Supreme Court rules for adoptive parents in Baby Veronica case

[ExCop-LawStudent]

26. Except your facts are wrong.

Especially number two. The birth mother did not tell him that the child was being put up for adoption. She went out of her way to conceal it from him. The Capobiancos did the same. They waited until just before he was to deploy to Iraq to notify him, and he immediately filed to contest it. That's not my opinion, that is the opinion of the trial court and the SC Supreme Court.

"Mother never informed Father that she intended to place the baby up for adoption." Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, 731 S.E.2d 550, 553 (S.C. 2012).

"Initially the birth mother did not wish to identify the father, said she wanted to keep things low-key as possible for the (Appellants), because he's registered in the Cherokee tribe. It was determined that naming him would be detrimental to the adoption." Id. at 554 (editing in original).

"Mother signed the necessary documentation, which reported Baby Girl's ethnicity as "Hispanic" instead of "Native American." After Baby Girl was discharged from the hospital, Appellants remained in Oklahoma with Baby Girl for approximately eight days until they received ICPC approval, at which point they took Baby Girl to South Carolina. According to the testimony of Tiffany Dunaway, a Child Welfare Specialist with the Cherokee Nation, had the Cherokee Nation known about Baby Girl's Native American heritage, Appellants would not have been able to remove Baby Girl from Oklahoma." Id. at 554-55.

"Appellants filed the adoption action in South Carolina on September 18, 2009, three days after Baby Girl's birth, but did not serve or otherwise notify Father of the adoption action until January 6, 2010, approximately four months after Baby Girl was born and days before Father was scheduled to deploy to Iraq." Id. at 555.

All they had to do is follow the rules, and they didn't, even though they were aware of the requirements of the law. Instead, they hid what they were doing, and when caught, got a PR specialist to launch Facebook pages, websites, etc., and to flood the media with inaccurate and false information.