Charge: Father, Daughter Married (Is it Okay With Sandra Day O'Connor?)

Mobile Register ^ | 07/25/03 | KAREN TOLKKINEN

[nickcarraway]

Authorities accuse couple of illegal incestuous union

A Mobile County grand jury has said that a Theodore husband and wife may really be father and daughter and ought to be tried for incest.

Carrol Eugene Ferdinandsen, 53, and Alice Faye Ferdinandsen, 30, were arrested Thursday and charged with incest and fraud in connection with their May 2 marriage in a civil ceremony in Mobile County. They were indicted in June.

According to Mobile County court records, Alice was the third child of Carrol and Shirley Faye Ferdinandsen, and her mother filed for divorce when Alice was only 4 months old. Her mother said Thursday that she later met and married Charles Stewart, who Alice listed as her father on her marriage license application.

Up to that point, Alice had used "Ferdinandsen" as her last name, according to court records.

Incestuous marriages are forbidden in all states, in part due to fears about genetic mutation and child abuse. They still occur, though rarely, according to a survey of news articles from around the country.

The Ferdinandsens could not be reached for comment Thursday. They were still being held in the Mobile County Metro Jail, with bond set at $8,500 for each, officials said.

Family members said they had heard about the marriage and disapproved of the relationship.

"My father is completely convinced that she's not his daughter, no blood relation at all," David Ferdinandsen, who said he is Carrol's son and Alice's older brother. He's tried to discourage his father from the relationship, he said, but his father won't listen.

Alice's mother, whose last name is now Crayne, said Carrol is definitely Alice's father. She didn't meet Charles Stewart until Alice was 3 or 4 years old, she said.

"I told her she was stupid for marrying her own daddy," Shirley Crayne said. "I told him he was crazy and stupid. I told her I didn't ever want to hear from her again."

Crayne started crying during an interview Thursday. It hurts so bad, she said, because Alice is her youngest child and she worked hard taking care of the children when they were young.

After the divorce, the couple's three children were placed in foster care, David Ferdinandsen said. They were there for five years, he said. They went to live with their mother, and later moved in with their father, he said.

Crayne said Alice sometimes called Carrol "Daddy" and sometimes just "Carrol."

Crayne said she would scold her daughter when she used her father's first name.

During the 1980s, Carrol and Alice went to Illinois, staying for months, David Ferdinandsen said. When they returned, Alice went back to school, he said.

According to Mobile County Circuit Court records, Carrol pleaded guilty to second-degree rape in 1989. The records do not identify the victim and prosecutors could not be reached for comment Thursday. He spent a year in jail.

Alice moved to Texas, where she got a boyfriend and a job at a hamburger stand, her mother said. But in the mid-1990s, Carrol came looking for her and she ended up moving back with him to Theodore, according to her mother and brother. They've been together ever since, relatives said.

Crayne said she never heard that Carrol claimed that Alice wasn't his daughter until just a few years ago. Now Alice believes it, too, she said.

[TRY ONE]

"Therefore it is the ruling of this court that the legislative law criminalizing incest is unconstitutional.

-- Sandra Day O'Connor -- 2004"

_____________________________________________

Incest is a fun game the whole family can play!

-- Sandra Day O'Connor -- 2006

[tracer]

Wait just a minute? Who gave away the bride? Who paid for the wedding. Whom did the groom ask for the bride's hand in marriage?

[cajungirl]

I wonder about the inheritance laws. In Maryland a wife gets a child's share,,so if you have two kids, each kid and the 3wife get 1/3. So does this lady double dip,,does she get daddy and a double share or what. And can she be charged with child endangerment by allowing her daughter {herself} to have incest with her hubby {daddy}...this is a sick case here.

[CholeraJoe]

Incest is a fun game the whole family can play!

Gives a whole new meaning to "rolling your own," doesn't it?

[Protagoras]

I cant even begin to imagine how messed up you have to be to marry your own father...yuck.

No big deal if you're from Arkansas. Every family tree there has just one branch.

[SarahW]

But, they are blood relatives. He is her biological father, despite his present claim to the contrary.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I think the guy thinks his ex-wife slept with another man and that's how the daughter was conceived-- making them only legal and not biological relatives. In that case, it's hard to come up with a good reason why they shouldn't be able to marry.

Speaking of this subject, is it believed that the first families on earth were products of incest-- like Adam and Eve's grandkids?

[GraniteStateConservative]

I think he may dispute that (though it may be true nonetheless).

[GraniteStateConservative]

LOL.

[longtermmemmory]

Are they consenting adults?

Then sex with each other is legal.

The issue is whether society can issue laws which prohibit marriage between those who consent to adult incest.

This is being used to attempt to start the slippery slope.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

[wideawake]

Well, it's very easily settled.

If his claims were true, a DNA test would have proven them.

[SarahW]

You might be interested in this month's issue of Discovery maganzine...there's a big article on the subject.

Marrying first cousins can concentrate recessive traits, but it also has genetic benefits, like passing on adaptive traits, and concentrating desirable traits, and avoiding some of the risks of outbreeding.

It takes several generations of inbreeding for any substantial increase in the birth defect rate. The birth defect rate for first-cousin unions is not significantly different from an outbred union.

Essentially, human beings were designed to live in concentrated groups with some genetic linkage.

[fortunecookie]

I am compelled to rule that because abortion is legal; it provides a legal means of rectifying the objectionable side-effects of incest. In the second point the right to sexual privacy has been establish by this court on several occassions. Therefore it is the ruling of this court that the legislative law criminalizing incest is unconstitutional.

-- Sandra Day O'Connor -- 2004

Quick, someone phone Sandra. She can set the wheels of justice in motion and remove the stigma of incest by legalizing it and allowing these 'people' their right to sexual privacy. Of course, they will still have the 'freedom' to abort any unwanted side effects of this incestuous union. Thanks to the hard work of the 'Justices'.

[longtermmemmory]

shhhh it is a secret best kept in the family.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Why go to such extremes? This case is a perfectly reasonable test case. You can argue the 12 year old isn't old enough to legally consent. These people are adults. I think this guy thinks he's in the same boat as Woody Allen-- only legally her father (that the kid is some other guy's flesh and blood).

[Eastbound]

Massa choosets is about to re-define what marriage is. Shouldn't take much pursuasion to convince the supreme court there to include 'unions' like this -- and perhaps even cross-specie unions, if it's all about affording constitutional benefits to any object used for sexual pleasure.

'Do you take this dildo to be your lawfully wedded . . . . '

Yeah, that has a ring to it

< /insanity >

[GraniteStateConservative]

Inbreeding, even when it doesn't cause overt birth defects, results in weaker, less intelligent, less attractive children.

That's the general belief, but do you have any facts to substantiate that? It may just be an old wive's tale.

[fortunecookie]

...Marrying first cousins can concentrate recessive traits...

and

...It takes several generations of inbreeding for any substantial increase in the birth defect rate. The birth defect rate for first-cousin unions is not significantly different from an outbred union.

Well, thankfully the Justices have brought the freedom of abortion to all (in the US). /dripping sarcasm That's just guaranteed future earnings for the abortion industry. Ch-ching!

[tracer]

And what if they become divorced. Who will be awarded custody of the daughter?

[nickcarraway]

Read the article- he is her biological father. She was just raised by her stepfather.