[NYTr] More Twists and Testimony Changes in Cuban Child's Custody Case

Tue Sep 4 00:47:20 EDT 2007

[This is a sickening case of an obviously mentally ill Cuban mother who
left her home with her two children, lost them to the care of Florida's
foster care system when she attempted suicide, and then to the tender
mercies of a well-known trafficker in Cuban athletes, who have
adopted the girl's half-brother and want to adopt her. The
4-yer-old's Cuban father arrived in the US in June to fight for
her return -- something both the birth mother and he want.  The rich
and famous would-be adoptive father,Joe Cubas,  and the State of
Florida, are fighting the parents' custody wishes. 

Unfortunately the very unstable mother is creating legal chaos with her
conflicting tales, including accusing the father's lawyers (one of whom
is Ira Kurzban, a very well-known attorney with a good reputation) of
unethical conduct.  Among the idiotic claims? The father hasn't sent
her a birthday card. How, exactly, is one supposed to send a birthday
card from Cuba to Miami?  Most of the mail that is sent never is
delivered in the US if it goes through normal channels. There's no
doubt that the sick mother is being manipulated by Cubas and his
hired legal guns. Next they will be claiming, a la the Elian
kidnappers, that she must have adoptive parents who can give her a
pony for her welfare to be safeguarded. 

The girl's identity is supposedly being protected, although both the
father and mother have now been identified by name in the press, and
The New York Times has published a photograph of the mother on the
witness stand. To top it all off, her would-be adoptive father is more
than famous; he's notorious.  How much privacy can this child expect to
grow up with if she is handed over to these people?

The entire case is absolutely disgusting from the point of view of the
child's welfare.  This woman clearly belongs in psychiatric treatment,
and should be declared mentally incompetent to assert parental rights
and unfit to regain custody of her two children.  She chose to come to
the US -- let her live with the consequences and take her chances, but
don't inflict her lousy judgment on a defenseless child of 4.

The girl's father is entitled to get his daughter back and Joe Cubas
should be told he isn't making trades for Cuban deserter baseball
players but attempting to grab a Cuban child who isn't his and doesn't
need his protection. She needs to go home to Cuba and be left alone by
the press, the US courts snd the predatory gusanos in Miami, before the
case becomes any more of a cause celebre and another media circus. -NY
Transfer]

The New York Times - Sep 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/us/02adopt.html

8 Years After Elián, a Cuban Custody Battle

By TERRY AGUAYO

MIAMI, Sept. 1 — Almost eight years after the custody battle over Elián
González took center stage here, a similar situation involving another
Cuban child is playing out in a local courtroom.

The dispute this time involves a 4-year-old girl who came to the United
States from Cuba in 2005 with her mother and her 13-year-old
half-brother. At issue is whether the girl’s father, a Cuban farmer who
arrived in Miami in June with his wife and 7-year-old daughter to fight
for his younger daughter’s custody, is fit to raise her.

The father, Rafael Izquierdo, allowed the girl’s mother to take her to
the United States, but several months after her arrival, the mother
attempted suicide and the state Department of Children and Families
took custody of the two children.

The children, who have different fathers, were placed in foster care,
and since April 2006 the girl has been in the care of Joe Cubas, a
wealthy real estate developer and former sports agent, and his wife.
The boy, whose father had surrendered parental rights, was formally
adopted by the Cubases, who also want to adopt the girl. Mr. Cubas, who
is well known in the Cuban-American community here for helping star
baseball players defect to the United States in the 1990s, has the
support of the Department of Children and Families in his effort.

“The child is ecstatic living where she is,” said Alan Mishael, a
lawyer for Mr. Cubas.

Lawyers for the Department of Children and Families argue that Mr.
Izquierdo, 32, is not a fit father because he acted irresponsibly by
allowing his daughter to emigrate to the United States with her mother,
Elena Pérez, whom they say he knew to be mentally unstable. His lawyers
reject that claim.

“We want to keep the focus on whether or not a dad has the right to
have his child,” said Ira Kurzban, one of the father’s lawyers. “D.C.F.
has not proven any neglect by our client Rafael.”

Ms. Pérez, who has said she wants her daughter to return to Cuba with
her father, has repeatedly given conflicting testimony and created
chaos in court, driving Judge Jeri B. Cohen of Circuit Court in
Miami-Dade County to take a recess to seek legal guidance.

On Friday, the fifth day of the trial, Ms. Pérez told the judge that
family photos she had testified to have sent to Mr. Izquierdo in Cuba
were never sent. She said she gave the photos to one of Mr. Izquierdo’s
lawyers who kept them to later show them as evidence in court. On
Thursday, Ms. Pérez admitted lying to the judge, saying that letters
from the girl’s father she had previously testified to having received
were actually fabricated by one of the father’s lawyers.

“I have tried to twist some things around to favor the father,” she
said.

But Judge Cohen said she was “very concerned” about her allegations.

Mr. Kurzban adamantly denied anyone in his team had fabricated the
letters, saying Ms. Pérez, 35, has “a serious mental problem.”

The girl’s case evokes that of Elián González, who was 5 years old when
he was found floating on an inner tube off Florida after the boat in
which he and his mother tried to reach American soil capsized in 1999.
His mother drowned, and Elián was placed in the care of his Miami
relatives, stirring a custody fight between the relatives and the boy’s
Cuban father who, like Mr. Izquierdo, traveled to the United States to
claim custody.

At the time, thousands of Cuban-Americans held daily protests outside
the Little Havana home where Elián lived, and tens of thousands took to
the streets in protest when the boy was reunited with his father in
Cuba. This time, though, the Cuban-American community does not appear
to be as emotionally involved in the outcome.

Ramón Saul Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, an anti-Castro
group, said he believed this case should be decided by the judge.

“In Elián’s case, the mother wanted to bring him here and died in the
process,” said Mr. Sánchez, who led many of the protests surrounding
that case. “In this case, both parents want her in Cuba.”

Bernard Perlmutter, a family law professor at the University of Miami
who has followed both cases, said there were some differences between
them.

“This matter is appropriately being adjudicated in a family court,” Mr.
Perlmutter said of the girl’s case. “We don’t have all of the
immigration issues that were so complicated and controversial in the
Elián case.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

                           ***

The Kansas City Star - Sep 3, 2007
http://www.kansascity.com/276/story/259158.html

Children shouldn’t be pawns for politics

By MARY SANCHEZ

One can only hope the lessons of Elian Gonzalez will hold.

A saga eerily similar to Elian’s is unfolding in Miami. This time, the
child is a 4-year-old Cuban girl. Her mother brought her to the United
States, but subsequently attempted suicide and was judged mentally
unstable. Her father, a farmer, has come to take the child back to
Cuba, but her wealthy foster family wants to adopt her.

Thankfully, the little girl’s name is not public. No photos have been
published. Newspapers and other media have wisely let ethics guide. But
the girl’s custody case, until now carried on behind closed doors in a
circuit court, has come under increasing public scrutiny.

The family that seeks to adopt the toddler is well-known and
controversial. The father, Joe Cubas, made millions as a sports agent,
delivering Cuban defectors to Major League Baseball teams. Cubas, the
son of Cuban exiles, is known for ruthlessly hunting down promising
athletes, then convincing them to leave Cuba for the chance of sports
fame in the United States — and profitable contracts, in which he
shares. His strong-arm tactics led the Major League Baseball Players
Association to suspend his license.

That’s not to say the Cubas family would not make a good home for the
girl. They have already adopted her older halfbrother. The boy, a
teen-ager, wants to stay in the United States — with his half sister.

Joe Cubas and his lawyers say the little girl should stay, too,
claiming her father is unfit to be a parent. Among other evidence: He’s
never sent her a birthday card.

The father, however, has the best argument: He is her father.

Despite the growing drama, there have been no massive protests like
those that surrounded Elian. Common sense just might prevail. Maybe the
Cuban-American community has learned from the Elian case. Perhaps the
image of the terrified little boy seared into people’s consciousness
and taught a lesson: Children should not be pawns for the politics of
adults.

Nearly eight years have passed since Elian’s story began. Elian’s
mother, recall, died at sea, as so many Cuban people have, attempting
to reach the United States in a flimsy boat. Elian survived. Relatives
in Miami quickly welcomed the boy.

But his father, who lived in Cuba, wanted him back. A media circus
ensued. Vigils were staged outside the Florida home where Elian lived.
For too many, the boy’s plight symbolized everything bad about Castro’s
Cuba. But the most lasting image of Elian was of armed federal agents
ripping the terrified child from the arms of a relative. Elian, now a
teenager, is back in Cuba with his father, where he belongs.

The same should happen with this little girl. Strip away the politics
and the case is pretty clear. Florida officials can’t produce any
records indicating that the mother gave up custody. She wants her
daughter to be raised by the father, whom she never married. The father
should be allowed to have his child. To decide otherwise will drive us
back to pre-1972, when fathers who were not wed to the mothers in such
cases had few rights.

We should also remember this country’s checkered history with adoption.
Native children once were stolen from their parents and given to white
families to raise as their own, far from the reservation. After the
Vietnam War, thousands of Vietnamese children, many of whom were not
orphans, were airlifted to the United States to be placed with families
who quickly changed their names to Bobby, Timmy and Sally.

Even in this case, the scent of such paternalistic attitudes lingers.
Some in the media have asked if the girl will have as good a life in
Cuba as she would have with the Cubas family in the United States. The
implication: A rich adoptive guardian is preferable to a poor
biological parent. As if income determines the amount of love in a home.

But a child who is desired by a natural parent has not been
“abandoned,” as lawyers have contended in this case. Rafael Izquierdo,
the father, allowed the mother to take the child to the United States
with the hope of a better life. But the decision was contingent on the
girl being raised by her mother. She is not the first immigrant mother
whose dreams of a better life in the United States didn’t materialize.

Elian’s mother suffered a worse fate. But here, as in Elian’s case, the
child should not lose both parents to that failed dream. 