Baby Veronica – the four-year-old Cherokee Indian girl at the heart of a contentious custody dispute between her paternal father and adoptive parents – is on her way to South Carolina after an Oklahoma court declined to intervene in the case.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court had issued a temporary order leaving Veronica with her father – Dusten Brown.
Brown – a member of the Cherokee tribe – invoked the Indian Child Welfare Act to gain custody of his daughter in 2011 after he previously relinquished parental rights. However the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Brown’s use of the law this summer, and the S.C. Supreme Court ruled that the adoption of the girl should proceed.
Baby Veronica’s adoptive parents – Matt and Melanie Capobianco – filed custodial interference charges against Brown earlier this year when he refused to hand the girl over to them. S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley personally issued an extradition order for Brown, and actually sent law enforcement officers to Oklahoma on the Capobiancos’ behalf.
Ridiculous …
It’s not clear at this point whether the custodial interference charge against Brown will be dropped – or if there are any conditions associated with Baby Veronica’s transfer. Cherokee Nation attorneys said they hope the Capobiancos will “honor their word that Dusten will be allowed to remain an important part of Veronica’s life.”
What do you think of the outcome of the Baby Veronica case? Vote in our poll and post your thoughts in our comments section below …
10 comments
I don’t care.
LOL then why respond?
At the heart of this dispute lies the issue of private adoption. Which is to say that in this country, if you want a white baby you can buy one. Oh sure, call it “birth expenses” if you want to, but who has the wherewithal to fund those?
I believe that a woman has a right to chose whether or not to bring a fetus to term, depending upon exactly when that fetus becomes viable outside the womb. But once the decision is made to have the baby, the birth father has rights.
If one wants a prenuptual agreement to be valid, both parties must necessarily have advice of counsel. For a birth parent to give up their rights it seems a signature suffices, regardless of whether or not the signer understands the significance and finality of the document.
The baby Veronica case is a sad story, and would be sad had it turned out the other way as well. It was also unseemly, with SC rooting for the Campobiancos and OK for the Browns like it was a football game. Obviously not the greatest chapter in our history, and one we would do well to guard against by eliminating private adoption.
I “rooted” for what I perceive to be a just result. It’s just a shame it took the courts so long to finally reach that just result.
And this is not the poster case for reforming adoption. The biological father abandoned the mother, disappeared from the child’s life, refused to support her emotionally and financially, and then signed away his rights. There are probably plenty of biological dads who have gotten screwed over in an adoption, but Mr. Brown was not one of them.
Perhaps you should read ALL of the facts before posting – let’s see – the dad was in Iraq when he was informed about the pregnancy. He offered to marry the girl and she turned down his proposal. Then she tried to get him to pay her support during her pregnancy shortly thereafter (when she could have been covered under an excellent military health care plan).
She did not tell him about the birth. She falsified his name and other credentials so the Cherokee tribe could not inform him. Shortly upon returning from Iraq, he was presented with what he thought was papers giving custody to the mom (which is OK would be OK with me if I was serving in the military) – BUT the very NEXT day, he contacted an attorney and tried to get custody when he realized that the baby had been put up for adoption.
He tried to visit the child – rejected by the adoption family. He got the child gifts – not accepted by the adoption family. He tried with our lovely Court system to get custody – rejected. Then he turned to his tribe. Certainly sounds like a dad that has rejected his child. This child now knows who her dad is. She apparently now has a little sister. Now she is going to a family who has stated that the child is their child.
I am sure that in a few years, this child will give the old 1 finger salute to these so called parents and move back to her dad’s – she is going to ask them WHY would you not let my own dad raise me. As for the mom, I understand that the adoption family paid her expenses and even kicked in a little bonus money. My, my – what money can buy.
My Good Ole Boy – you must have never gotten screwed over by our stupido legal/family court system in this State – if you did, you would not be making such ridiculous statements. Unfortunately, BIOLOGICAL dads should NOT get screwed over in our Family Court system, but it happens absolutely EVERY day. The Family Court honestly experiments with kids’ lives – and do you honestly think that the Court system cares or loses in sleep – not one iota.
No sir (or ma’am), you are the one that needs to get your facts straight.
1. The bio dad was stationed in Oklahoma, not Iraq, when informed of the pregnancy. He was still in Oklahoma when the baby was born and for several months after that.
2. He did know about the birth. While, yes, he did request to be married, when she rejected him, he told her that he would not assist her financially in any way. (BTW, she testified that he told her he wanted to be married for the benefits that would come from the army; there was also testimony (though not proven) that he had another daughter that he had abandoned).
3. He knew of the impending birth and the due date, yet he never bothered to contact her, come to the hospital, visit the young child, or offer to pay any money for her birth or child support. He was obviously making a case for “Father of the Year.”
4. Several months after the birth (and after he had had nothing to do with the mom or daughter), he was presented with an acknowledgment that he was not contesting the adoption. He signed it.
5. As to the indian BS, that’s a red herring. The guy has 2% Cherokee blood. The daughter has 1% Cherokee blood. He and the tribe used each other for their own purposes. And why would he need the Cherokee nation to inform him, when the birth mother had informed him several times already. Like I said, red herring.
So you are the one that needs to get your facts straight. The guy was a deadbeat that only got involved after-the-fact — probably after he realized that he wouldn’t be able to drop into her life on a whim with no consequences.
Owwww! Get some of that!
Three words:
Fuck the Injuns.
The father didn’t want her. He didn’t want to pay for her child support and signed away his parental rights. He only started caring when he realized that this might freeze him out of her life completely — which is what might happen when you financially and emotionally abandon your baby.
In any event, the SC Supreme Court dropped the ball and created this mess in the first place. There is no way a deadbeat father (with only 2% Cherokee blood, from what I’ve read) should be able to rely on some arcane indian treaty or law to undo what had been a legal adoption. He had his chance to claim her as his own, but failed to assert it until the adoptive parents became involved. Then he and his biological daughter became a political pawn for a tribe who really didn’t give a shit about the baby.
A shame and a disgrace and a miscarriage or justice…and, a warning to the adoptive parents or natural parents of any male with a “teenaged brain”. If he gets a girlfriend knocked up and she gets mad she can sell that baby down the river in South Carolina, which is to quicky adoptions what Nevada is to quicky divorces.
And, that is nothing to be proud of.