consent. Even car sales have a cooling of period! SC, is here too one of the most lax states and why it has one of
the largest number of adoption agencies and why they – and Utah - snatch
expectant mothers from other states, a practice which should be outlawed.
But all we do is give lip service to each tragedy as it
unfolds and then go right back to business as usual – taking people’s children
through deceit and deception, using whatever means possible to coerce and
exploit to get the desired COMMODITY to an ever-increasing market, now doubled
by the acceptance of same-sex adoption in all but some religious agencies and
some countries other than the U$.
In Conclusion
Veronica’s case, sadly, stands as proof that deceit
can win. It is a testament to pure unadulterated vindictive mother vengeance triumphing.
It is a flagship win for entitlement by virtue of paying for an adoption –
celebrated by baby-snatchers far and wide who see natural parents as nothing
more than a impediment, a road block to their heart’s desire to be pulverized
and plowed over. See “Adoption Entitlement and Class
Warfare: What makes the Capobiancos and others like them tick"?
Veronica's Fourth Birthday - in Oklahoma with, her family, The Browns
Veronica’s case stands to demonstrate clearly that lies and
deceptions, coercion, whatever – can, and too often are – victorious in the
end. All you need is money, a whole lot of STUBBORN, and an equal amount of selfishness
and a self-centered lack of concern for your child’s best interest or his or
her roots, heritage etc.…. and you will prevail
In denying the Capobiancos’ first appeal, the S.C. Supreme Court noted the birth mother’s vengeful and deceitful attempts to
conceal the adoption.
Christina Maldonado first indicated on a form her hesitancy to
identify the father, Dusten Brown, because of his ties to the Cherokee Nation.
When she went to an Oklahoma hospital to give birth, Maldonado was on “strictly
no report” status, preventing inquirers like Brown from learning that she had
been admitted.
Vindictive vengeance, deceit, duplicity and fraud that led
to Dusten’s name being misspelled and thus no proper notification to the tribe
of an impending adoption. Accident?
Just as in other types of US court cases - including the
most notorious OJ Simpson murder trail – it’s always about who has the better
lawyer, not right and wrong.
Will Desaray be another victim of corrupt adoption and the
failure of the courts to consider the best interest of children and the
constitutional right of parents to nurture their own children unless proven
unfit to do so?
Children are born to (at least) two parents. U$ adoption
practice too often negates that fact.
Adoption is supposed to serve the needs of orphans and
children who are abandoned, abused, neglected or unwanted….or whose parents –
BOTH - are convinced that adoption is their willing choice. Neither Veronica nor Desaray fit any of
those categories. Both have loving, capable blood-kin who never abused or
neglected any child and who never consented to an adoption.
In both cases, their adoptions should have been halted the
moment a willing and able father – and/or extended family – stepped up to the
plate and demonstrated in court a desire to overturn a pending adoption from
being finalized. PERIOD!
We mourn with you, Dusten and we pray for Veronica....and Desaray...and for every child torn from loving family to become a prized commodity...
We mourn with you, Dusten and we pray for Veronica....and Desaray...and for every child torn from loving family to become a prized commodity...
2 comments:
The Capobiancos didn't get ICPC approval either, I heard. This case was messed up all the way around.
Thank you Mirah, for this informative post. You and I and everybody who understands the full impact of adoption is still reeling emotionally from this case.
We are all still so sad.
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