Family members say they wouldn't be surprised if Joshua Powell gets arrested in the disappearance of his wife, missing Utah mom Susan Powell.
Relatives of Joshua Powell spoke out as police in West Valley City said they now believe foul play is a "likely possibility" in her disappearance. Police say they now consider Powell a person of interest in the case.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he gets arrested in the next seven days," Joshua Powell's brother-in-law Kirk Graves told ABC News. "Even if he's innocent, there's more than he's telling us."
West Valley City Assistant Chief Craig Black told "Good Morning America" today that it was a "likely possibility" that Susan Powell's disappearance involved foul play.
"Josh's reasons for not wanting to approach the police department or come and work with us in a little more forthcoming manner have kind of generated some controversy among the officers," Black said. '"And it's something that's been questioned by the community members who have been following the case."
Powell has refused to answer direct questions and, police said, he would not take investigators to the remote camp site where he told police he tooks his two young sons in the middle of the night of Dec. 7, the last day Susan Powell was seen alive.
During the interview Tuesday with his lawyer present, Powell responded to basic questions about the clothes his wife was wearing and what her jewelry looked like, Black said, but even after being reminded that this was in the best interest of his wife, Joshua Powell refued to answer "hard, direct questions."
He declined to elaborate on exactly what questions Powell would not answer.
Black said the case is still considered a search for a missing person, but are preparing for a criminal investigation.
"All the leads at this point indicate that this is where it will end up going," he said.
Graves told ABC News that he has known Powell for 15 years and that while he's never seen him get violent with his wife, he can be controlling. The family's commitment lays more with Susan than Joshua right now, he said, but they will continue to support him and hold out hope for Susan's safety.
"For Susan's sake he needs to really open up and talk to everybody," Graves said. "People will listen to him."
Powell's attorney, noted Salt Lake City criminal defense lawyer Scott C. Williams, has denied that his client has been uncooperative and that the only reason Powell is the focus is because of intense pressure on police to solve the case.
Powell failed to show up for a scheduled interview with investigators on Monday, and on Tuesday answered only a handful of detectives' questions, West Valley City Police Capt. Tom McLachlan said.
The captain said that Powell's attorney has made statements that would lead the public to think he's served up his client to police "on a silver platter," but McLachlan said Powell would only answer a few of the investigators' questions.
Powell, he said, "is not fully cooperating, and while he's cooperating at some level it is certainly not the level we would like."
Black noted that at this point, the Powells' neighbors have been more helpful in answering questions than Joshua Powell has.
source
Showing posts with label kidnap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kidnap. Show all posts
Thursday, December 17, 2009
David Goldman Will Have Son Returned From Brazil
A Brazilian court ordered Wednesday that 9-year-old Sean Goldman be returned to the custody of his father, David, in the United States, but his Brazilian relatives were expected to try to block the order, a Brazilian official said.
Outside his home in New Jersey, David Goldman told reporters he was heartened by the news, but would not consider his efforts successful until he and his son are reunited. He departed Wednesday night on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport for Rio de Janeiro.
"I'm hopeful," he said. "I can't be optimistic because I've gone down there so many times, always under the guise that the rule of law will be followed and Sean will come home to me and his family, and that doesn't happen."
The 3-0 ruling by the Federal Regional Tribunal in Rio de Janeiro upheld a June decision by the 16th Federal Court in Rio, which ordered Sean returned to his home in New Jersey in accordance with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abductions.
The Supreme Court could still allow Sean Goldman to be returned to his father in the United States while it decides any appeal.
Goldman, a former model, said he had last spoken with his son in June, but they did not discuss the custody battle.
The case began in 2004, when his wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their 4-year-old son from their home in New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for what was to have been a two-week vacation. She never returned, instead remarrying there and retaining custody of their son. She died last year in childbirth.
Goldman has argued that, as the sole surviving parent, he should be granted custody. But the boy's stepfather and his other Brazilian relatives have argued that it would be traumatizing to the boy to remove him from what has been his home for most of his life.
The case has drawn high-profile input, including pressure for the boy's return from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said Wednesday in a statement that she was pleased to hear about the decision.
Outside his home in New Jersey, David Goldman told reporters he was heartened by the news, but would not consider his efforts successful until he and his son are reunited. He departed Wednesday night on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport for Rio de Janeiro.
"I'm hopeful," he said. "I can't be optimistic because I've gone down there so many times, always under the guise that the rule of law will be followed and Sean will come home to me and his family, and that doesn't happen."
The 3-0 ruling by the Federal Regional Tribunal in Rio de Janeiro upheld a June decision by the 16th Federal Court in Rio, which ordered Sean returned to his home in New Jersey in accordance with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abductions.
But a Brazilian official with knowledge of the case predicted Wednesday's order would be appealed. So far, the boy's Brazilian family has filed 40 appeals, most of them procedural but one substantive.
The Brazilian high court is to take up any appeal on Thursday, said Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, who has been pressing the case for his constituent. "Frankly, every possible nuance has been appealed by the other side," he told CNN's "Situation Room." "Remember, this is an abducting family, they're kidnappers, but they have had a great deal of sway with the court."The Supreme Court could still allow Sean Goldman to be returned to his father in the United States while it decides any appeal.
Goldman, a former model, said he had last spoken with his son in June, but they did not discuss the custody battle.
The case began in 2004, when his wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their 4-year-old son from their home in New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for what was to have been a two-week vacation. She never returned, instead remarrying there and retaining custody of their son. She died last year in childbirth.
Goldman has argued that, as the sole surviving parent, he should be granted custody. But the boy's stepfather and his other Brazilian relatives have argued that it would be traumatizing to the boy to remove him from what has been his home for most of his life.
The case has drawn high-profile input, including pressure for the boy's return from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said Wednesday in a statement that she was pleased to hear about the decision.
"We appreciate the assistance and cooperation of the government of Brazil in upholding its obligations under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction," she said. "And it is my hope that this long legal process is now complete and that the Goldman family will be reunited quickly."
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Where Is Susan Powell?
Powell was reported missing Dec. 7 when she didn't show up to work and her two children were not dropped off at day care.
Her husband, Josh Powell, says he went camping with their boys, ages 2 and 4, in subfreezing temperatures about 12:30 a.m. that day and returned in the evening.
Black says Josh Powell has been uncooperative in providing any details that might explain what happened to his wife. Black says Josh Powell also hasn't specified where he went camping.
He has not been named a suspect.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The husband of a missing Utah woman has complied with a police request to submit a DNA sample, his attorney said Wednesday.
Josh Powell provided West Valley City police with DNA on Tuesday, which is routine in missing persons investigations, Scott Williams said.
"On the possibility that some DNA of some evidentiary value is ultimately obtained, the police need a DNA profile from as many people as possible," he said.
Police have said Josh Powell is not a suspect in the disappearance of his wife, Susan Powell, who was reported missing Dec. 7 when she didn't show up to work and her two children were not dropped off at day care.
Josh Powell has told police he went camping with their boys, ages 2 and 4, in subfreezing temperatures about 12:30 a.m. that day and returned in the evening.
Investigators said they haven't been able to verify the camping trip because snow has covered the site — Simpson Springs on the historic Pony Express Trail in Utah's west desert.
Police Chief Thayle Nielsen told KSTU-TV that authorities have a "strong interest" in Josh Powell but he did not elaborate. Asst. Police Chief Craig Black did not immediately return a message left Wednesday.
Authorities have provided few details on their investigation into Susan Powell's disappearance, although they have termed it "suspicious." The Powell home was locked when officers initially arrived and they broke in, fearing the family had suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Susan Powell's father, Charles Cox, said police found a wet spot in the home being dried by two fans, but police have declined to comment on that.
Investigators said there were no signs of forced entry at the home and they found Susan Powell's purse and cell phone there.
Susan Powell was last seen by someone other than her husband on Dec. 6 — a family friend who ate dinner with her at the couple's home following church.
Friends and family said it would be out of character for Susan Powell to leave her two children and not contact anyone.
source
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Court Decides That Sean Goldman Should Stay With Stepfather
A federal judge has ruled that a 9-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle must remain with his Brazilian stepfather until a final ruling is issued on the boy's permanent custody, local news media reported Saturday.
The ruling would overturn a separate judge's order earlier this month that Sean's biological father, U.S. citizen David Goldman, should have custody of his son six days a week whenever Goldman is in Brazil. (Isn't this decision going to make it even harder for the boy to transition to his father. Why not allow him to stay with his father while David is in Brazil? This way the father and son will get to know one another before his eventual return to the United States.)
No one answered calls by The Associated Press to Goldman's Brazilian attorney and to the lawyer representing the stepfather.
In 2004, Sean's mother, Bruna Bianchi, took him for a vacation to her native Brazil and never returned. She later married Rio de Janeiro lawyer Joao Paulo Lins e Silva and died last year giving birth to a daughter.
The boy is now living with Lins e Silva, who wants to retain custody.
Goldman, who lives in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, has been seeking custody of Sean under the Hague Convention on international child abductions, which requires that participating countries return abducted or wrongfully retained children to the country of their "habitual residence."
A lower court in Brazil ruled earlier this month that Sean be returned to the United States, but the decision was suspended by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice based on a petition filed by a political party, which argued that removing Sean from his current family environment would hurt him.
On June 10, the Supreme Court issued yet a third ruling, that the decision on the boy's fate must be made by a federal court. It's not clear when that ruling may come.
source
The ruling would overturn a separate judge's order earlier this month that Sean's biological father, U.S. citizen David Goldman, should have custody of his son six days a week whenever Goldman is in Brazil. (Isn't this decision going to make it even harder for the boy to transition to his father. Why not allow him to stay with his father while David is in Brazil? This way the father and son will get to know one another before his eventual return to the United States.)
No one answered calls by The Associated Press to Goldman's Brazilian attorney and to the lawyer representing the stepfather.
In 2004, Sean's mother, Bruna Bianchi, took him for a vacation to her native Brazil and never returned. She later married Rio de Janeiro lawyer Joao Paulo Lins e Silva and died last year giving birth to a daughter.
The boy is now living with Lins e Silva, who wants to retain custody.
Goldman, who lives in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, has been seeking custody of Sean under the Hague Convention on international child abductions, which requires that participating countries return abducted or wrongfully retained children to the country of their "habitual residence."
A lower court in Brazil ruled earlier this month that Sean be returned to the United States, but the decision was suspended by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice based on a petition filed by a political party, which argued that removing Sean from his current family environment would hurt him.
On June 10, the Supreme Court issued yet a third ruling, that the decision on the boy's fate must be made by a federal court. It's not clear when that ruling may come.
source
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Haylee Donathan Found
A 4-year-old Ohio girl who vanished more than three weeks ago was found alive and in good condition, halfway across the country in southern California, authorities said.
Haylee Donathan, her mother Candace Watson and Robbie Potter were discovered hiding for the past week at The Morning Star Ranch, a retreat in Valley Center, near San Diego, said Peter Elliott, United States Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio.
Potter is a registered sex offender, officials said. He was being sought by the U.S. Marshal's Service.
Late Tuesday Haylee was in the custody of a children's protective services agency in the San Diego County area, Elliott said. She was doing well but may have chicken pox, he added.
"We understand she is healthy and happy and I believe, waiting to come back to her grandmother here," he said.
The journey west took them more than two thousand miles from Mansfield, the north-Central Ohio city where the girl and her mother live.
"I am very happy that my granddaughter's coming home," said Mary Watson, Haylee's grandmother. "And I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart."
Watson, 24, and Potter, 27, were arrested without incident and held by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. When asked their reaction, Elliott said, "I believe a little shocked that we were able to find them."
Potter and Watson were still using the same vehicle, a 1980s blue Chevrolet pickup truck they drove from Ohio, Elliott said.
Watson's hair was a bit darker and Potter also changed his appearance slightly.
Authorities had feared Haylee was endangered. Potter, a sex offender, had escaped a half-way house on May 28, the day the girl and her mother fell out of sight.
Countless tips came in while they were missing but one in particular led to the breakthrough on Tuesday, Elliott said without elaborating.
But a tip from members of the ranch could have lead to the raid and arrest, a ranchmember told CNN.
Kevin Carlin, a member of the ranch in the neighborhood of Valley Center, told CNN in a telephone interview that ranch members became suspicious when a former ranch guest saw billboards urging help in finding Haylee and the two adults.
Elliott also praised intense national news coverage from programs such as HLN's Nancy Grace and Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, as well as local media and Clear Channel, which put up missing child billboards across the country.
When she is returned to Ohio, Haylee will be placed in the custody of her grandmother, Elliott said. (Will she be safe with the grandmother. The grandmother raised the mother, who thinks that following a registered sex offender cross country is fine, and the uncle, a registered sex offender. There appears to be a problem in the family.) The U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of 27-year-old Potter.
Potter was wanted on a state warrant for parole violation and a federal warrant for probation violation. He is a convicted tier three sex offender, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, a unit of the Justice Department.
While on the run, Potter and Watson were reportedly seen on surveillance video on May 31 at a Wal-Mart Store in Marion, Ohio, 40 miles from Mansfield. Haylee was not on that video.
Adding to concerns, Watson's roommate, Samantha Covert, said last week in an interview on Nancy Grace that she saw the little girl in bed with her mother and Potter the morning they disappeared. Covert said Watson carried a basket of clothing, pillows and blankets.
Watson will likely face state charges, including harboring a fugitive, according to Elliott.
In addition to other charges, he said Potter may be prosecuted under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, a federal sex offender registration and self-reporting law that carries a multi-year felony sentence if violated.
On its Web site, the Morning Star Ranch describes itself as "a community of growers of organic, pesticide-free avocados, grapefruit, persimmons, nuts, and other produce."
Elliot said he believed it is a rehab facility and also called it a Christian retreat.
source
Monday, June 22, 2009
New Developments In David Goldman Custody Battle
David Goldman has been granted unsupervised visits for his son, Sean six days a week. The catch is that the visits must take place in Brazil. That sounds like custody to me. It would be a crazy custody order, but it is a step in the right direction.
Which leads me to my next point. Tomorrow, maternal family members and the stepfather are to appear on the Early Show. Sean could also appear on the show. But who is signing the release form. Does Sean's stepfather is have the right to parade him on television shows? If I were David Goldman I would object, and if possible rush to Brazil to take advantage of my visitation rights during the taping. Joao Paulo Lins e Silva is mounting a public relations campaign to seek symphathy. He even wrote a letter in which he said the boy calls him Daddy. That is his fault. The boy should have been corrected when he first called him Daddy. Here is the letter.
Even though I graduated more than ten years ago from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica’s Law School, I write these words to you not as a militant lawyer but as the father of two beloved children and as a 35 year-old widower. For this reason, I’m writing to you in an informal way in which my reasons are presented emotionally, since I couldn’t function as a lawyer without reason and without just reason.
I lived with and was officially married to Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro Lins e Silva for four and a half years.
Bruna studied Communication at PUC-Rio. After she graduated she did her Masters in Fashion in Milan, Italy. At the end of her last course, after four long years there, she met a North American named David George Goldman, who was living in the same building where Bruna lived and was working there as a model. After a few months of meeting each other, they began to date, in a long-distance relationship, since the North American lived in the United States and wasn’t available and wasn’t asked to do runway shows as frequently, due to his age.
The relationship lasted a few months. During this time Bruna traveled to the United States and Canada with her American boyfriend.
Two months after returning to Milan, Bruna discovered she was pregnant with her North American boyfriend’s child, who was conceived during the trip to Canada. Bruna told her boyfriend and her family. Since the contact between the two were rare due to the distance between them, and with her desire to be a mother growing, Bruna decided to give up Europe and moved to New Jersey, in the United States, with the purpose to give her child the chance to have a family.
Bruna, unfortunately, couldn’t imagine the suffering that she would soon experience.
Here I will explain some very personal facts that only a husband or close friends could actually know.
The relationship that worked well long-distance until then became a tragedy. The boyfriend, that would become a husband on account of the pregnancy, didn’t touch his wife anymore. During her pregnancy, even during their honeymoon, which would happen later with Bruna pregnant, there were no intimate relations between the couple.
During the last three years of living together, Bruna slept in a separate room from her ex-husband. She was anguished, in a deep depression, and cried every day. Fights were common and watched by little Sean, who was born in 2000 in the US but registered in the Brazilian Consulate and by the First Civil Registry of Naturalized Persons of Rio de Janeiro. It’s important to point out that this registry with the Brazilian Consulate took place three months after Sean’s birth, making him a Brazilian citizen like all of us, with all of the rights and obligations of a citizen born in Brazil, and when he becomes a legal adult he can opt to be Brazilian or American. Until then he has both nationalities, without one overpowering the other or without him being more Brazilian than American or vice versa.
David, at that point, because of his age, couldn’t find any work and rarely earned any money. He stayed home practically all day, concerned about building and fixing the house. Bruna worked all day long giving Italian classes in elementary schools and she was the one who put food on the table and handled all of the general costs of living. However, knowing about the situation, Bruna’s family helped by sending money to the family so they could have a dignified life.
Even their health insurance was paid for by Bruna, since her ex-husband wasn’t making any money. They lived in a world of appearances, where for some they had a great life, but inside the home it was hell.
The situation got to be so bad that at one point Sean, who was almost four, called his maternal grandmother, very sad, and told her that his mom didn’t like him anymore because she was out all day, and his dad was the only one who liked him, because he took care of him. He asked her to keep his secret. Asked who would have said such a barbarity to a child, Sean responded it was David.
The rest of the letter is below.
Shaken, the maternal grandmother told her daughter about this sad incident. Bruna, who was already in Brazil with Sean on vacation, decided to end the marriage, which hadn’t really existed for more than four years. She was unhappy, depressed, had a lazy husband who didn’t want his wife since she was pregnant, and found herself forced to work all day long just to sustain her family.
She decided not to return to the United States and to end her unhappy marriage.
She called her ex-husband, told him she was unhappy, that she didn’t want to ever go back, and offered him a plane ticket to come immediately to Brazil so they could talk and work everything out. That didn’t happen. The American rejected the plane tickets, a place to stay, and said he’d never set foot in Brazil.
Bruna, without any other alternative, looked for information about a lawyer specializing in her situation. Immediately, and during the authorized period of time given to Bruna by the American to stay in Brazil with her son, appeared in Brazilian Court and asked for custody of Sean, which was quickly granted.
The American, meanwhile, wasn’t interested in speaking to Bruna amicably anymore. He went to a law office in Sao Paulo and months after Bruna left, filed an action alleging international child abduction!! But he didn’t know if the mother would ask for ransom, or even where she was. The theory of asking for ransom would come true, but on the opposite side, which will be explained shortly.
In this case in the Family Court in Rio, the American rightly contested the request. He lost the first time and appealed to the State Court. He was unsuccessful again. He tried going to the STJ, where he was not accepted and was unable to appeal again, closing the case.
During the ongoing case in the Federal Court, of which the American is the person responsible, he lost the first case, then the second case, and then again he lost in the Superior Court of Justice, where he was made to understand that the law rules in the interest of the minor, and in this case, that he would stay in Brazil with his mother.
At this point, it’s important to open up.
I met Bruna again through a mutual friend from college right after she returned to the US. At that time I was separated from my first wife.
We had similar stories, we weren’t happy in our marriages for a few similar reasons and maybe through this life experience we understood each other very well. In less than six months after we met again, we were living together. And I never imagined how happy I could be at Bruna’s side.
For a reason that can be explained, life brought us together three times, and without the first two we never could have really been together. The third time we were certain that we were made for each other, to be together forever.
Bruna told me all the time that I was “the husband she chose.” We loved each other the whole time and there was never a moment of sadness.
Sean had a more than special participation in our lives. Ever since our first meeting we made sure he would accept the situation. He was the one who brought the first Valentine’s gift for me, spontaneously. My relationship with Bruna would never be above or could be compared to the relationship between mother and son, and because of this we did everything in the best way possible thinking about Sean’s well-being.
We were very involved together as a family, so it was natural that Sean began to call me DAD. It was his personal wish, and I received this gift with lots of pride and endearment. Our relationship, aside from nomenclature, was like a father and son: I always went to the parents’ meetings at his school, we did his homework together, I put him to bed, common things between parents and children.
And I did it for love. Sean is the son I never had from my first marriage. Our relationship has always been very strong, one of conversation, of love, of learning, of orientation, support, and protection.
From the first day we spent together and decided to become a family, it became my exclusive obligation to support my family financially. I became responsible to pay for the costs of the maid, food, housing, school, and leisure. We always went on vacation. Sean was able to see Europe at my side, and to be enchanted by Paris and Eurodisney.
We had the best family in the world for four and a half long years, one where everything was love, hugs, and respect. There were never any fights, any crying, not a single moment of unhappiness. Bruna, who also registered her marriage to the North American in Brazil, asked for a divorce in the Brazilian court, an act in line with the law. The American was formally notified by a judicial official in Brasilia. Bruna divorced and we were finally able to officially marry. Our wedding took place on September 1, 2007.
At our wedding, a marriage certificate was signed by Bruna, me, and witnesses, as the law states, but in a pure act of spontaneity, Sean asked to sign it too, which really moved us, and it’s on the legal certification as can be proved by photos from the wedding. Sean was there and witnessed and approved our union.
Four months after the wedding, Bruna got pregnant again. I would have liked her to get pregnant sooner, but she questioned it, saying this time she would like to be pregnant after being formally married so they wouldn’t think she was just getting married because she was pregnant.
Bruna had a perfect pregnancy without any apparent problems. Sean watched as his mother’s belly grew each day. We were so happy when we found out it was a girl.
With her talent, Bruna became a fashion businesswoman making children’s clothes, and opened a very successful business, a store for girls called BISI. The dream of having a girl came true and she said she would make clothes for the little girl. In four years we had four stores in the best parts of Rio de Janeiro.
Scheduled to be born on August 21, 2008, Chiara decided to be born on that day. The birth took place apparently without any problems. Unfortunately, there were complications and failures that don’t deserve to be mentioned here.
My beloved Bruna, my life, the mother of my two children, died the morning of August 22, hours after giving birth to our daughter Chiara. She left me with the two greatest gifts of life: Sean and Chiara. Bruna died at age 34.
Sean – a BRAZILIAN CITIZEN – has been in Brazil since June 2004. He has been in Brazil much more time than he spent outside the country, without taking into account the time he spent abroad was when he was very little and he doesn’t remember much about it.
Sean has been under my care since January 2005, in a relationship of father and son. Today, he speaks very little English and recognizes his family –his support and nuclear family – as me, his affective father, and his sister, his biological connection to his mother.
For all those years, the North American never tried to visit us for even a day. The first year Sean spent in Brazil, he rarely called, maybe two times, on days like Sean’s birthday and Christmas. For the last two birthdays, Sean didn’t receive even a phone call, since in 2007 and 2008 we never received any contact by phone.
In the first two years, contact was limited to sending emails to my wife’s account in English to a child who couldn’t even read yet in Portuguese. We received presents one or two times, sent by the paternal grandmother with a simple card signed only by the grandmother.
During all this time the American claims he was in Brazil four or five times. In none of these occasions did he try to see us, formally or informally. He never asked for visitation rights in court, although he was answering to the custody request, after taking the legal initiative in Brazil. In fact, we found out about his presence in Brazil from our lawyers, with whom he was with on the day of the trial.
We also found out that he was in the courts lobbying with some Supreme Court judges. I repeat: at no moment did he even call our house warning us that he’d be here. He preferred to visit Sean’s judges.
Right after my beloved wife died, I decided to take the legal initiative to ask for custody of Sean, since I already took care of him and had a father-like relationship with him, a son of more than four years. I received custody after the State Public Ministry ruled in my favor.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t imagine what was coming. Right after Bruna’s seventh day mass, I received word that the American was in Brazil, and had gotten in touch with my lawyers.
My question: WOULD HE HAVE COME IF BRUNA HADN’T DIED???
Judging from the history of his actions, it’s obvious he wouldn’t have.
Even without having made visual contact in four and a half years, he decided to go after his biological son. The request was made through the family court judge, who based on experience and following the Public Ministry’s understanding of the case denied the visit, temporarily, keeping in mind the family’s moment of pain and his absence for so many years. He understood that such a visit could take place after social and psychological studied, all in Sean’s best interests.
After that legal decision, our life became hell.
This American hired, through his lawyers, a media consultant, even though the case was protected by the secrecy of justice. He began to spread his lies to the Brazilian media, as if his life in the US had been a fairy tale. He said that he had come innumerous times to Brazil and that “the family had prevented access.” He called Bruna a bigamist, an adulterer, and a child kidnapper – even after several sentences – and without Bruna being able to defend herself.
He put a letter on the Internet which accused the Brazilian courts of being corrupt, saying we’d paid all the judges, and that our courts don’t deserve credit. Unbelievably absurd!
And that’s not all. Upon returning to the US, he went after his country’s media. He disclosed the whole story, he gave an interview telling his lies about the facts. He revealed my name and my family’s name, calling me a child abductor.
He created a site on the Internet where he tells his version of the story, where there’s a link where people have access to my email and my father’s email. From there, people began to write me, slandering me. I received hundreds of emails, telling me to burn in hell, that I’m a criminal. Along with the link, they show a series of emails at the Brazilian embassy, the courts, the Executive Powers, pressuring people through the American public opinion to take political action against me and my family, using as an excuse Sean’s return to the US after four and a half years of doing nothing.
AS IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH, THE AMERICAN ASKS FOR FINANCIAL DONATIONS ON HIS SITE WHERE HE ACCEPTS CREDIT CARDS!
As if it wasn’t enough to create products with Sean’s face on it when he was two years old that serve as a stamp on mugs, cooking aprons, tee-shirts of all kinds with sayings like Brazil doesn’t follow the law, that Sean should be returned to his country, etc, completely absurd facts and appeals that serve as a way to sustain the American, for him to make money since he has no job.
It’s important to mention that he says he never calls because supposedly, the family wouldn’t accept collect calls. How could he expect to raise a child that barely remembers his American past, without any money to even call his biological son?
What’s more, on Orkut, an Internet community popular with young Brazilians, there’s a community created by children that like my wife’s store, which began to release videos and photos accusing Bruna of being a kidnapper, sending these documents to Brazilian CHILDREN, without even thinking about the consequences or evaluating the gravity of this act!
Take note that if he had really been suffering or interested he wouldn’t have begun to scream four and a half years later. He would have done it a week after Bruna came to Brazil!!!
The American appears to be full of good intentions. However, he doesn’t tell the Brazilian press, nor the American press, much less on his website, that he ACCUSED BY IN-LAWS OF PARTICIPATING IN A SUPPOSED INTERNATIONAL KIDNAPPING, IN A CASE IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THAT THERE THEY MADE A DEAL IN FRONT OF A JUDGE WHICH RECINDED HIS COMPLAINT FOR THE BEAUTIFUL AMOUNT OF US$150,000 (ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS)!!! All of this duly recognized by an American judge!
I repeat: would the guy have showed up if Bruna hadn’t died??? NEVER!!! He came because he smelled money, keeping in mind the eventual inheritance Sean would receive.
It’s important to point out that during those four and a half years, the American never sent us A SINGLE PENNY. All of Sean’s costs of living were paid for by me and Bruna. We never took the initiative to charge him for food, there’s no legal case of that kind at all. Just like there was no court order asking for and requiring him to visit Sean. So why did he come four and a half years later??? Only because Bruna died? He wasn’t satisfied with the agreement?
The American also didn’t say that he lived in a house bought with Bruna’s money. He lives with a roof over his head that’s not his, for free. He doesn’t say that he falsified Bruna’s signature on several checks from her bank account in order to gain access to the money she’d left when she returned to Brazil. He doesn’t mention any of that.
On the contrary, he makes a sad face, that of a father in trouble. Unfortunately, his acting moved the American government, which began to pressure the Brazilian Central Authority. Motivated by reasons of which I am unaware, the Secretary of Human Rights in MY COUNTRY forced the Union, through the General Advocacy Union, which is paid for by our taxes, to make a legal decision.
Today I’m the DEFENDANT IN A CASE AGAINST THE UNION WHICH PLEADS FOR SEAN’S RETURN AND VISITATION IN FAVOR OF A NORTH AMERICAN!!!!! Even though he request was made by the Family Judge and even though the return request was repeated, whose merit was already judged in the STJ! The Union pleads the right as a PRIVATE favor of an AMERICAN AGAINST A BRAZILIAN who is being massacred by the press, who can’t sleep at night, that is obligated to get court orders so that the story will be silenced, even though it’s already protected by the secrecy of justice.
My country can’t act against a REAL BRAZILIAN FATHER, TO THE POINT OF GETTING INVOLVED IN A COMPLETELY PRIVATE MATTER. AT WHAT POINT HAVE WE FOUND OURSELVES???? WE ARE THEN SUBJECTS TO THE INTEREST OF A FOREIGNER ABOVE US, INCLUDING THE DECISIONS OF OUR COURTS? WOULD I HAVE RECEIVED THE SAME TREATMENT IF THIS HAD HAPPENED IN THE US?
I feel completely vulnerable. The American, right now, must be creating political tricks to harm my family, a person that shouldn’t receive any credit for being completely absent. To make a child is good, but to be responsible for taking care of him and raising him requires more dedication, and my love for Sean is no different than the love I feel for Chiara.
Bruna was very loved. When she died we took out a page in the newspaper to announce her mass. At her burial, which wasn’t publicized by the media, we had more than a thousand friends there. Bruna always believed in Brazil and it was here that she made her real family. Our courts understand this situation to be in Sean’s best interests, for him to stay here. Sean has a biological sister now, and the Union, pressuring or not, appears to want to forget the decision made by our maximum Court, and on account of Bruna’s death, to plead on the basis of a kidnapping, Sean’s return to the US, after he spent so much time in Brazil. They forget that Sean is BRAZILIAN!!! THAT EVEN THOUGH HE WASN’T BORN IN OUR BELOVED LAND, HE LOVES HIS BRAZIL LIKE FEW DO.
It wasn’t our fault that he lost his connection to the US. It wasn’t for our misdoing, it wasn’t for our absence. We can’t become defendants now, accused of being kidnappers, to go to a meeting in the interests of a North American. Where have we found ourselves? That Sean is more American than Brazilian?? Or is it that it’s better to be an American?? When will these political pressures serve as an excuse for the AGU to take an initiative in favor of a “gringo’s” private interests against a LEGITIMATE BRAZILIAN FAMILY???
Sean, ever since his mother died, has been receiving psychological help to aid him through a difficult time. Psychologist Maria Helena Bartolo has always confidently affirmed that Sean, due to the failure of initiative on his biological father’s part, lost the connection to his American past, since he doesn’t speak the language anymore and since he came to Brazil so young. Sean arrived just after he turned four. If you take into account that a child has little to no memory of his first years of life, it’s easy to understand that Sean can’t remember events and people –even family—in the US.
According to the psychologist, Sean’s formal memory is of his mother at my side, of a happy and pleasant home. Sean lived at my side for practically 60% of his life, since he will turn 9 in May, more time than he spent in the US. When he was questioned about his life in the US, he remembers few details, including arguments and fights that frequently occurred due to a failed marriage.
It’s important to emphasize that I, as the socio-affective father, am only interested in my son Sean’s well-being, nothing more than that. It’s devastating to see his innocent image on mugs sold on the Internet where no one knows where the money goes. Sean is being exposed inconsequently to the world, without taking account the negative consequences this can bring to a growing child. The secrecy of justice is disrespected daily, with all of the photos and information thrown around by the media without any criteria, with the only goal to create controversy and to sell newspapers.
What is the objective of all of these attacks against a Brazilian family? There was never any intention of preventing healthy contact and habitation [with the father]. As such, at the first opportunity which occurred recently, I, as the guardian, offered the visit that took place. Sean’s psychologist can testify to this fact, and told me that Sean was curious, but after a few hours, was uncomfortable. She repeated that in some sessions he wants to have a normal life, without afflictions or risks of being taken from Brazil without being heard, that he wants to stay with his affective father that he loves so, and at his sister’s side, his only connection to his deceased mother. Obviously she doesn’t deny that he doesn’t demonstrate interest in maintaining contact with his biological father, but that he wants to do it in a health and balanced way.
However, there’s a real fear in the family that due to North American political pressures, through the Consulate, that the minor’s interests will be put on the back burner. It doesn’t really matter if the biological father was absent for five years. It doesn’t matter if Sean has a biological sister. It doesn’t matter if he is loved here and wants to stay in the place he calls home, where he goes to school. It doesn’t matter that he is BRAZILIAN. We are essentially running the risk of seeing our highest law that we respect, before everything, the child’s best interest, being violated, torn up, thrown away by North American political interests. They want to use the boy as an example. Example of what? It’s not enough that he was orphaned at age 8, and now, about to be taken from his house, his home, the people he lived with and who cared for him for five years, from daily living with the sister he loves, from his grandparents, his uncles and aunts, and friends?? Where is the best interest of the child??? Or does it deal with the best interest of the US, the American ambassador, of Hillary Clinton?
We don’t even know if the version told outside of Brazil is true. The facts are innumerous and here we have millions of papers that prove, unfortunately, the character of the biological father that never had a real job and was sustained by my wife for the years they were married. If by using the lack of the secrecy of justice in the US to sell himself as a poor little thing, when in reality the only person being penalized in this story is Sean, who runs the risk of losing everything that really makes him feel safe. Sean barely speaks English, and doesn’t speak fluently like they try to show!!!
With great fear and to avoid the rights and interests of a son being completely and grossly violated, it is the socio-affective father – that never ran away from his responsibility of sustaining a child for most of his life only and exclusively for LOVE – asks this Council to analyze and protect the rights of a Brazilian child that has already suffered a lot, and that today is distressed and suffering due to a disastrous and inconsequential international political game – whose foreign political interests seem to be above our law, and if that wasn’t enough, above the greater interest of a Brazilian child, the ONLY VICTIM, that will suffer the serious emotional consequences, in the event that this council doesn’t intervene.
Rio de Janeiro, March 5, 2009
Joao Paulo Lins e Silva – OAB/RJ
source
Which leads me to my next point. Tomorrow, maternal family members and the stepfather are to appear on the Early Show. Sean could also appear on the show. But who is signing the release form. Does Sean's stepfather is have the right to parade him on television shows? If I were David Goldman I would object, and if possible rush to Brazil to take advantage of my visitation rights during the taping. Joao Paulo Lins e Silva is mounting a public relations campaign to seek symphathy. He even wrote a letter in which he said the boy calls him Daddy. That is his fault. The boy should have been corrected when he first called him Daddy. Here is the letter.
Even though I graduated more than ten years ago from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica’s Law School, I write these words to you not as a militant lawyer but as the father of two beloved children and as a 35 year-old widower. For this reason, I’m writing to you in an informal way in which my reasons are presented emotionally, since I couldn’t function as a lawyer without reason and without just reason.
I lived with and was officially married to Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro Lins e Silva for four and a half years.
Bruna studied Communication at PUC-Rio. After she graduated she did her Masters in Fashion in Milan, Italy. At the end of her last course, after four long years there, she met a North American named David George Goldman, who was living in the same building where Bruna lived and was working there as a model. After a few months of meeting each other, they began to date, in a long-distance relationship, since the North American lived in the United States and wasn’t available and wasn’t asked to do runway shows as frequently, due to his age.
The relationship lasted a few months. During this time Bruna traveled to the United States and Canada with her American boyfriend.
Two months after returning to Milan, Bruna discovered she was pregnant with her North American boyfriend’s child, who was conceived during the trip to Canada. Bruna told her boyfriend and her family. Since the contact between the two were rare due to the distance between them, and with her desire to be a mother growing, Bruna decided to give up Europe and moved to New Jersey, in the United States, with the purpose to give her child the chance to have a family.
Bruna, unfortunately, couldn’t imagine the suffering that she would soon experience.
Here I will explain some very personal facts that only a husband or close friends could actually know.
The relationship that worked well long-distance until then became a tragedy. The boyfriend, that would become a husband on account of the pregnancy, didn’t touch his wife anymore. During her pregnancy, even during their honeymoon, which would happen later with Bruna pregnant, there were no intimate relations between the couple.
During the last three years of living together, Bruna slept in a separate room from her ex-husband. She was anguished, in a deep depression, and cried every day. Fights were common and watched by little Sean, who was born in 2000 in the US but registered in the Brazilian Consulate and by the First Civil Registry of Naturalized Persons of Rio de Janeiro. It’s important to point out that this registry with the Brazilian Consulate took place three months after Sean’s birth, making him a Brazilian citizen like all of us, with all of the rights and obligations of a citizen born in Brazil, and when he becomes a legal adult he can opt to be Brazilian or American. Until then he has both nationalities, without one overpowering the other or without him being more Brazilian than American or vice versa.
David, at that point, because of his age, couldn’t find any work and rarely earned any money. He stayed home practically all day, concerned about building and fixing the house. Bruna worked all day long giving Italian classes in elementary schools and she was the one who put food on the table and handled all of the general costs of living. However, knowing about the situation, Bruna’s family helped by sending money to the family so they could have a dignified life.
Even their health insurance was paid for by Bruna, since her ex-husband wasn’t making any money. They lived in a world of appearances, where for some they had a great life, but inside the home it was hell.
The situation got to be so bad that at one point Sean, who was almost four, called his maternal grandmother, very sad, and told her that his mom didn’t like him anymore because she was out all day, and his dad was the only one who liked him, because he took care of him. He asked her to keep his secret. Asked who would have said such a barbarity to a child, Sean responded it was David.
The rest of the letter is below.
Shaken, the maternal grandmother told her daughter about this sad incident. Bruna, who was already in Brazil with Sean on vacation, decided to end the marriage, which hadn’t really existed for more than four years. She was unhappy, depressed, had a lazy husband who didn’t want his wife since she was pregnant, and found herself forced to work all day long just to sustain her family.
She decided not to return to the United States and to end her unhappy marriage.
She called her ex-husband, told him she was unhappy, that she didn’t want to ever go back, and offered him a plane ticket to come immediately to Brazil so they could talk and work everything out. That didn’t happen. The American rejected the plane tickets, a place to stay, and said he’d never set foot in Brazil.
Bruna, without any other alternative, looked for information about a lawyer specializing in her situation. Immediately, and during the authorized period of time given to Bruna by the American to stay in Brazil with her son, appeared in Brazilian Court and asked for custody of Sean, which was quickly granted.
The American, meanwhile, wasn’t interested in speaking to Bruna amicably anymore. He went to a law office in Sao Paulo and months after Bruna left, filed an action alleging international child abduction!! But he didn’t know if the mother would ask for ransom, or even where she was. The theory of asking for ransom would come true, but on the opposite side, which will be explained shortly.
In this case in the Family Court in Rio, the American rightly contested the request. He lost the first time and appealed to the State Court. He was unsuccessful again. He tried going to the STJ, where he was not accepted and was unable to appeal again, closing the case.
During the ongoing case in the Federal Court, of which the American is the person responsible, he lost the first case, then the second case, and then again he lost in the Superior Court of Justice, where he was made to understand that the law rules in the interest of the minor, and in this case, that he would stay in Brazil with his mother.
At this point, it’s important to open up.
I met Bruna again through a mutual friend from college right after she returned to the US. At that time I was separated from my first wife.
We had similar stories, we weren’t happy in our marriages for a few similar reasons and maybe through this life experience we understood each other very well. In less than six months after we met again, we were living together. And I never imagined how happy I could be at Bruna’s side.
For a reason that can be explained, life brought us together three times, and without the first two we never could have really been together. The third time we were certain that we were made for each other, to be together forever.
Bruna told me all the time that I was “the husband she chose.” We loved each other the whole time and there was never a moment of sadness.
Sean had a more than special participation in our lives. Ever since our first meeting we made sure he would accept the situation. He was the one who brought the first Valentine’s gift for me, spontaneously. My relationship with Bruna would never be above or could be compared to the relationship between mother and son, and because of this we did everything in the best way possible thinking about Sean’s well-being.
We were very involved together as a family, so it was natural that Sean began to call me DAD. It was his personal wish, and I received this gift with lots of pride and endearment. Our relationship, aside from nomenclature, was like a father and son: I always went to the parents’ meetings at his school, we did his homework together, I put him to bed, common things between parents and children.
And I did it for love. Sean is the son I never had from my first marriage. Our relationship has always been very strong, one of conversation, of love, of learning, of orientation, support, and protection.
From the first day we spent together and decided to become a family, it became my exclusive obligation to support my family financially. I became responsible to pay for the costs of the maid, food, housing, school, and leisure. We always went on vacation. Sean was able to see Europe at my side, and to be enchanted by Paris and Eurodisney.
We had the best family in the world for four and a half long years, one where everything was love, hugs, and respect. There were never any fights, any crying, not a single moment of unhappiness. Bruna, who also registered her marriage to the North American in Brazil, asked for a divorce in the Brazilian court, an act in line with the law. The American was formally notified by a judicial official in Brasilia. Bruna divorced and we were finally able to officially marry. Our wedding took place on September 1, 2007.
At our wedding, a marriage certificate was signed by Bruna, me, and witnesses, as the law states, but in a pure act of spontaneity, Sean asked to sign it too, which really moved us, and it’s on the legal certification as can be proved by photos from the wedding. Sean was there and witnessed and approved our union.
Four months after the wedding, Bruna got pregnant again. I would have liked her to get pregnant sooner, but she questioned it, saying this time she would like to be pregnant after being formally married so they wouldn’t think she was just getting married because she was pregnant.
Bruna had a perfect pregnancy without any apparent problems. Sean watched as his mother’s belly grew each day. We were so happy when we found out it was a girl.
With her talent, Bruna became a fashion businesswoman making children’s clothes, and opened a very successful business, a store for girls called BISI. The dream of having a girl came true and she said she would make clothes for the little girl. In four years we had four stores in the best parts of Rio de Janeiro.
Scheduled to be born on August 21, 2008, Chiara decided to be born on that day. The birth took place apparently without any problems. Unfortunately, there were complications and failures that don’t deserve to be mentioned here.
My beloved Bruna, my life, the mother of my two children, died the morning of August 22, hours after giving birth to our daughter Chiara. She left me with the two greatest gifts of life: Sean and Chiara. Bruna died at age 34.
Sean – a BRAZILIAN CITIZEN – has been in Brazil since June 2004. He has been in Brazil much more time than he spent outside the country, without taking into account the time he spent abroad was when he was very little and he doesn’t remember much about it.
Sean has been under my care since January 2005, in a relationship of father and son. Today, he speaks very little English and recognizes his family –his support and nuclear family – as me, his affective father, and his sister, his biological connection to his mother.
For all those years, the North American never tried to visit us for even a day. The first year Sean spent in Brazil, he rarely called, maybe two times, on days like Sean’s birthday and Christmas. For the last two birthdays, Sean didn’t receive even a phone call, since in 2007 and 2008 we never received any contact by phone.
In the first two years, contact was limited to sending emails to my wife’s account in English to a child who couldn’t even read yet in Portuguese. We received presents one or two times, sent by the paternal grandmother with a simple card signed only by the grandmother.
During all this time the American claims he was in Brazil four or five times. In none of these occasions did he try to see us, formally or informally. He never asked for visitation rights in court, although he was answering to the custody request, after taking the legal initiative in Brazil. In fact, we found out about his presence in Brazil from our lawyers, with whom he was with on the day of the trial.
We also found out that he was in the courts lobbying with some Supreme Court judges. I repeat: at no moment did he even call our house warning us that he’d be here. He preferred to visit Sean’s judges.
Right after my beloved wife died, I decided to take the legal initiative to ask for custody of Sean, since I already took care of him and had a father-like relationship with him, a son of more than four years. I received custody after the State Public Ministry ruled in my favor.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t imagine what was coming. Right after Bruna’s seventh day mass, I received word that the American was in Brazil, and had gotten in touch with my lawyers.
My question: WOULD HE HAVE COME IF BRUNA HADN’T DIED???
Judging from the history of his actions, it’s obvious he wouldn’t have.
Even without having made visual contact in four and a half years, he decided to go after his biological son. The request was made through the family court judge, who based on experience and following the Public Ministry’s understanding of the case denied the visit, temporarily, keeping in mind the family’s moment of pain and his absence for so many years. He understood that such a visit could take place after social and psychological studied, all in Sean’s best interests.
After that legal decision, our life became hell.
This American hired, through his lawyers, a media consultant, even though the case was protected by the secrecy of justice. He began to spread his lies to the Brazilian media, as if his life in the US had been a fairy tale. He said that he had come innumerous times to Brazil and that “the family had prevented access.” He called Bruna a bigamist, an adulterer, and a child kidnapper – even after several sentences – and without Bruna being able to defend herself.
He put a letter on the Internet which accused the Brazilian courts of being corrupt, saying we’d paid all the judges, and that our courts don’t deserve credit. Unbelievably absurd!
And that’s not all. Upon returning to the US, he went after his country’s media. He disclosed the whole story, he gave an interview telling his lies about the facts. He revealed my name and my family’s name, calling me a child abductor.
He created a site on the Internet where he tells his version of the story, where there’s a link where people have access to my email and my father’s email. From there, people began to write me, slandering me. I received hundreds of emails, telling me to burn in hell, that I’m a criminal. Along with the link, they show a series of emails at the Brazilian embassy, the courts, the Executive Powers, pressuring people through the American public opinion to take political action against me and my family, using as an excuse Sean’s return to the US after four and a half years of doing nothing.
AS IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH, THE AMERICAN ASKS FOR FINANCIAL DONATIONS ON HIS SITE WHERE HE ACCEPTS CREDIT CARDS!
As if it wasn’t enough to create products with Sean’s face on it when he was two years old that serve as a stamp on mugs, cooking aprons, tee-shirts of all kinds with sayings like Brazil doesn’t follow the law, that Sean should be returned to his country, etc, completely absurd facts and appeals that serve as a way to sustain the American, for him to make money since he has no job.
It’s important to mention that he says he never calls because supposedly, the family wouldn’t accept collect calls. How could he expect to raise a child that barely remembers his American past, without any money to even call his biological son?
What’s more, on Orkut, an Internet community popular with young Brazilians, there’s a community created by children that like my wife’s store, which began to release videos and photos accusing Bruna of being a kidnapper, sending these documents to Brazilian CHILDREN, without even thinking about the consequences or evaluating the gravity of this act!
Take note that if he had really been suffering or interested he wouldn’t have begun to scream four and a half years later. He would have done it a week after Bruna came to Brazil!!!
The American appears to be full of good intentions. However, he doesn’t tell the Brazilian press, nor the American press, much less on his website, that he ACCUSED BY IN-LAWS OF PARTICIPATING IN A SUPPOSED INTERNATIONAL KIDNAPPING, IN A CASE IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THAT THERE THEY MADE A DEAL IN FRONT OF A JUDGE WHICH RECINDED HIS COMPLAINT FOR THE BEAUTIFUL AMOUNT OF US$150,000 (ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS)!!! All of this duly recognized by an American judge!
I repeat: would the guy have showed up if Bruna hadn’t died??? NEVER!!! He came because he smelled money, keeping in mind the eventual inheritance Sean would receive.
It’s important to point out that during those four and a half years, the American never sent us A SINGLE PENNY. All of Sean’s costs of living were paid for by me and Bruna. We never took the initiative to charge him for food, there’s no legal case of that kind at all. Just like there was no court order asking for and requiring him to visit Sean. So why did he come four and a half years later??? Only because Bruna died? He wasn’t satisfied with the agreement?
The American also didn’t say that he lived in a house bought with Bruna’s money. He lives with a roof over his head that’s not his, for free. He doesn’t say that he falsified Bruna’s signature on several checks from her bank account in order to gain access to the money she’d left when she returned to Brazil. He doesn’t mention any of that.
On the contrary, he makes a sad face, that of a father in trouble. Unfortunately, his acting moved the American government, which began to pressure the Brazilian Central Authority. Motivated by reasons of which I am unaware, the Secretary of Human Rights in MY COUNTRY forced the Union, through the General Advocacy Union, which is paid for by our taxes, to make a legal decision.
Today I’m the DEFENDANT IN A CASE AGAINST THE UNION WHICH PLEADS FOR SEAN’S RETURN AND VISITATION IN FAVOR OF A NORTH AMERICAN!!!!! Even though he request was made by the Family Judge and even though the return request was repeated, whose merit was already judged in the STJ! The Union pleads the right as a PRIVATE favor of an AMERICAN AGAINST A BRAZILIAN who is being massacred by the press, who can’t sleep at night, that is obligated to get court orders so that the story will be silenced, even though it’s already protected by the secrecy of justice.
My country can’t act against a REAL BRAZILIAN FATHER, TO THE POINT OF GETTING INVOLVED IN A COMPLETELY PRIVATE MATTER. AT WHAT POINT HAVE WE FOUND OURSELVES???? WE ARE THEN SUBJECTS TO THE INTEREST OF A FOREIGNER ABOVE US, INCLUDING THE DECISIONS OF OUR COURTS? WOULD I HAVE RECEIVED THE SAME TREATMENT IF THIS HAD HAPPENED IN THE US?
I feel completely vulnerable. The American, right now, must be creating political tricks to harm my family, a person that shouldn’t receive any credit for being completely absent. To make a child is good, but to be responsible for taking care of him and raising him requires more dedication, and my love for Sean is no different than the love I feel for Chiara.
Bruna was very loved. When she died we took out a page in the newspaper to announce her mass. At her burial, which wasn’t publicized by the media, we had more than a thousand friends there. Bruna always believed in Brazil and it was here that she made her real family. Our courts understand this situation to be in Sean’s best interests, for him to stay here. Sean has a biological sister now, and the Union, pressuring or not, appears to want to forget the decision made by our maximum Court, and on account of Bruna’s death, to plead on the basis of a kidnapping, Sean’s return to the US, after he spent so much time in Brazil. They forget that Sean is BRAZILIAN!!! THAT EVEN THOUGH HE WASN’T BORN IN OUR BELOVED LAND, HE LOVES HIS BRAZIL LIKE FEW DO.
It wasn’t our fault that he lost his connection to the US. It wasn’t for our misdoing, it wasn’t for our absence. We can’t become defendants now, accused of being kidnappers, to go to a meeting in the interests of a North American. Where have we found ourselves? That Sean is more American than Brazilian?? Or is it that it’s better to be an American?? When will these political pressures serve as an excuse for the AGU to take an initiative in favor of a “gringo’s” private interests against a LEGITIMATE BRAZILIAN FAMILY???
Sean, ever since his mother died, has been receiving psychological help to aid him through a difficult time. Psychologist Maria Helena Bartolo has always confidently affirmed that Sean, due to the failure of initiative on his biological father’s part, lost the connection to his American past, since he doesn’t speak the language anymore and since he came to Brazil so young. Sean arrived just after he turned four. If you take into account that a child has little to no memory of his first years of life, it’s easy to understand that Sean can’t remember events and people –even family—in the US.
According to the psychologist, Sean’s formal memory is of his mother at my side, of a happy and pleasant home. Sean lived at my side for practically 60% of his life, since he will turn 9 in May, more time than he spent in the US. When he was questioned about his life in the US, he remembers few details, including arguments and fights that frequently occurred due to a failed marriage.
It’s important to emphasize that I, as the socio-affective father, am only interested in my son Sean’s well-being, nothing more than that. It’s devastating to see his innocent image on mugs sold on the Internet where no one knows where the money goes. Sean is being exposed inconsequently to the world, without taking account the negative consequences this can bring to a growing child. The secrecy of justice is disrespected daily, with all of the photos and information thrown around by the media without any criteria, with the only goal to create controversy and to sell newspapers.
What is the objective of all of these attacks against a Brazilian family? There was never any intention of preventing healthy contact and habitation [with the father]. As such, at the first opportunity which occurred recently, I, as the guardian, offered the visit that took place. Sean’s psychologist can testify to this fact, and told me that Sean was curious, but after a few hours, was uncomfortable. She repeated that in some sessions he wants to have a normal life, without afflictions or risks of being taken from Brazil without being heard, that he wants to stay with his affective father that he loves so, and at his sister’s side, his only connection to his deceased mother. Obviously she doesn’t deny that he doesn’t demonstrate interest in maintaining contact with his biological father, but that he wants to do it in a health and balanced way.
However, there’s a real fear in the family that due to North American political pressures, through the Consulate, that the minor’s interests will be put on the back burner. It doesn’t really matter if the biological father was absent for five years. It doesn’t matter if Sean has a biological sister. It doesn’t matter if he is loved here and wants to stay in the place he calls home, where he goes to school. It doesn’t matter that he is BRAZILIAN. We are essentially running the risk of seeing our highest law that we respect, before everything, the child’s best interest, being violated, torn up, thrown away by North American political interests. They want to use the boy as an example. Example of what? It’s not enough that he was orphaned at age 8, and now, about to be taken from his house, his home, the people he lived with and who cared for him for five years, from daily living with the sister he loves, from his grandparents, his uncles and aunts, and friends?? Where is the best interest of the child??? Or does it deal with the best interest of the US, the American ambassador, of Hillary Clinton?
We don’t even know if the version told outside of Brazil is true. The facts are innumerous and here we have millions of papers that prove, unfortunately, the character of the biological father that never had a real job and was sustained by my wife for the years they were married. If by using the lack of the secrecy of justice in the US to sell himself as a poor little thing, when in reality the only person being penalized in this story is Sean, who runs the risk of losing everything that really makes him feel safe. Sean barely speaks English, and doesn’t speak fluently like they try to show!!!
With great fear and to avoid the rights and interests of a son being completely and grossly violated, it is the socio-affective father – that never ran away from his responsibility of sustaining a child for most of his life only and exclusively for LOVE – asks this Council to analyze and protect the rights of a Brazilian child that has already suffered a lot, and that today is distressed and suffering due to a disastrous and inconsequential international political game – whose foreign political interests seem to be above our law, and if that wasn’t enough, above the greater interest of a Brazilian child, the ONLY VICTIM, that will suffer the serious emotional consequences, in the event that this council doesn’t intervene.
Rio de Janeiro, March 5, 2009
Joao Paulo Lins e Silva – OAB/RJ
source
Haylee Donathan's Grandmother Granted Custody
Update: There will not be an Amber Alert, instead law enforcement issued a Missing Child Alert because they could not confirm the abduction. The grandmother has custody, the mother hasn't brought her back...that's an abduction if I ever heard of one. Especially when you factor in the pervert. A Missing Child Alert is an Amber Alert without the Emergency Broadcast System.The grandmother of little Haylee Donathan was granted emergency custody of the child. A pair of local attorneys represented Mary Watson for free. Now that Ms. Watson has custody of Haylee, law enforcement can issue an Amber Alert because the girl's mother is guilty of parental kidnapping or at least interfering with a custody order. The hands of law enforcement were tied because it is believed that Candace Watson willingly took Haylee on the run with Robbi Potter. And in this country it is not illegal to have one's children around child molesters, even though it should be. The safety and welfare of children should be paramount over parental rights.
Now the information regarding Haylee's disappearance can be broadcast over television and radio, and most important on the electronic billboards that line the roads. There have been a couple of sightings, but they all came to late to save the little girl.
Robbi Potter was in a halfway house after being convicted in 2006 of two counts of sexual battery against two children, ages 7 and 9. So you know that little Haylee is in danger. What kind of woman would put their child in that kind of danger? I can't wrap my head around the thought process that makes her think that he has done it to other children, but I am so special he won't do it to my child.
Potter and Watson are driving a black and green, 1988 Chevrolet truck with the license number ENS9729. They were last seen in Colorado. If you see the truck call 866-4-WANTED or text "potter" with your information to 847411.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Robbi Potter's Truck Spotted In Colorado
A nationwide manhunt for fugitive sex offender Robbi Potter, who is believed traveling with a small child and her mother, is now centered in Colorado, the U.S. Marshal's Service said today.
A surveillance camera at an Ampride gas station in Stratton showed pictures of the vehicle that authorities believe Potter is driving refueling at the station on June 2.
Potter is believed to be with his girlfriend, Candace Watson, 24, and her three-year-old daughter, Haylee Elizabeth Jade Donathan.
Potter is wanted on both state and federal warrants for parole violations.
The surveillance footage from the Stratton station shows a woman, who investigators believe is Candace Watson, attempting to purchase fuel at the gas pump. Neither Potter nor Haylee were seen in the footage. (Is she still with them? Have they done something to her? Little kids have to be fed, they have to be taking her out of the truck to use the bathroom. Why has no one seen her?)
Andrew Deserto, a chief deputy U.S. Marshal, said that investigators are doing everything they can to find Potter and believe there is a likelihood that Potter, his girlfriend and the child are inColorado.
"He is a convicted sex offender — the most dangerous kind — committing sex offenses against minors," said Deserto.
"We want to get the little girl and want the guy caught and put him where he belongs," he added.
Deserto said that Potter walked away from a halfway house and is wanted for escape. (Am I the only person wondering if this guy is so dangerous, why wasn't he wearing a tracking anklet?)
The footage from Stratton is the last confirmed sighting of the truck since it was previously seen at a Wal-Mart in Marion, Ohio, on May 31.
Potter walked away from a Mansfield, Ohio, halfway house on May 28.
The truck is a 1988 two-tone black and green Chevrolet pickup truck with Ohio plate ENS9729. The truck has running boards along the sides and orange lights along the top of the front windshield visor.
"Our task force is working around the clock to locate this fugitive and ensure the safety of this little child," said U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott. "We ask anyone with information to please contact our hotline immediately and help us bring a peaceful
Haylee Donathan ( | )
end to this intensive manhunt."
The U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Fugitive Task Force is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Potter's arrest. Anyone with information should call the toll free hotline: (866) 4WANTED. Callers may remain anonymous.
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David Goldman Marks 5th Anniversary Of Son's Abduction
Supporters of David Goldman's efforts to bring his 9-year-old son home from Brazil will hold a candlelight vigil Tuesday night at Riversides Garden Park.
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Supports of David Goldman's efforts to bring his 9-year-old son home from Brazil will hold a candlelight vigil Tuesday night at Riversides Garden Park.
Goldman, of Tinton Falls, has been fighting for five years to win the return of his son, Sean, to the United States. Sean lives with his stepfather in Rio de Janeiro, who has been fighting Goldman's quest for custody. Sean was taken by Goldman's wife to Brazil, where she divorced him and married the stepfather. She died last year during childbirth.
A Brazilian court granted Goldman custody of Sean two weeks ago, but that decision has been stayed pending an appeal. The case has attracted attention from President Barack Obama.
The candlelight vigil Tuesday will mark the five-year anniversary of Sean being taken to Brazil. Groups will be gathering in various cities, according to Bring Sean Home, a group that supports David Goldman. The events will run an hour, and will not only be a vigil for Sean but for the other children currently being held abroad, according to the group.
The local vigil will be held at 8 p.m. Riverside Gardens Park, 54 West Front St., Red Bank. The group asks that you bring your own candle and matches/lighters, and if you have extras, bring them as well.
You can read more information about the group and vigil at http://bringseanhome.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1490
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Supports of David Goldman's efforts to bring his 9-year-old son home from Brazil will hold a candlelight vigil Tuesday night at Riversides Garden Park.
Goldman, of Tinton Falls, has been fighting for five years to win the return of his son, Sean, to the United States. Sean lives with his stepfather in Rio de Janeiro, who has been fighting Goldman's quest for custody. Sean was taken by Goldman's wife to Brazil, where she divorced him and married the stepfather. She died last year during childbirth.
A Brazilian court granted Goldman custody of Sean two weeks ago, but that decision has been stayed pending an appeal. The case has attracted attention from President Barack Obama.
The candlelight vigil Tuesday will mark the five-year anniversary of Sean being taken to Brazil. Groups will be gathering in various cities, according to Bring Sean Home, a group that supports David Goldman. The events will run an hour, and will not only be a vigil for Sean but for the other children currently being held abroad, according to the group.
The local vigil will be held at 8 p.m. Riverside Gardens Park, 54 West Front St., Red Bank. The group asks that you bring your own candle and matches/lighters, and if you have extras, bring them as well.
You can read more information about the group and vigil at http://bringseanhome.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1490
Where Is Haylee Donathan
A nationwide manhunt is underway for a convicted sex offender, his girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter.
According to U.S. Marshals, 27-year-old Robbie Douglas Potter escaped from a halfway house in Mansfield last month with the help of his girlfriend, 24-year-old Candace Watson.
Authorities believe Potter is on the run with Watson and her daughter Haylee. Federal arrests warrants are out for both Watson and Potter.
"Our major concern in this case is little Haylee, she's the innocent victim here," says Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Fitzgibbon.
Potter is a Tier 3 sex offender, the most serious classification. Fitzgibbon says Potter was ordered to stay away from minors.
Investigators believe the couple is driving a two-tone Chevy pickup truck with temporary Ohio plate Q645916. Investigators say the truck has a lightning bolt design on the sides and decals on the back window.
Anyone with information is being asked to call (866)4-WANTED. A $10,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information leading to an arrest.
What kind of mother takes off with a convicted child rapist? Is the desire to have a man in her life just completely blinding her to the danger that she is putting her child in? How do you even start to rationalize that?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
David Goldman Headed Back To Brazil To Fight For His Son
While Brazilian courts deliberate the constitutionality of returningkidnapped U.S. boy Sean Goldman to his father David, one U.S. congressman is floating the idea of imposing harsh trade restrictions on Brazil until the boy is back in his father's custody
Goldman will travel to Brazil Tuesday night to attend the Supreme Court hearing tomorrow regarding the custody of his son Sean, Rep. Chris Smith (D-N.J.) told ABC News.
"Moral persuasion only goes so far," Smith told "Good Morning America" today. "They need to follow the Hague Convention. This is probably the quintessential case of child kidnapping. ... They have failed. ... What else is left?
"We have to say that preferential trade ... will be suspended from Brazil unless they resolve the Goldman case and get on the right path for other outstanding cases."
Smith's unorthodox proposal would cost Brazil billions of dollars in duty-free benefits in one year alone, Smith said.
"I wrote human trafficking laws; they have to have economic bite," Smith said. "Using trade [as a] lever gets the attention of offending countries."
While David Goldman's crusade to get his son back has topped headlines recently, his case is one of more than 60 cases of child abduction in Brazil and nearly 2,000 around the world.
"[David Goldman] has helped so many other people by his bravery and tenacity," Smith said. "It takes pressure on the highest levels to say, 'This is a matter of fundamental human rights and justice.'"
For the father who has been battling the Brazilian government for nearly five years to bring his kidnapped son back to the United States, getting back on the plane to New Jersey without Sean last week was devastating, especially when he had come so close.
"It's very lonely," Goldman told "Good Morning America" this morning, shortly after landing at the Newark Liberty International Airport after a judge unexpectedly reversed a decision that had given Goldman custody of his now 9-year-old son.
Sean has been living with his stepfather since the 2008 death of his mother Bruna Bianchi, who took Sean to her native Brazil on vacation in 2004 and never returned. She divorced Goldman while in Brazil and married Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, a Rio de Janeiro lawyer.
Goldman had been awarded custody of Sean last week, but a single judge from Brazil's Supreme Court then suspended a lower court's order that the boy immediately be returned to his father.
"I'm going to keep the fight like I always have," Goldman said. "There's only one choice and that's to keep going until my son comes home [to New Jersey].
Goldman blamed resistance from a small political party in Brazil for the overturned decision. The group, he said, argued that the Hague Convention, which says all children taken unlawfully to another country must be immediately returned, was unconstitutional in Brazil.
There are 10 other justices on Brazil's Supreme Court. They are expected to rule on the appeal Wednesday.
While Goldman said he has gotten a number of letters and e-mails of support from Brazilian citizens, he's hoping the government will realize the public relations nightmare this case could cause if Sean is not returned.
"Brazil doesn't want to be known as a place that's going to keep other countries' and other fathers' and other mothers' children," he said.
Goldman said he's careful not to share too many details with his son during their visits together. Instead, Goldman said he works diligently to make Sean understand that he never abandoned him, something he says the boy's Brazilian family has told him.
"My point of my time with him is to reassure him how much I love him," Goldman said. "Just to look him in the eye and tell him I love him and hug him.
"Our moments are precious," he said. "We laugh and we play, and I wish it could continue."
The case has attracted a great deal of attention from U.S. political leaders, including members of the House and Senate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama, who raised the issue of the boy's return under the Hague Convention with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Attorneys for the mother's family argue that returning Sean to his father after almost five years would cause psychological harm to the boy and say that, if he is brought back to the United States, the transition should be more gradual.
source
Goldman will travel to Brazil Tuesday night to attend the Supreme Court hearing tomorrow regarding the custody of his son Sean, Rep. Chris Smith (D-N.J.) told ABC News.
"Moral persuasion only goes so far," Smith told "Good Morning America" today. "They need to follow the Hague Convention. This is probably the quintessential case of child kidnapping. ... They have failed. ... What else is left?
"We have to say that preferential trade ... will be suspended from Brazil unless they resolve the Goldman case and get on the right path for other outstanding cases."
Smith's unorthodox proposal would cost Brazil billions of dollars in duty-free benefits in one year alone, Smith said.
"I wrote human trafficking laws; they have to have economic bite," Smith said. "Using trade [as a] lever gets the attention of offending countries."
While David Goldman's crusade to get his son back has topped headlines recently, his case is one of more than 60 cases of child abduction in Brazil and nearly 2,000 around the world.
"[David Goldman] has helped so many other people by his bravery and tenacity," Smith said. "It takes pressure on the highest levels to say, 'This is a matter of fundamental human rights and justice.'"
For the father who has been battling the Brazilian government for nearly five years to bring his kidnapped son back to the United States, getting back on the plane to New Jersey without Sean last week was devastating, especially when he had come so close.
"It's very lonely," Goldman told "Good Morning America" this morning, shortly after landing at the Newark Liberty International Airport after a judge unexpectedly reversed a decision that had given Goldman custody of his now 9-year-old son.
Sean has been living with his stepfather since the 2008 death of his mother Bruna Bianchi, who took Sean to her native Brazil on vacation in 2004 and never returned. She divorced Goldman while in Brazil and married Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, a Rio de Janeiro lawyer.
Goldman had been awarded custody of Sean last week, but a single judge from Brazil's Supreme Court then suspended a lower court's order that the boy immediately be returned to his father.
"I'm going to keep the fight like I always have," Goldman said. "There's only one choice and that's to keep going until my son comes home [to New Jersey].
Goldman blamed resistance from a small political party in Brazil for the overturned decision. The group, he said, argued that the Hague Convention, which says all children taken unlawfully to another country must be immediately returned, was unconstitutional in Brazil.
There are 10 other justices on Brazil's Supreme Court. They are expected to rule on the appeal Wednesday.
While Goldman said he has gotten a number of letters and e-mails of support from Brazilian citizens, he's hoping the government will realize the public relations nightmare this case could cause if Sean is not returned.
"Brazil doesn't want to be known as a place that's going to keep other countries' and other fathers' and other mothers' children," he said.
Goldman said he's careful not to share too many details with his son during their visits together. Instead, Goldman said he works diligently to make Sean understand that he never abandoned him, something he says the boy's Brazilian family has told him.
"My point of my time with him is to reassure him how much I love him," Goldman said. "Just to look him in the eye and tell him I love him and hug him.
"Our moments are precious," he said. "We laugh and we play, and I wish it could continue."
The case has attracted a great deal of attention from U.S. political leaders, including members of the House and Senate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama, who raised the issue of the boy's return under the Hague Convention with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Attorneys for the mother's family argue that returning Sean to his father after almost five years would cause psychological harm to the boy and say that, if he is brought back to the United States, the transition should be more gradual.
source
Monday, June 8, 2009
David Goldman Update 8 June
A New Jersey man at the center of an international child custody battle spoke out about the toll the legal struggle has had on his 9-year-old son. The boy, now living in Brazil, feels torn between his father and the relatives with whom he now lives.
Daniel Goldman said Friday he thinks his son Sean is being "emotionally damaged." Goldman is worried because three court psychologists who examined Sean claim the boy is being pressured by something called parental alienation.
Goldman has seen his son only three times in the past 5 years. He said Sean's bedroom in New Jersey is ready and waiting for him when he comes home.
Goldman's wife took Sean to Brazil in 2004. She died last year in childbirth, and the boy has been living with his mother's new husband.
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Friday, June 5, 2009
David Goldman Still Hopes To Get Custody
A New Jersey man whose son is at the center of a five-year international custody fight that has attracted attention from high-level U.S. and Brazilian authorities expressed hope Wednesday that he will get his boy back.
"I always keep hope, but I don't really expect it, given the things that always happen," David Goldman told CNN on what he said was his 10th or 11th trip to Brazil to regain custody of 9-year-old Sean Richard Goldman. "Until the wheels are up, I don't expect it and it's tragic."
David Goldman's comments came after a Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday suspended a lower court's order that would have granted Sean's custody to the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, where father and son were to reunite Wednesday.
Judge Marco Aurelio wrote in his decision that taking Sean "in an abrupt manner" from his home could cause the boy psychological harm.
But Goldman said the boy was suffering psychological harm simply by remaining with his Brazilian relatives, whom Goldman accused of turning his son against him.
"According to the expert reports, they've already been doing that for some time and that's very, very sad," said Goldman, who captains boats and works part-time as a model. "The worst is -- he's my son, I'm his dad, and I can't help him. The legal system here right now is preventing me from helping my child."
The incident began in June 2004, when Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro, took Sean from the family's New Jersey home for what was to have been a two-week vacation in her native Brazil.
But instead of returning, she divorced Goldman, married Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, a Brazilian lawyer, and remained in Brazil. She died there last September giving birth to a daughter.
Sean attends a private school and lives in a sprawling home in Rio with his half-sister and his stepfather.
Recently, after nearly five years without seeing his child, Goldman began visiting him. "He asked me where have I been for this amount of time. How come I never came to visit him?" Goldman said.
On CNN's "Larry King Live" Wednesday, Goldman said that public prosecutors and psychiatrists have declared the boy "emotionally damaged," and added, "He needs to be reunited with me immediately."
In March, a spokesman for the boy's Brazilian relatives said he did not dispute the father's biological rights, but said other matters needed to be weighed. "The fact of the matter is that, in order to be a parent, you have to be more than a DNA donor," said Helvecio Ribeiro. "Fatherhood is not about making home movies and taking pictures. It's about sacrifice; it's about providing support for your child; it's about being there even when you are not there."
He said Goldman had failed to do that, and accused him of having "paid not a dime of child support" and made allegations "all over the place about us not allowing him to visit the child that are completely untrue."
Goldman responded, "Can you take someone's child to another country and then expect the parent to support you in the abduction of the child?"
He said he had been making tireless efforts since his son was "abducted" to have him repatriated, "never, ever stopping."
Goldman said the case sends the wrong message to the world about Brazil's legal system. "They're sending this message that anyone can take any child from anywhere, come to Brazil and if they can hide enough or stall enough or keep the child here long enough then they're entitled to that child? That's unacceptable."
Tuesday night's decision, which means the entire Brazilian Supreme Court will hear the case, comes a day after a Superior Court justice ordered Sean to be taken to the U.S. Consulate in Rio and handed over to his father, who had arrived early Tuesday from New Jersey to pick him up. The exchange was to have taken place on Wednesday.
The case has attracted attention from politicians. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Brazil's foreign minister Wednesday. A senior State Department official said the case was the first thing they talked about.
"We are disappointed by the decision," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Wednesday. "But U.S. Embassy officials continue to work with the family, and will meet with Brazilian attorneys and Mr. Goldman's attorney to learn next steps in the legal process."
A lawyer representing the boy's Brazilian relatives said earlier this week, when it appeared that he would be returned to the United States, that doing so would harm him. "The child said many times that he wanted to stay in Brazil," said lawyer Sergio Tostes. "This is not human and it is a cruelty."
Meanwhile, Goldman was not giving up. "My focus is to do everything I can, through every legal means in all matters of law, to reunite with my son and bring him home," he said.
According to the U.S. State Department, 66 American-born children have been taken by a parent to Brazil, in violation of international treaties.
I think that a lot of this has to do with the prominent step-father. If it were just an Average Joe step-father, this boy would have been returned right after his mother died. And how do you actually expect child support after you have kidnapped your child.
source
"I always keep hope, but I don't really expect it, given the things that always happen," David Goldman told CNN on what he said was his 10th or 11th trip to Brazil to regain custody of 9-year-old Sean Richard Goldman. "Until the wheels are up, I don't expect it and it's tragic."
David Goldman's comments came after a Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday suspended a lower court's order that would have granted Sean's custody to the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, where father and son were to reunite Wednesday.
Judge Marco Aurelio wrote in his decision that taking Sean "in an abrupt manner" from his home could cause the boy psychological harm.
But Goldman said the boy was suffering psychological harm simply by remaining with his Brazilian relatives, whom Goldman accused of turning his son against him.
"According to the expert reports, they've already been doing that for some time and that's very, very sad," said Goldman, who captains boats and works part-time as a model. "The worst is -- he's my son, I'm his dad, and I can't help him. The legal system here right now is preventing me from helping my child."
The incident began in June 2004, when Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro, took Sean from the family's New Jersey home for what was to have been a two-week vacation in her native Brazil.
But instead of returning, she divorced Goldman, married Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, a Brazilian lawyer, and remained in Brazil. She died there last September giving birth to a daughter.
Sean attends a private school and lives in a sprawling home in Rio with his half-sister and his stepfather.
Recently, after nearly five years without seeing his child, Goldman began visiting him. "He asked me where have I been for this amount of time. How come I never came to visit him?" Goldman said.
On CNN's "Larry King Live" Wednesday, Goldman said that public prosecutors and psychiatrists have declared the boy "emotionally damaged," and added, "He needs to be reunited with me immediately."
In March, a spokesman for the boy's Brazilian relatives said he did not dispute the father's biological rights, but said other matters needed to be weighed. "The fact of the matter is that, in order to be a parent, you have to be more than a DNA donor," said Helvecio Ribeiro. "Fatherhood is not about making home movies and taking pictures. It's about sacrifice; it's about providing support for your child; it's about being there even when you are not there."
He said Goldman had failed to do that, and accused him of having "paid not a dime of child support" and made allegations "all over the place about us not allowing him to visit the child that are completely untrue."
Goldman responded, "Can you take someone's child to another country and then expect the parent to support you in the abduction of the child?"
He said he had been making tireless efforts since his son was "abducted" to have him repatriated, "never, ever stopping."
Goldman said the case sends the wrong message to the world about Brazil's legal system. "They're sending this message that anyone can take any child from anywhere, come to Brazil and if they can hide enough or stall enough or keep the child here long enough then they're entitled to that child? That's unacceptable."
Tuesday night's decision, which means the entire Brazilian Supreme Court will hear the case, comes a day after a Superior Court justice ordered Sean to be taken to the U.S. Consulate in Rio and handed over to his father, who had arrived early Tuesday from New Jersey to pick him up. The exchange was to have taken place on Wednesday.
The case has attracted attention from politicians. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Brazil's foreign minister Wednesday. A senior State Department official said the case was the first thing they talked about.
"We are disappointed by the decision," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Wednesday. "But U.S. Embassy officials continue to work with the family, and will meet with Brazilian attorneys and Mr. Goldman's attorney to learn next steps in the legal process."
A lawyer representing the boy's Brazilian relatives said earlier this week, when it appeared that he would be returned to the United States, that doing so would harm him. "The child said many times that he wanted to stay in Brazil," said lawyer Sergio Tostes. "This is not human and it is a cruelty."
Meanwhile, Goldman was not giving up. "My focus is to do everything I can, through every legal means in all matters of law, to reunite with my son and bring him home," he said.
According to the U.S. State Department, 66 American-born children have been taken by a parent to Brazil, in violation of international treaties.
I think that a lot of this has to do with the prominent step-father. If it were just an Average Joe step-father, this boy would have been returned right after his mother died. And how do you actually expect child support after you have kidnapped your child.
source
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Neveah Buchanan Update 4 June
The 64-year-old grandfather who was questioned and then cleared in the disappearance of Nevaeh Buchanan told The Blade Tuesday he was wrongly targeted by police and forced to sleep on the floor in a jail cell.
James Easter said his only connection to the missing 5-year-old girl was a visit he made to the North McComb Street apartments where she went missing 10 days ago.
“Because I park where they found the scooter, they used that for the thing to say I must have been the one because the scooter was near where I parked,” he said.
Mr. Easter was arrested early Saturday and taken into custody as a “person of interest” in the girl’s disappearance after he started a fire in the backyard of his Oak Street home. (That is the problem with naming persons of interest, a lot of time the police are wrong and put out the names of innocent people.)
He was released Monday night from the Monroe County jail after he posted $250 bond for a misdemeanor charge related to the fire.
Nevaeh was reported missing by her mother, Jennifer Buchanan, about 8:30 p.m. May 24. She was last seen riding the scooter in the parking lot outside of the Charlotte Arms apartments.
Mr. Easter said he drove to the apartment complex in the days after the girl’s disappearance to pick up his girlfriend, Janie Austin, a resident of the complex, because she needed a ride to go shopping. He said that visit may have raised the suspicions of investigators.
Ms. Austin declined to comment Tuesday night.
Mr. Easter said he was unjustly treated by authorities and said FBI agents and the task force investigating the missing girl owe him an apology. “I kept telling them I did not do this thing,” he said.
He said authorities had dropped him off at his home early Saturday after questioning him about his whereabouts when Nevaeh came up missing and his activities before and after she vanished.
He said he presented receipts for purchases he made at Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Lowe’s on the days in question.
“They showed dates where I was,” he said.
After being dropped after questioning, Mr. Easter said he went into his duplex, peeked outside to make sure they were gone, and waited about 10 minutes to go outside to start a fire in a pit in the backyard.
“I happened to gather some of the receipts because they were through looking at them,” and because he wanted to have a little fire in his fire ring, he decided to burn them inside a TV dinner box, he said.
“I did not think much of it,” he added.
Within minutes, authorities arrived in his backyard, put out the fire, and took Mr. Easter into custody. (It sound shady to me.)
Boxes of items, including photographs of Mr. Easter’s granddaughter, home movies, a video camera, and receipts that he put aside because he thought they were important to police, were taken during a search of his home.
“The FBI checked to see if I had anything to do with children or playgrounds or children in any place ... What they noticed was the home movies. They were not porn. They were like my dogs in wintertime and summertime ...” he said.
In their search for potential evidence, Mr. Easter said authorities tossed furniture, and smudged walls, doors, and appliances with black fingerprint powder, and removed covers from cushions on the couch.
“This place is in shambles. Smudges all over. They left a mess,” he complained. “That’s a horrible way to check my belongings when I am not here. They did it incorrectly, and they were unjustified.”
Mr. Easter said his truck was towed from his home by authorities to comb the vehicle for DNA evidence.
“The only thing they are going to find is dog hair or possibly hair from my daughter who needed a ride to and from the Laundromat,” he said.
He said his dogs — Skeeter, Sam, and Dazz — were taken and he was told it will cost $20 each to get them back.
Mr. Easter said he told investigators that he would take a polygraph test to answer any questions because if he refused, it would make him look guilty.
He also said that during the many hours of questioning authorities asked what he believed may have happened to the girl. He said he offered them a hypothetical scenario of how an abduction of a young girl could be carried out at the apartment complex by hiding behind large trees nearby.
Mr. Easter said he became upset after learning there were rumors circulating that he had confessed to abducting Nevaeh.
He said during his almost three days in custody he was fed only bits of potatoes topped with cream cheese and small portions of ham.
“You had to wait a long time for a sip of anything,” he said.
Mr. Easter said he wasn’t given a bed, but instead was forced to lie on a washcloth- thin blanket on the cell floor that was as comfortable as sleeping on a concrete sidewalk. “I did not even have a pillow,” he said. (Jail shouldn't be comfortable, it's jail for heaven's sake.)
Monroe County Sheriff’s Capt. Dan Motylinski said he was unaware of the conditions in which authorities left Mr. Easter’s home after their search and that if Mr. Easter has issues with the way the search was conducted or his treatment while in custody at the jail, he can make a complaint with the sheriff’s office.
In a press conference Tuesday, Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield issued an appeal for the drivers of two vehicles who may be able to provide information about Nevaeh’s disappearance.
A silver minivan that witnesses said was occupied by a woman and two small children who were at Hollywood Elementary playground near the apartment complex is being sought.
Sheriff Crutchfield also asked that the driver of a green, box-style minivan that was seen in the parking lot at the elementary school come forward.
He said that the task force of local, state, and federal authorities investigating the missing girl received numerous calls about green vans near the complex, and help was needed to refine the search for the vehicle, which could be similar to a Chevrolet Astro or Ford Windstar.
“We are also asking that anyone who was at the Hollywood School playground between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. May 24 to contact us,” he said.
The reward for Neveah has grown to $20,000. I think that the police need to take a closer look at the mother, she seems oddly detached from the search for her daughter. She seems more interested in defending her choice of boyfriends. Doesn't she know that child molesters often target single moms because it easier to groom them and their children.
source
James Easter said his only connection to the missing 5-year-old girl was a visit he made to the North McComb Street apartments where she went missing 10 days ago.
“Because I park where they found the scooter, they used that for the thing to say I must have been the one because the scooter was near where I parked,” he said.
Mr. Easter was arrested early Saturday and taken into custody as a “person of interest” in the girl’s disappearance after he started a fire in the backyard of his Oak Street home. (That is the problem with naming persons of interest, a lot of time the police are wrong and put out the names of innocent people.)
He was released Monday night from the Monroe County jail after he posted $250 bond for a misdemeanor charge related to the fire.
Nevaeh was reported missing by her mother, Jennifer Buchanan, about 8:30 p.m. May 24. She was last seen riding the scooter in the parking lot outside of the Charlotte Arms apartments.
Mr. Easter said he drove to the apartment complex in the days after the girl’s disappearance to pick up his girlfriend, Janie Austin, a resident of the complex, because she needed a ride to go shopping. He said that visit may have raised the suspicions of investigators.
Ms. Austin declined to comment Tuesday night.
Mr. Easter said he was unjustly treated by authorities and said FBI agents and the task force investigating the missing girl owe him an apology. “I kept telling them I did not do this thing,” he said.
He said authorities had dropped him off at his home early Saturday after questioning him about his whereabouts when Nevaeh came up missing and his activities before and after she vanished.
He said he presented receipts for purchases he made at Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Lowe’s on the days in question.
“They showed dates where I was,” he said.
After being dropped after questioning, Mr. Easter said he went into his duplex, peeked outside to make sure they were gone, and waited about 10 minutes to go outside to start a fire in a pit in the backyard.
“I happened to gather some of the receipts because they were through looking at them,” and because he wanted to have a little fire in his fire ring, he decided to burn them inside a TV dinner box, he said.
“I did not think much of it,” he added.
Within minutes, authorities arrived in his backyard, put out the fire, and took Mr. Easter into custody. (It sound shady to me.)
Boxes of items, including photographs of Mr. Easter’s granddaughter, home movies, a video camera, and receipts that he put aside because he thought they were important to police, were taken during a search of his home.
“The FBI checked to see if I had anything to do with children or playgrounds or children in any place ... What they noticed was the home movies. They were not porn. They were like my dogs in wintertime and summertime ...” he said.
In their search for potential evidence, Mr. Easter said authorities tossed furniture, and smudged walls, doors, and appliances with black fingerprint powder, and removed covers from cushions on the couch.
“This place is in shambles. Smudges all over. They left a mess,” he complained. “That’s a horrible way to check my belongings when I am not here. They did it incorrectly, and they were unjustified.”
Mr. Easter said his truck was towed from his home by authorities to comb the vehicle for DNA evidence.
“The only thing they are going to find is dog hair or possibly hair from my daughter who needed a ride to and from the Laundromat,” he said.
He said his dogs — Skeeter, Sam, and Dazz — were taken and he was told it will cost $20 each to get them back.
Mr. Easter said he told investigators that he would take a polygraph test to answer any questions because if he refused, it would make him look guilty.
He also said that during the many hours of questioning authorities asked what he believed may have happened to the girl. He said he offered them a hypothetical scenario of how an abduction of a young girl could be carried out at the apartment complex by hiding behind large trees nearby.
Mr. Easter said he became upset after learning there were rumors circulating that he had confessed to abducting Nevaeh.
He said during his almost three days in custody he was fed only bits of potatoes topped with cream cheese and small portions of ham.
“You had to wait a long time for a sip of anything,” he said.
Mr. Easter said he wasn’t given a bed, but instead was forced to lie on a washcloth- thin blanket on the cell floor that was as comfortable as sleeping on a concrete sidewalk. “I did not even have a pillow,” he said. (Jail shouldn't be comfortable, it's jail for heaven's sake.)
Monroe County Sheriff’s Capt. Dan Motylinski said he was unaware of the conditions in which authorities left Mr. Easter’s home after their search and that if Mr. Easter has issues with the way the search was conducted or his treatment while in custody at the jail, he can make a complaint with the sheriff’s office.
In a press conference Tuesday, Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield issued an appeal for the drivers of two vehicles who may be able to provide information about Nevaeh’s disappearance.
A silver minivan that witnesses said was occupied by a woman and two small children who were at Hollywood Elementary playground near the apartment complex is being sought.
Sheriff Crutchfield also asked that the driver of a green, box-style minivan that was seen in the parking lot at the elementary school come forward.
He said that the task force of local, state, and federal authorities investigating the missing girl received numerous calls about green vans near the complex, and help was needed to refine the search for the vehicle, which could be similar to a Chevrolet Astro or Ford Windstar.
“We are also asking that anyone who was at the Hollywood School playground between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. May 24 to contact us,” he said.
The reward for Neveah has grown to $20,000. I think that the police need to take a closer look at the mother, she seems oddly detached from the search for her daughter. She seems more interested in defending her choice of boyfriends. Doesn't she know that child molesters often target single moms because it easier to groom them and their children.
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David Goldman Coming Home Without His Son
Under international law, it appears straightforward that a 9-year-old boy who has lived most of his life in Brazil should be returned to his father in New Jersey.
But after another week of legal tussles, the future remains unclear for the father, who has been fighting for years to get back the son he lost, the son who has told psychologists he wants to stay in Brazil and the boy's family in Rio de Janeiro, who have pleaded for him to stay put.
The father, David Goldman, flew to Brazil on Monday after a federal court there said his son would be handed over to him Wednesday at a U.S. consulate.
But late Tuesday, Brazil's supreme court agreed to hear a challenge to the ruling, and Goldman was planning to return home to Tinton Falls, N.J., alone, thwarted again.
The case, tangled up with diplomacy and Brazilian politics, shows the tension between the Hague Convention on international child abduction and the notion that courts should do what's best for children in custody cases.
The dispute goes back to 2004 when Bruna Goldman took her son Sean, then 4, to her native Brazil. She told her husband she'd be back in two weeks. But she stayed in Brazil and eventually remarried there.
David Goldman said it was an abduction and that he should get custody of the child.
He is asserting his rights under the Hague Convention, which seeks to protect children abducted across international boundaries by providing a procedure to bring about their return.
The case began getting international attention last year after Bruna Goldman died while giving birth to a daughter. The U.S. Congress, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama have all lobbied Brazil to return the boy.
Sean has been living with his stepfather, Rio de Janeiro lawyer Joao Paulo Lins e Silva.
Sergio Tostes, a lawyer for the Brazilian family, said the judge that ruled earlier in the week "did not consider that fact that the boy repeatedly told the psychologists that he wanted to remain in Brazil."
Justice Marco Aurelio, who suspended Sean's return, said in a statement that "I think five years were enough for roots to have been formed" by Sean in Brazil.
Mitch Spero, a psychologist in Florida, donated his time nine years ago to evaluate Elian Gonzalez, a Cuban-born boy who was living with relatives in Miami before President Bill Clinton ordered that he be returned to his father in Cuba.
Spero said that while laws and treaties should be followed, it's also important to consider what's best for the child. Without knowing the specifics of the Goldman case, he said a hasty return to the U.S. might not be the best thing.
"Since his mother passed away, losing contact with the stepfather would be another loss for the child," Spero said. Separating Sean from his baby sister could also be a problem, Spero said.
Spero says that the best approach would be to have a transition of custody.
And that's what the Brazilian court decision earlier in the week sought to do: have Sean spend part of his time with his maternal grandparents in New Jersey before living full-time with his father.
The court's other 10 justices are expected to analyze Aurelio's decision by June 10. If they agree with him, they will begin the long process of deciding who has custody.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who has traveled with Goldman to Brazil, said the Hague Convention does not allow for an analysis of what's in the child's best interest. But he said that even if it did, the courts should find that his biological father should have custody.
Smith said that Goldman did get to visit with his son Wednesday.
Goldman told NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday that he was again disappointed with the Brazilian courts. "He's got to come home with me. He is in a very unhealthy environment and this has to stop."
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
David Goldman Still Without Son
One day after a federal judge here ordered that a 9-year-old boy who was abducted by his Brazilian mother be returned to his American father, a Supreme Court justice stayed the order, extending a custody case that has reached the highest levels of the Obama administration and caused tension between Brazil and the United States. (Maybe the US should try some sanctions against Brazil. Many foreign countries basically condone parental kidnapping. A hard line stance would show foreign born parents that removing children from the US is not the answer to a child custody dispute.)
Judge Rafael Pereira Pinto had ruled Monday that the child, Sean Goldman, be turned over to United States Consulate officials here by Wednesday afternoon. The consulate was to turn the child over to his father, David Goldman, who lives in New Jersey.
The decisions come amid a struggle of more than four years by Mr. Goldman to get his son back from the family of his former wife, Bruna Bianchi Ribeiro, and her second husband, João Paulo Lins e Silva, a lawyer from a prominent family in Rio. (That is the reason the decision was stayed. Mr. Lins e Silva is from a prominent family. If he were from some average family he would have been Sean, an American citizen, would have been promptly returned. This is no different than the Elian Gonzalez case, and the United States made sure he was returned to Cuba. We followed the rules, and international justice demands that Sean be returned to his father.)
The United States has complained about Brazil’s handling of the case under the Hague Abduction Convention, a treaty that provides a mechanism for participating countries to solve international abduction cases. Judge Pinto ruled that the treaty needed to be respected and ordered the boy delivered to the consulate by 2 p.m. Wednesday.
But late Tuesday, Marco Aurelio Mello, one of 11 Supreme Court justices, suspended the sentence after receiving a request from Brazil’s Progressive Party, which argued that ordering the child to be sent to the United States was unconstitutional. (How is it unconstitutional to return a US citizen back to a birth father who hasn't had his parental rights terminated. The boy is with his stepfather after all, not even a biological relative.) The Supreme Court must now take up the case, but it was unclear when that would happen.
Reached at a Rio hotel late Tuesday, Mr. Goldman called the Supreme Court stay “heartbreaking and disgraceful.”
The State Department has cited Brazil for noncompliance with the abduction treaty, saying there are about 50 unresolved cases involving children who were taken there from the United States. “Brazil needs to define itself as either a nation of laws or a nation that harbors and protects child abductors,” said Bernard Aronson, a former United States assistant secretary of state for Latin America who is assisting Mr. Goldman.
Ms. Ribeiro took the boy back to her native Brazil five years ago. She divorced Mr. Goldman and married Mr. Lins e Silva, who helped represent her in the custody case that followed. She died last year from complications while giving birth to a daughter.
Mr. Goldman had not seen his son for nearly five years before he was allowed brief visits in Brazil in February. He has been trying to gain custody since 2004. In August of that year, a New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled that Ms. Ribeiro’s efforts to keep Sean in Brazil were “wrongful.” Mr. Goldman sought help under the Hague Abduction Convention.
A judge in Rio wrote in 2005 that moving Sean and keeping him in Brazil were illegal under New Jersey law. But the judge also cited a clause in the treaty that says a judicial authority can allow a child to remain in the second country if “it is demonstrated that the child is now settled in its new environment.” Mr. Goldman’s lawyers appealed. This year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil said Brazil should respect the treaty.
Here is the link to David Goldman's website , which includes his blog.
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Nevaeh Buchanan
The Monroe County Sheriff's Office is still searching today for the driver of a green, box-style minivan who may have information in connection with the disappearance of 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan.
And because “numerous” tips have come in about green vans near the Charlotte Arms apartments when Nevaeh vanished the evening of May 24, investigators are desperate for the driver to come forward, Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield said.
“We’re asking that to help narrow down the number of tips,” he said today.
The van was parked at the Hollywood School playground behind the apartment complex between 6 and 7 p.m., about the time when Nevaeh disappeared while riding her scooter. Crutchfield said investigators would also like to talk to a mother and two small children in a silver minivan who were at the playground around the same time.
Meanwhile, tips seem to have slowed down in the missing girl’s case, still hovering around the 800 mark, Crutchfield said. Nevaeh’s mother, Jennifer Buchanan, who reportedly failed part of a lie detector test she took after the girl’s disappearance, has been cooperating, as have her two friends, George Kennedy and Roy Lee Smith, convicted sex offenders who remain in jail today on parole violations.
“We continue to focus on a broad perspective,” Crutchfield said today, declining to take Kennedy and Smith off the investigation’s ‘persons of interest’ list. “We’re not focusing on any one person.”
Another man jailed during the search, James Easter, 64, posted a $250 bond and was released Monday night. Charged with lighting an arson fire in his yard just after being questioned by police, Easter told a judge Monday he was only burning cardboard at 5 a.m. The judge said he had been cleared by investigators.
Nevaeh is 3 feet 10 inches and weighs 45 pounds. She was wearing a light-blue shirt with red and white stripes and knee-length jeans when she disappeared.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Sheriff's Office at 734-243-7070. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward up to $1,000 for tips leading to the return of Nevaeh. Call 800-773-2587.
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Monday, June 1, 2009
Brittanee Drexel Update 1 June
The search for a missing New York teenager is heading into its second month, after 30 days of searches throughout the South Carolina coast.
Even with no new leads, according to Myrtle Beach Police, 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel's mother and grandparents say they're still keeping their hopes up for the girl's safe return.
"We can't lose hope," said Carol Wagner, Drexel's grandmother. "She's got to be out there somewhere. Somebody has to know where she is. I can't lose hope. She's our pride and joy."
The family of the missing girl say they will return to Charleston to pass out more fliers and inform more people of Brittanee's story.
The Rochester, NY teeen disappeared from Myrtle Beach on Saturday April 25. She was vacationing with friends and was last seen leaving the Bluewater Hotel off of Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Julia Rakoczy Reunited With Father
Bonnie Sweeten used a co-worker's driver's license and presented it as her own when she bought an airline ticket and flew to Orlando, Fla. on Tuesday, Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry said, adding Sweeten also used the license to check into the Grand Floridian Hotel at Disney World.
Jillian Jenkinson said Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show" that Bonnie Sweeten's request to use her identification to fix a discrepancy on her 401(k) "seemed innocent."
She said she had worked with Sweeten for nine years, but didn't specify where they had worked. She described Sweeten as a good mother who was always on top of things.
"I think whatever's going on in her life is a way bigger issue than my ID," Jenkinson said. "I hope that she's OK."
Sweeten and her daughter, Julia Rakoczy, were taken into custody Wednesday night at their hotel in Orlando, Henry said.
Sweeten is expected to be extradited from Florida Thursday and charged with making false reports and identity theft, authorities said.
Anthony Rakoczy, the girl's father and Sweeten's ex-husband, pick up Julia in Florida Thursday afternoon. It was not immediately clear where they were headed.
"We are taking steps to have her extradited back here to Bucks County to face criminal charges," Henry said Thursday.
Henry told FOX News their understanding is that Julia was out of school for a doctor's appointment.
"I think if you look at the evidence, it appears she was very calculated in this plan," Henry told FOX News. "This didn't happen in a second. It was very well thought out."
Rakoczy was tight-lipped about his ex-wife's actions, only saying that he was exhausted from the events, MyFOXOrlando.com reported.
"I'm just done, and I got to get out of here," the station reported him saying.
A security camera reportedly showed Sweeten and Julia Rakoczy at Philadelphia International Airport, just hours after Sweeten made at least two 911 calls by cell phone saying she was locked in the trunk of a dark-colored 1990s Cadillac.
They had minimal luggage and the hotel was paid through Friday, Henry said. Sweeten had withdrawn about $12,000 from several bank accounts over recent days, but authorities were investigating whether that money had been stolen.
The day she left, Sweeten withdrew $7,000, prosecutors said Thursday.
ABC reported investigators uncovered that Sweeten allegedly was involved in stealing about $300,000 from her former employer, an attorney in suburban Philadelphia.
Sweeten is listed as the director of The Carlitz Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based charity run by lawyer Debbie Carlitz, MyFOXPhilly.com reported.
The charity raises money for autism research and people in Burma, according to the station.
Detectives and reporters had been puzzled by holes in Sweeten's story, and FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver confirmed earlier Wednesday the existence of "inconsistencies" in her account of the accident and abduction. But he declined at the time to elaborate and said those aren't the focus of the investigation.
Sweeten had told emergency dispatchers that she and her daughter were snatched in the middle of the day Tuesday by two men who rear-ended her SUV in suburban Philadelphia, according to police.
When investigators arrived at the scene, they found no evidence of the crash and the FBI and local police found no witnesses who saw the accident that the missing mother described.
And although Sweeten said the accident took place in Upper Southampton Township, a suburb of Philadelphia, Klaver said authorities discovered her 2005 GMC Denali SUV on Wednesday in Center City, 40 minutes away, along with a parking ticket that indicates it was there about 20 minutes after she dialed 911.
The 911 calls were traced to downtown Philadelphia, about 20 miles from the site of the reported fender-bender and abduction. One was picked up by a cell tower only two blocks from where Sweeten's car was found.
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