Posted on 01/01/2010 2:04:35 PM PST by Skooz
A woman at the center of a complex dispute with her former lesbian partner defied a court order to give up custody of her 7-year-old daughter, an attorney said Friday.
A Vermont judge had ordered Lisa Miller to turn over daughter Isabella to Janet Jenkins at 1 p.m. Friday at the Falls Church, Va., home of Jenkins' parents.
Miller did not show up with the girl, said Sarah Star, Jenkins' Vermont-based attorney. Jenkins has notified Fairfax County, Va., police that Isabella is missing, Star said.
"She's very disappointed, obviously," Star said. "She's very concerned about Isabella and asks that if anybody sees Isabella, that they please contact the authorities."
Quantcast Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian.
When Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen dissolved the couple's civil union, he awarded custody to Miller but granted liberal visitation rights to Jenkins.
The supreme courts of Virginia and Vermont ruled in favor of Jenkins, saying the case was the same as a custody dispute between a heterosexual couple. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear arguments on it.
Cohen awarded custody to Jenkins on Nov. 20 after finding Miller in contempt of court for denying Jenkins access to the girl. The judge said the only way to ensure equal access to the child was to switch custody.
But Cohen also noted that it appeared Miller had stopped speaking to her attorneys and "disappeared" with the child.
Miller's last known address is in Forest, Va. A telephone number listed for her at that address rang unanswered Friday.
Her attorney, Mathew D. Staver, the law school dean at Liberty University, did not respond to a request through an assistant for comment.
The Underground Railroad is back in operation.
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For women who want to escape polygamy with their children, it has been for quite awhile.
No. Just Lisa. And from what I have read, Jenkins didn’t even want Lisa to get pregnant or have the baby in the first place.
I think Jenkins was allowed to adopt the girl.
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No she wasn’t. She probably could have but she never attempted to.
Why does ANYONE who has no biological connection to the child, anyway, get visitation rights?
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It happens with step parents too. If someone is determined by the court to have taken a parental role, then visitation can be granted.
“You are right.....Mrs. Miller has turned her life around.”
Are you sure about that?
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From all indications and reports, the conversion and lifestyle change is legit. This doesn’t appear to be a “convenience conversion”.
Apparently one of the issues is Miller started speaking out about her conversion to Christ and from homosexuality. That is what got the gay rights groups up in arms.
Miller (bio mom) has renounced homosexuality for several years now. That is why they broke up in the first place.
Just another case of adults acting badly.
Homosexual, heterosexual, married, unmarried, whatever. They get together, pledge undying love, bring children into the union and then decide they can’t stand each other. Doesn’t much matter how the children came about biological, adopted, in vitro, natural, etc.
The adults are too self-centered to hold their disdain for each other inside and make the disintegration of what the child(ren) know as their family unit go easy for them.
Initial settlement seemed fair, custody to biological mother, liberal visitation with other parent. Bio mother was in contempt of settlement. I suppose court could have put her in jail, but chose to switch custodial parent so that the child still had a chance of having both parents in her life. The bio mother was wrong in both the legal and moral sense to deprive her ex-partner and daughter the ability to have a relationship.
Sorry, I’m with the judge on this one. The fact that it is a homosexual couple doesn’t matter.
No more than I can cite legislation that gives a non bio parent (who was not a “Kelso father”) rights to full custody when the biological parent was not deemed unfit.
This case is full of judicial lawmaking.
As an aside (and how things change), when my parents divorced and it was discovered that my father was homosexual, he LOST all custody and unsupervised visitation, and THAT is in California.
Gays are the ones who want special privileges under the law, and Jenkins manipulation of the court system verifies that.
Initial settlement seemed fair, custody to biological mother, liberal visitation with other parent.
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Part of the issue is whether or not the other woman was a “parent”. No legal adoption, not together very long after the birth of the baby, and VA (where the child was born) does not recognize any legal benefits from a “civil union”.
And oddly enough my brother-in-law met a woman whose boyfriend had dumped her when she got pregnant. They got involved, he stood by her, she even named the baby for him. They eventually married and were so over 10 years, though he never adopted the child. When they divorced she took their son and left; he was never granted any visitation. He was devastated. Child lost only dad he ever knew, just like that. That was Florida.
Again I say, adults acting badly, children just collateral damage or worse, weapons to use against each other.
Welcome to FR.
Not exactly; we are not a Gestapo state - yet. Police must still have a valid, legal reason to i.d. someone; they just can't stop people at random and ask for their "papers." Of course, with the multitude of obscure laws that abound, it's not hard for them to come up with some kind of reason.
I'm only slightly exaggerating in the list above.
The inexcusable behavior comes from the VA court - defying the VA Constitution.
Many will object to there being any substantial difference, but Vermont had "domestic partnerships", not "gay marriage" when all this occurred - so get your facts right, at least. I'm not very well versed in the implications on children born to a person in a domestic partnership, but I'd be willing to bet that they're not nearly as rigorous as those for married people. This should be significant, especially since Jenkins never adopted the child.
Incorrect. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case, which does not constitute agreement with either party's case.
No it is not as Ms. Miller voluntarily entered into a Civil Union, had a child and recognized her lesbian partner as the a parent of her child.
Because of those facts, the VT Court and the VA Court view this matter as no different than a heterosexual couple that have divorced.
Moreover, the Ms. Miller could not even convince four members of the SCOTUS to hear her case.
All she needed was four of the five to agree to hear her case, ; John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito.
And the aforementioned Conservative mentioned Justices of the Supreme Court made the right decision to not heat this case.
All she needed was four of the five to agree to hear her case; John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito.
And the aforementioned Conservative Justices of the Supreme Court made the right decision to not hear this case.
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