Trying to collect legal fees from the Cherokee Nation in the Baby Veronica case, adoption attorneys are sending a message to other tribes, too, an official said Wednesday.
“It
seems to be a warning to fathers and to tribes,” said Chrissi Nimmo,
an assistant attorney general for the Cherokees. “ ‘Don’t fight for
your children, or we will ruin you financially.’ ”
Eight
weeks after taking custody of Veronica, Matt and Melanie Capobianco
have filed an action in Oklahoma to collect more than $1 million in
attorneys fees and other costs.
The moved shocked Cherokee officials, said Nimmo, who led the tribe’s effort to keep Veronica with her Cherokee family.
The Cherokees would presumably have to pay the bulk of any judgment, since Veronica’s biological father wouldn’t have the cash.
Dusten
Brown handed the girl over Sept. 23 at the tribe’s headquarters in
Tahlequah and later announced that he was dropping all legal appeals to
get her back, ending the custody battle.
“We’re
extremely disappointed,” Nimmo said. “We believed all parties when they
said they would make an effort to move on and heal.”
The Cherokee Nation will argue that tribal sovereignty will give it immunity from the demand for attorneys fees, Nimmo said.
Winning
an epic court battle that dragged on for nearly four years and
stretched across two states, the Capobiancos took Veronica back to South
Carolina, where they raised her for the first two years of her life.
But
to get custody away from Veronica’s biological father, the couple
spent two months in Oklahoma, taking their case to six different court
rooms in five different counties, including the state Supreme Court.
“Attorneys
are entitled to get their fees and expenses associated with
successfully enforcing a custody order,” said Lori Alvino McGill, a
Washington, DC., attorney who represents the adoptive parents.
“So
the Capobiancos’ attorneys can seek their fees/expenses associated
with having to chase Brown around to enforce the South Carolina
orders.”
The Brown family has not commented on the recent developments.
