Posted on 07/20/2007 7:27:49 PM PDT by USA Girl
A grieving Memphis couple has given up on its seven-year custody battle over a foster daughter after the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered the girl must be returned to her biological parents in China.
Larry Parrish, a lawyer for Jerry and Louise Baker, said in a statement the couple would not make themselves available to the media. But he said the family has concluded any further attempts to keep the 8-year-old girl they've called Anna Mae in their home would be futile.
"It has been soberly concluded by the Bakers that Anna has been forced by a defective system to suffer the wrongs the system has dealt her and that further delaying the execution of what she must now suffer cannot be expected to help," Parrish said Tuesday.
"Analogies to illustrate how the Bakers are can be drawn from your own imagination," he continued. "They are grieving with a grief that is as deep as any that any person could possibly conceive.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
BS. It’s evil to take a child away from the only family she has ever known. She should not have to suffer for the ignorance of her biological parents.
This is like the “Baby Richard” case in Illinois in the ‘90s, where a 4 year old boy was taken away from his adopted family and given to his biological father.
Sorry to be blunt, but these kind of cases piss me off. It can only serve as a disincentive to adoption if some evil judge can arbitrarily nullify the adoption. No family should have to go through that.
Abandon is a little harsh. I think they saw their future and it didn’t look good. They were illegals, mom can’t speak English and doesn’t work. Dad is facing sexual assault charges, and they are in the country illegally. I think they did the right thing in realizing they couldn’t provide for their baby girl.
That said, there aren’t any take backs in adoptions and I wonder what happened to their earlier good sense.
So, they gave the child up to foster care (because they allege that they thought that they had lost their health insurance, but there’s also an abuse charge against the father). Then they don’t ever visit her, not once for five months. A court determines that she has been abandoned. You, Wolfinator, have a different opinion.
We have this couple, graduate students in America. Graduate students must have some understanding of English. They did, after all, pass the test of English as a foreign language. Yet, they failed to inform themselves of visitation rights. And you accord them the benefit of the doubt, but are much less charitable with that same benefit with the people who loved her and gave her a family, a home, their parental committment for 8 years, so much so that you say that they tried to steal the child?
I guess there are people and things that I have no hope of ever being able to understand.
Don’t try to trick foreign parents by pretending to be “helping” them while you are actually intent upon stealing their children from them.
Please pay a bit more attention to the facts here.
The “adoptive” parents were the ones who created this nightmare.
I don’t really think this is like the Baby Richard case. These were temporary foster parents who acted in bad faith. The court rightfully decided that they ought not have been allowed to adopt that child at any point.
In the Richard case, the mother placed that child up for legal adoption. That case, in my opinion, was a travesty indeed.
I’ll be damned if I’d ever turn my baby over to child welfare services because it didn’t have health insurance.
What kept them from seeing their child for 5 months?
Trickery? BS!
This poor child has to go and live in that awful country now.
Go and live among all those effing communists. And thats o.k. with you.
They encourage only one, but two is within the limit. My Chinese friend said three is acceptable and pretty rare, but you need to own a factory or have some financial means so its not a burden on the state.
Did you read the article?
The lost stipend was due to a charge of sexual assault, a charge on which Shaoqiang He later was acquitted, according to a website the couple used to raised money for their battle with the Bakers.
Also:
Tennessee Supreme Court Rules in Anna Mae He Custody Battle
Jack and Casey He first gave temporary custody of their daughter, Anna Mae, to Jerry and Louise Baker on February 24, 1999. She was just a few weeks old at the time. The Bakers were to have custody of Anna Mae for ninety days in a sort of foster care agreement. However, the He's agreed to allow the Bakers to continue to offer foster care for Anna Mae in April 1999. On June 4th of that same year, custody of the young child was transferred to the Bakers.
Almost a year later, in May of 2000, the He's filed a petition to have their daughter, Anna Mae returned to them. This petition was denied due to lack of income and pending criminal charges against Jack He for sexual battery.
“Then they dont ever visit her, not once for five months. A court determines that she has been abandoned. You, Wolfinator, have a different opinion.”
It’s not just my opinion. A judge with higher legal standing ruled that the lower court judge was wrong. The facts indicated that these biological parents never stopped wanting and trying to get their child back.
Given the circumstances of the case, the court apparently believed that a five month absence did not constitute abandonment.
If the liberals cand make us into communists then they send our children to be brought up as communists. I’m sure Kerry, Clinton and Pelosi would approve.
Read the article’s lips, Wolfinator:
“Then, Parrish said, comes a note from the state of Tennessee “that informs you that you have done absolutely nothing wrong and have violated no law nor any other precept and that Anna has done absolutely no wrong of any kind to anybody. In spite of this innocence (even commendatory action on your part), the note tells you, the state of Tennessee is taking your child and placing your child completely out of contact and out of your control and putting her life in the complete control of persons whom you have reams of evidence, assessed by three very careful courts (juvenile court, chancery court and the court of appeals), all of which found about the new custodians that Anna would be harmed if the new custodians received her.
“Then,” he said, “you are forced by the law to stand by and watch as the minions of the law literally come and physically sever your child from her family as you watch her physically be inflicted with the substantial harm which the very note sent by the state of Tennessee said your child would suffer because of the separation.””
Your link is very good. It really clarifies what actually happened in this case and highlights the bad faith and ill will of the foster parents.
I appreciate what you’re saying.
The poster right below you posts another article on the case. I’d read about it before, that the father at least was a graduate student. In order to get a student visa, you need to have a rudimentary understanding of English. I know this because I came here as a foreign student too, and am not yet a citizen, but have fair fluency in the language. So, I find it insufficient to be told that the couple didn’t understand what their rights were. How can you not understand this is you’re here as a graduate student: Your daughter will be placed with the Bakers. You can visit her on Saturdays for 2 hours.
That is what does not jibe for me.
Tenn. couple to keep custody of girl Posted 5/13/2004 1:20 AM
Anna's parents, who also go by the names Jack and Casey, asked the Bakers to care for Anna immediately after she was born. At the time, the Hes had legal, financial and health problems. When their situation didn't improve after 90 days, the Hes signed custody over to the Bakers.
Childers heard testimony from 28 witnesses in a trial that ended last month. Before the verdict, both the Bakers and the Hes said they consider the judge fair.
"Even if he rules against me, he's fair," Jack He said Wednesday morning. "He's neutral."
After the verdict, He said: "This is a typical travesty of justice. It's unbelievable."
Casey He had on several occasions stood for hours outside the Bakers' home holding a sign and shouting that she wanted her daughter back. Childers said her "emotional instability" would be "detrimental" to Anna.
Here’s just one of the money quotes from the article you cite. It suggests that the foster parents may have all along figured they could swipe this child:
“Through a nonprofit adoption agency, the couple met the Bakers, who offered to give Anna Mae a temporary home. The Hes visited Anna Mae regularly for more than a year, but then disputes began over how much access they should have.
An argument broke out in January 2001 and the Bakers called the police. He said his wife became upset when denied permission to take Anna Mae to have a family photo made.”
That’s why we have appeals. The lower courts often get it wrong, as they did in this case. My hat’s off to the Tennessee high court.
A few of the posts on this thread prove beyond shadow of doubt one thing:
Liberals can’t think.
They can only politically correctisize.
They also think that judges are God - that a judge’s rulings are just and never to be questioned.
Terri Schiavo comes to mind. Abortion comes to mind.
We’ve all heard the adage “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
The liberal’s latest mantra is “If it’s evil, do it.”
I know quite a few Chinese and other East Asian grad students. They need to pass the TOFEL, but that’s not nearly the same as having strong fluency in English. My sense is that justice was finally done. The foster parents, in my opinion, sought from the beginning to “poison the well.”
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