The judge in a bizarre and emotional child custody case has ruled that a 1-year-old girl who was adopted by a Utah couple must be returned to her birth father. The judge found that the girl’s birth mother gave her up for adoption without her husband’s knowledge or consent, violating his parental rights and invalidating the adoption.
This strange child custody case began in June 2010, when the girl’s birth mother discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. At the time, her marriage to the birth father was fairly strong, but by the end of that year they were having problems. The mother suggested that she get an abortion or put up the child for adoption but the father objected.
The couple separated, though they still planned to move together to the husband’s new Army posting. The wife told the husband that she wanted to give birth in her home state. The husband went to the new state to set up a home for his growing family.
But then the wife changed her mind about adoption. She contacted a Utah adoption agency, which brought her to the state to give birth in March 2011. Two days later, without the birth father knowing anything about it, the birth mother gave up her parental rights to a Utah couple, who have been raising the child ever since. Meanwhile, the birth mother cut off contact with her husband, who did not learn where his daughter was until June of that year.
In our next post, we will continue the story of this child custody case.
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, “Father is ready to turn page on Utah adoption horror story,” Brooke Adams, Dec. 6, 2012
- Our law firm represents people who are going through divorce. For more information about our practice, please visit our Utah divorce page.
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