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1 Cuban girl in exile, 2 dads....



 
 
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Old July 19th 07, 09:40 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
fx
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,848
Default 1 Cuban girl in exile, 2 dads....

1 Cuban girl in exile, 2 dads
In the first public hearing on the fate of a 4-year-old girl whose
father wants her to return to Cuba, a frustrated judge called for calm.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER


http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/175091.html


The closed-door custody battle over the 4-year-old Cuban girl who ended
up in foster care after her mother attempted suicide went on public
display Wednesday, baring finger-pointing, raised voices and raw emotion.

Crushed into a courtroom in Miami's dingy juvenile courthouse were about
a dozen lawyers, four psychologists, social workers, guardians, an
interpreter and a judge. They met in public after an appeals court
ordered the hearings, which had been held secretly for more than a year,
to be opened.

At stake is the fate of a 4-year-old girl who confided to a caseworker
that she has two fathers, ``one resting on each shoulder.''

The case also is freighted with a half-century's geopolitical conflict.
On one side is a Cuban father, hoping to raise his daughter, even in a
communist country. On the other is a proud exile community seeking to
shield her from the tyranny they fled.

''Everybody is attacking everybody,'' Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, who
is presiding over the unusual case, said at the hearing Wednesday. ``I
can't control all of you.''

The youngster, whom The Miami Herald is not identifying to protect her
privacy, entered the United States legally in March 2005 when her mother
won a visa lottery. By the end of that year, however, she had been
sheltered by the Department of Children & Families, which had asked
Cohen to declare the girl's mother unfit.

The girl now lives with a Cuban exile family that is seeking to adopt
her. Her birth father, a fisherman and office worker from Guayos,
traveled to Miami six weeks ago to press his case. He attended the
hearing Wednesday in a crisply pressed crimson dress shirt and slacks,
his dark hair cropped short.

His lawyer, Ira Kurzban, a prominent immigration attorney, says he
thinks the girl's father is being treated unfairly.

Kurzban said the custody dispute is ''extraordinarily one-sided'' and
hinges largely on the child welfare agency's claims in an updated
petition that the girl might be ''endangered'' by any reunification with
her father.

''No one has ever accused my client of abusing his child. No one has
ever accused my client of being involved with drugs. No one has ever
accused my client of in any way harming his child,'' Kurzban said. ``But
he's being treated in this process as if all those things were true.''

''My client has done nothing wrong,'' Kurzban added. ``He has done what
any parent would do: try to get his child back.''

Cohen agreed that DCF's petition to declare the father unfit was
''light'' on evidence that he was a poor father. ''You know it, and I
know it,'' she added, looking squarely at the state's attorneys.

DCF is offering the father a chance to win custody of his daughter by
completing a set of tasks, such as the visitations, although an agency
attorney, Rebecca Kapotsa, said DCF ultimately would like to see the
foster family win permanent custody through a guardianship.

Said Alan Mishael, the foster family's attorney: ``What is going on with
even limited visitation is injurious to the child.''

Since he arrived, the father has been allowed only videotaped,
supervised visits with the girl in two- or three-hour intervals. During
a recent visit, a courtappointed psychologist strongly urged the birth
father to tell the girl that the nice people she is living with are not
her real family and that he is her real dad.

The father showed the little girl pictures of her as a baby in Cuba and
pointed out the family resemblance and shared surname, said Julio Vigil,
the psychologist.

''She had a very strong emotional reaction to that,'' Vigil said. ``She
cried and yelled at him, and said she had one father and she loved that
father.''

Another therapist who is treating the girl, Miguel Firpi, described the
girl's father as emotionally detached and warned that, after 17 visits,
he has failed to bond or forge an attachment to the little girl. ''The
father is not very expressive,'' Firpi said. ``There seems to be no bond.''

And, Firpi added, it should not be the job of a 4-year-old to establish
a relationship with her father. ''I believe this is a great burden for
this child,'' he said. ``She has expressed it already.''

A court-appointed therapist for the father called the visitation plan
''a setup for failure'' because the visits aren't long enough or often
enough.

''I think the people here are against my patient,'' said psychologist
Andrew Lagomasino. ``They use [the visitation schedule] as an attempt to
prove my patient is not a fit parent.''

Cohen agreed it would be difficult for the father to win over the girl
in such short visits. She ordered that he be allowed an unsupervised,
daylong visit with his daughter next week at the home where he's
staying, where they could swim together in a pool.

''Oftentimes,'' she said, ``you just have to take a leap of faith.''

The hearings -- it's unclear how many have been held because all child
welfare records are confidential -- had been closed to the public until
Wednesday, and Cohen has ordered that all courtroom participants be
gagged from discussing the case. She has even threatened to jail lawyers
who violated the gag order.

At the start of Wednesday's hearing, Cohen said she would abide by the
appeals court's ruling, which came at the request of The Miami Herald,
but she defended her decision to preside over the case privately.

Revelations about the dispute, she said, ``are the kind of thing that
can wreak havoc for the children.''

Balancing the public's right to know what goes on at the courthouse
against the vulnerability of a small child was just one of the case's
challenges, Cohen said.

''I am trying to do what is in the best interests of the child without
emotionally damaging her,'' the judge said.





CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

  #2  
Old July 20th 07, 12:47 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
0:-]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 805
Default 1 Cuban girl in exile, 2 dads....

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:40:37 -0700, fx wrote:

1 Cuban girl in exile, 2 dads
In the first public hearing on the fate of a 4-year-old girl whose
father wants her to return to Cuba, a frustrated judge called for calm.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER


In terms of rights, whose should be honored in this conflict...the
long absent father, or the girl's current relationship with the man
she views as her father?

Support your argument with something other than opinion please. There
is enough hot air already coming from the eternally deflating bag of
methane, krp.

I can't really type while holding my nose, so I'll no longer respond
seriously to the little fat fart.

But Michael, you I will debate anytime you care to take off that
poorly fitting transparent sock.

Or you can continue to run and hide.

0:]




http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/175091.html


The closed-door custody battle over the 4-year-old Cuban girl who ended
up in foster care after her mother attempted suicide went on public
display Wednesday, baring finger-pointing, raised voices and raw emotion.

Crushed into a courtroom in Miami's dingy juvenile courthouse were about
a dozen lawyers, four psychologists, social workers, guardians, an
interpreter and a judge. They met in public after an appeals court
ordered the hearings, which had been held secretly for more than a year,
to be opened.

At stake is the fate of a 4-year-old girl who confided to a caseworker
that she has two fathers, ``one resting on each shoulder.''

The case also is freighted with a half-century's geopolitical conflict.
On one side is a Cuban father, hoping to raise his daughter, even in a
communist country. On the other is a proud exile community seeking to
shield her from the tyranny they fled.

''Everybody is attacking everybody,'' Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, who
is presiding over the unusual case, said at the hearing Wednesday. ``I
can't control all of you.''

The youngster, whom The Miami Herald is not identifying to protect her
privacy, entered the United States legally in March 2005 when her mother
won a visa lottery. By the end of that year, however, she had been
sheltered by the Department of Children & Families, which had asked
Cohen to declare the girl's mother unfit.

The girl now lives with a Cuban exile family that is seeking to adopt
her. Her birth father, a fisherman and office worker from Guayos,
traveled to Miami six weeks ago to press his case. He attended the
hearing Wednesday in a crisply pressed crimson dress shirt and slacks,
his dark hair cropped short.

His lawyer, Ira Kurzban, a prominent immigration attorney, says he
thinks the girl's father is being treated unfairly.

Kurzban said the custody dispute is ''extraordinarily one-sided'' and
hinges largely on the child welfare agency's claims in an updated
petition that the girl might be ''endangered'' by any reunification with
her father.

''No one has ever accused my client of abusing his child. No one has
ever accused my client of being involved with drugs. No one has ever
accused my client of in any way harming his child,'' Kurzban said. ``But
he's being treated in this process as if all those things were true.''

''My client has done nothing wrong,'' Kurzban added. ``He has done what
any parent would do: try to get his child back.''

Cohen agreed that DCF's petition to declare the father unfit was
''light'' on evidence that he was a poor father. ''You know it, and I
know it,'' she added, looking squarely at the state's attorneys.

DCF is offering the father a chance to win custody of his daughter by
completing a set of tasks, such as the visitations, although an agency
attorney, Rebecca Kapotsa, said DCF ultimately would like to see the
foster family win permanent custody through a guardianship.

Said Alan Mishael, the foster family's attorney: ``What is going on with
even limited visitation is injurious to the child.''

Since he arrived, the father has been allowed only videotaped,
supervised visits with the girl in two- or three-hour intervals. During
a recent visit, a courtappointed psychologist strongly urged the birth
father to tell the girl that the nice people she is living with are not
her real family and that he is her real dad.

The father showed the little girl pictures of her as a baby in Cuba and
pointed out the family resemblance and shared surname, said Julio Vigil,
the psychologist.

''She had a very strong emotional reaction to that,'' Vigil said. ``She
cried and yelled at him, and said she had one father and she loved that
father.''

Another therapist who is treating the girl, Miguel Firpi, described the
girl's father as emotionally detached and warned that, after 17 visits,
he has failed to bond or forge an attachment to the little girl. ''The
father is not very expressive,'' Firpi said. ``There seems to be no bond.''

And, Firpi added, it should not be the job of a 4-year-old to establish
a relationship with her father. ''I believe this is a great burden for
this child,'' he said. ``She has expressed it already.''

A court-appointed therapist for the father called the visitation plan
''a setup for failure'' because the visits aren't long enough or often
enough.

''I think the people here are against my patient,'' said psychologist
Andrew Lagomasino. ``They use [the visitation schedule] as an attempt to
prove my patient is not a fit parent.''

Cohen agreed it would be difficult for the father to win over the girl
in such short visits. She ordered that he be allowed an unsupervised,
daylong visit with his daughter next week at the home where he's
staying, where they could swim together in a pool.

''Oftentimes,'' she said, ``you just have to take a leap of faith.''

The hearings -- it's unclear how many have been held because all child
welfare records are confidential -- had been closed to the public until
Wednesday, and Cohen has ordered that all courtroom participants be
gagged from discussing the case. She has even threatened to jail lawyers
who violated the gag order.

At the start of Wednesday's hearing, Cohen said she would abide by the
appeals court's ruling, which came at the request of The Miami Herald,
but she defended her decision to preside over the case privately.

Revelations about the dispute, she said, ``are the kind of thing that
can wreak havoc for the children.''

Balancing the public's right to know what goes on at the courthouse
against the vulnerability of a small child was just one of the case's
challenges, Cohen said.

''I am trying to do what is in the best interests of the child without
emotionally damaging her,'' the judge said.





CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...


 




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