The ACLU of Georgia filed a lawsuit April 20 that attempts to reunite a 7-year-old girl with the would-be adoptive mother she was taken away from because the woman is lesbian.
The same day, the Georgia General Assembly adjourned its annual session without an expected attempt to ban gays from adopting children, although gay rights supporters fear the court case could inflame such efforts next year. (See story, page 7.)
The habeas corpus complaint filed in Wilkinson County Superior Court seeks to remove the young girl, Emma Rose, from the custody of the state Department of Family & Children Services and return her to Elizabeth Hadaway, who had been raising Emma Rose for about a year at the request of the girl’s biological mother.
“It’s essentially a civil lawsuit that is filed that is saying someone is being unlawfully detained,” said Gerry Weber, legal director for the ACLU of Georgia. “Our position is that Elizabeth has lawful custody of the child and DFCS — not with any ill will, just with confusion — is illegally holding the child.”
Judges in Wilkinson County decided April 20 to not hear the case and are now deciding which county will take the case, Weber said. A hearing must be scheduled within 20 days of when the suit was filed, he added.
The lawsuit names Georgia DFCS and its affiliate offices in Wilkinson County as defendants. The foster parents who are currently taking care of Emma Rose are also listed, but Weber described them as “nominal defendants” based on them having possession of the child.
Judges in Wilkinson County decided April 20 to not hear the case and are now deciding which county will take the case, Weber said. A hearing must be scheduled within 20 days of when the suit was filed, he added.
The lawsuit names Georgia DFCS and its affiliate offices in Wilkinson County as defendants. The foster parents who are currently taking care of Emma Rose are also listed, but Weber described them as “nominal defendants” based on them having possession of the child.
Hadaway gained legal custody of Emma Rose in June after the girl’s birth mother said she could no longer take care of her. Wilkinson County DFCS issued a favorable home report clearing the way for Hadaway to formally adopt Emma Rose, but Wilkinson County Superior Court Judge John Lee Parrott refused to grant the adoption in November after reading in the DFCS report that Hadaway is a lesbian.
Parrott postponed making a final decision so he could research whether gay men and lesbians can adopt children in Georgia. He ruled in January that placing Emma Rose with a lesbian mother was not in the best interest of the child, and ordered that she be returned to her biological mother — Deborah Schultz, who is also a lesbian — within 10 days, or she would be put in DFCS custody.
Anticipating a hostile ruling, Hadaway moved from Wilkinson to Bibb County in between the November hearing and Parrott’s Jan. 8 decision. On Jan. 12, Hadaway and Schultz met at a truck stop in south Georgia, where Shultz again insisted on Hadaway raising Emma Rose.
Shultz again signed over her parental rights to Hadaway, who said she was encouraged by DFCS staffers and her attorneys to re-apply for custody in Bibb County Superior Court. When he discovered that Emma Rose was still in Hadaway’s possession in February, Parrott ordered Wilkinson County DFCS to seize custody of the child and place her into a foster home.
In March, Parrott ruled that Hadaway and her attorney were in criminal contempt of his previous order, and sentenced them both to 10 days in jail, or five days plus a $500 fine; the women are appealing his decision.
Meanwhile, Bibb County Superior Court Judge Tilman Self agreed to consider Hadaway’s new adoption petition, despite Parrott’s actions.
“This court has no interest or desire to unnecessarily involve itself with the workings of another superior court,” Self wrote in a March 30 ruling. “However, this court has a petition before it related to a child and it is bound to hear this case. This court must decide this case on the evidence as presented to it.”
The evidence overwhelmingly showed that restoring custody to Hadaway was in the best interest of Emma Rose, and that “Emma’s current foster placement was the worst possible scenario for Emma,” Self wrote. Noting that Hadaway had taught Emma Rose many basic skills in the year they were together — and that the young girl has struggled with school and began wetting herself since being removed from Hadaway’s home — Self awarded Hadaway custody.
But when Hadaway went to pick up Emma Rose from her foster home, the foster parents allegedly declined to release the young girl per the orders of Parrott, who refused to recognize the Bibb County ruling.
With two judges in separated jurisdictions issuing competing rulings, officials at DFCS insist they have no control over where Emma Rose is placed.
“This is a dueling court situation and our job is to care for the child until the courts work this out,” said DFCS spokesperson Beverly Jones. “This is an issue between two courts. It’s not a DFCS issue.”
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