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Birth father in custody case shuns spotlight

County spent $4,000 for dad to visit baby Vanessa

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By Mary McCarty, Staff Writer Updated 11:01 PM Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The more that Stacey Doss goes public with her Dayton custody battle, the more the birth father, Benjamin Mills Jr., is attempting to go private.

Mills’ attorney, Elizabeth Gorman, filed a motion in Montgomery County Juvenile Court Tuesday, July 20, asking for the media to be kept out of the custody trial scheduled to begin July 29 before Judge Nick Kuntz.

Mills also canceled his scheduled visit this week with Vanessa that was to have been observed by her court-appointed guardian ad litem. “I was told he said he did not have enough time to get ready, didn’t know about it in time,” Doss said. “If it were me and I got a free trip to see my daughter whom I loved so much, I’d get on the plane in the clothes I was in and deal with the rest when I got there.”

Mills spent eight months in jail for a 2005 assault on Vanessa’s birth mother, Andrea Conley of Dayton. He also has an open case involving some of his older children with Montgomery County Children Services, the agency that is paying for his trips to California.

Ann Stevens, public information officer for the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services — the umbrella agency for Children Services — said the county may be able to get back some of the $1,300 they paid for the canceled trip or apply the plane fare to a future trip.

The county also paid $1,000 for Vanessa’s guardian ad litem to fly out to California this week to observe Vanessa’s interactions with Doss on Tuesday and Mills on Wednesday. Stevens said she didn’t know if the guardian ad litem will be flown out to observe a future between Vanessa and her birth father.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” Doss said of the visit with the guardian ad litem. “I want Ohio to form its own opinion, rather than hearing it through a third party.”

She said the guardian ad litem spent several hours with them, taking walks around the neighborhood. “Vanessa loosened up and the guardian ad litem got a really good sense of what our lives are like,” Doss said.

She said that the staff at Children Services “have been very nice and helpful, and they are obviously interested in Vanessa’s best interests.”

Stevens said that Mills will continue to have visitation rights with his daughter as long as the courts recognize his parental rights. “Everybody needs to respect the fact that until this decision is made, he’s entitled to visit with his daughter,” she said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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