JOSE GASPAR: 18-year-old continues fighting for custody of son adopted to another family
BY JOSE GASPAR, Californian contributing columnist
jgaspar@bakersfield.com | Sunday, Jun 12 2011 03:31 PM
Last Updated Sunday, Jun 12 2011 03:32 PM
Next Sunday millions of families will be celebrating Father’s Day, acknowledging the man who raised, loved and cared for them. Fathers hold a special place in a child’s life. Dads can become involved in their child’s sports, while others enjoy teaching their kids new skills or just spending precious time together. One young father admits it will be a difficult day for him.
“It’s going to suck,” said 18-year-old Christian Diaz.
That’s because Diaz will not have his one-year-old son with him. You may remember Diaz from an earlier column. His then-girlfriend placed their son in adoption, without Diaz’ consent. Both were teenagers when she became pregnant.
After a lengthy court battle, a Kern County Superior Court Judge ruled in January in favor of placing the baby with the adoptive parents. Diaz has never been able to see or hold his son, whom he has named Liam. The decision was a hard one for Diaz and his mother, Guadalupe, to accept. And it’s taken an emotional toll on the family.
“He’s been stressed over the court’s decision denying him his father’s rights,” said Guadalupe, who also lost in having her first grandson.
In summary, the court never found Diaz to be an unfit parent. He has no criminal record and no record of drug or alcohol abuse. He holds a part-time job and plays football and baseball for his high school team. The court did find that he was not married to the mother and didn’t do enough to support her during pregnancy. When he bought clothes and furniture for his baby during the pregnancy, the court actually criticized him for not sending them to the foster parents. Why should he send them to the foster parents when he is expecting to raise his own child?
“I tell him, ‘Mi hijo, have patience, don’t do anything rash. God is watching over this and he will help you’,” said Guadalupe Diaz, a working single mother who’s been supportive of her son’s efforts.
The family is not rich by any means and had to rely on a court-appointed attorney to represent them.
“I feel helpless not being able to do anything,” said Guadalupe Diaz.
She said her son who recently graduated from North High School is saddened by the court’s ruling but is not giving up.
He has gotten help along the way.
The National Coalition for Men is supporting Diaz. And a nonprofit group devoted to family court reform called Fathers and Families got wind of the story and obtained the services of Marc Angelucci, a Glendale family law attorney to help out during the appellate process at no cost to Diaz.
Angelucci is convinced the Kern County Court erred against Diaz in several ways.
First, the judge denied Diaz a fundamental constitutional right to parent his child, for no good reason except that he’s an unmarried father and that the court felt he did not support the pregnancy enough, said Angelucci. Second, the evidence did not support the decision; instead it was based on gender-biased laws that violate the equal protection rights of fathers like Diaz, claims the attorney.
Young mothers have a presumed right to their child; so should young fathers like Diaz, said Angelucci.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.bakersfield.com/news/columnist/gaspar/x822637951/JOSE-GASPAR-18-year-old-continues-fighting-for-custody-of-son-adopted-to-another-family
Above and beyond this particular young man and his case, the judge who orchestrated this tragedy should be identified as the bigot she is and driven from the court. Her clear disregard for decency has disqualified her from any credibility as an arbiter of justice. Throw the bum out!
Only when judges come to realize that there are people who care and those people will hold them accountable, will judges begin to consider the people they are victimizing. As it stands, they exist to prosper from a bended knee to political agenda. They violate their oath to uphold justice with wanton and capricious moral turpitude. Vote the bums out. Vote out those who appoint them and the bureaucrats beneath them as well. Failure to understand this and bring the judge to task will only result in having to do and redo this entire thing over and over and over. Make sure that there is a proper follow-through. Vote the bums out.