Quest for Baby Veronica attorneys fees sends ominous message, Cherokee official says

MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff Writer | Updated 18 hours ago
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.

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Federal Judge Should Hear Arlington CPS Case



Judge George Varoutsos



One of the most disturbing stories I've ever written for The Washington Examiner was about a 3-week-old baby girl who was snatched from her mother's arms and placed in foster care by Arlington County Child Protective Services because she lost 10 ounces after birth. Baby Sabrina's story hit me hard in the gut because that could have been me; my youngest daughter lost a whole pound postpartum.

Newborn weight loss is normal, Sabrina was under a doctor's care and had even regained all of her lost birth weight when she was taken. Kit Slitor, a freelance video editor, and his wife, Nancy Hey, a federal employee, were never charged with or convicted of child abuse or neglect, and the Virginia Department of Social Services exonerated them of any wrongdoing. It didn't matter.

After doing everything social workers and the Arlington Domestic and Juvenile Relations Court, or DJR, demanded of them -- including home inspections, supervised visitation, and psychological testing -- their parental rights were terminated and Sabrina was put up for adoption. They spent more than $250,000 fighting for her, all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court, which declined to hear their case.

Four years later, their story still haunts me.

On Sept. 16, a class-action lawsuit modeled after a similar pleading in Massachusetts was filed in federal court in Alexandria on behalf of eight children -- including Sabrina -- who have been placed in foster care by Arlington County.

The list of serious accusations contained in the lawsuit against DJR Judges George Varoutsos and Esther Wiggins, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Jason McCandless, and various Arlington CPS officials is long: perjury, RICO violations of civil rights, fraud upon the court, obstruction of justice, unconstitutional "ex parte" hearings, court orders that were never served, depriving parents of their due process rights, "missing" court orders, illegal searches and seizures, and felony removal of documents from court files, to name just a few.



Judge James Cacheris



Arlington CPS "has not implemented the reforms necessary to remedy the severe and persistent legal violations within its foster care system, despite its longstanding knowledge of these systemic ills," the lawsuit alleges. The allegations are so grave that if the judicial system were working properly, an emergency restraining order against DJR would be issued immediately.

Don't hold your breath. The "next friend" lawsuit was filed by nonlawyer James Renwick Manship, a disabled Navy cryptologist and court-appointed special advocate, on behalf of foster children and their impoverished parents. It's the longest of long shots aimed directly at a corrupt, unaccountable system that holds every card in the deck.

Or almost every card. Judge James Cacheris caused quite a legal stir in May when he cited the landmark Supreme Court Citizens United ruling to strike down a ban on corporate political donations. Campaign finance is an important issue, but it pales in comparison with judicial kidnapping, which strikes at the very heart of Americans' God-given rights.

If social workers and judges can take your child away without due process, the Constitution is nothing more than a piece of paper the powerful can continue to ignore with impunity.

There's still a chance that Cacheris, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan, will search his conscience, rise to the occasion, and allow this David vs. Goliath case to proceed to trial despite tremendous pressure from the legal establishment to ignore the compelling evidence of official misconduct and continue covering up this rot.

Stay tuned.

Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner's local opinion editor.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/federal-judge-should-hear-arlington-cps-case#ixzz1elNcKuFc

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/federal-judge-should-hear-arlington-cps-case