“It’s really huge,” said Stacey Doss of California, who has been raising Vanessa since birth but has spent most of that time in a custody battle with the birth father, Benjamin Mills Jr.
Doss gave up her adoption petition in exchange for permanent legal guardianship, and all parties dropped their court cases in Ohio and California. She said the settlement negotiations took her by complete surprise Monday morning on what was scheduled to be the last day of the court hearing. Two days of intensive mediation failed to achieve an agreement last September. “I think I’m still in shock; it’s going to take a while to sink in,” Doss said.
Rena Jordan of Middletown, Vanessa’s grandmother, expressed disappointment Monday at giving up her own suit for custody. “I’m traumatized,” she admitted. “It’s not what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t keep letting her go through this.”
Later in the week, sadness turned to excitement as Jordan and her daughter, Katrena Mills of Atlanta, made plans to visit California in June for Vanessa’s first meeting with her grandmother, aunt and sisters. “My mom is over the moon and excited about finally getting to meet her granddaughter,” Katrena said. “It’s going to be a very memorable moment for all three of them to lay eyes on each other and run and play and watch cartoons together.”
Doss said, “I’ve always been a proponent of Vanessa knowing her sisters.”
Katrena Mills said, “I am grateful that both families can move on and begin to build a positive relationship for my niece. It has been a difficult journey for ... my mother, my brother and for Ms. Doss. We still have a journey ahead, but yet a positive one, for we can work together in a collaborative effort so all individuals are happy in the end result.”
Benjamin Mills Jr. will be permitted to visit his daughter, with his mother’s supervision, when Doss brings her to Dayton in September for a second visitation.
Vanessa’s birth mother, Andrea Conley of Riverside, selected Doss as the adoptive mother through a private adoption agency after stating in adoption paperwork she didn’t know the identity of the birth father. Testimony revealed that she told caseworkers she thought the pregnancy resulted from a one-night stand.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Conley, who has continued to support Doss publicly. “Stacey can finally have a normal life with Vanessa. She doesn’t have to worry about her being taken away.”
Case could improve children’s rights
While all sides appear to agree this is a good outcome, many also see the case as highlighting problems in the adoption system, although from different vantage points.
Doss and her supporters believe that the adoption laws in Ohio and other states are skewed toward birth parents, not putting the best interests of children first. The extended custody battle was a travesty, she believes, because of Mills’ criminal history, which includes a felony domestic violence conviction against Conley. He also doesn’t have custody of any of his four older children. Testimony in the hearing revealed that Mills hadn’t completed his case plan to adopt Vanessa, and that his oldest child, Benjamin Mills III, had been placed in permanent custody of Children Services after “substantial abuse” by Mills.
Doss has racked up about $400,000 in legal fees, but was prepared to take her case to the United States Supreme Court if it got that far.
She hopes to start a nonprofit agency and work on legislative changes going forward. “I am going to take this issue to Capitol Hill and elevate children’s rights so they are equal to parental rights,” she vowed.
Noted legal director Greg Scott, “This is a complex case, raising a number of issues of parental rights. But it does raise questions, what are the little girl’s rights?”
Legal entanglements complicated case
Tension in the courtroom became palpable as the custody hearing entered an unprecedented eighth day in Kuntz’s courtroom with little possibility of wrapping up without another continuance. The first two days of the hearing took place in July, and it was rescheduled twice. Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr. criticized Mills’ lead attorney, Elizabeth Gorman, for focusing so intently on the role of Montgomery County Children Services rather than Mills’ fitness as a father.
During the hearing, Heck repeatedly pointed out that Children Services didn’t gain temporary interim custody until July 2008, after Vanessa had been placed in Doss’ home and Mills filed a complaint for paternity and motion for interim temporary custody of his daughter.
After the settlement, Heck said, “I would like to compliment what the caseworkers at Children Services have done, as well as what the guardian ad litem has done. It’s easy to pick apart what they did or didn’t do, but in reality they were thrust into the case after the child had already been placed in a private placement.”
Other observers said the hearing took so much time because of the complicated legal issues surrounding whether the child was legally removed from the state, whether the Ohio or California courts have jurisdiction, and whether the birth mother committed fraud on the adoption paperwork.
Observed Scott, “We all look to the best interests of the child, but birth parents have rights that are very sacred and that have been held in high priority.”
Susan Zajac of Dayton, an ardent supporter of Doss and her “Operation Save Vanessa” campaign, said she plans to stay involved with the cause of legislative initiatives that would give more weight to the child’s best interests.
“There’s still a big battle to be fought,” she said.
Ten attorneys were involved in the court hearing, at least eight of whom were paid — in full or in part — with public money.
“This is our money,” Zajac said. “It’s sad that for 21/2 years Stacey had to live in fear of losing her daughter, and it’s sad that for 21/2 years the taxpayers had to pay for it.”
Scott said, “I’m a taxpayer too, but when it comes to dealing with children and their future, it is money well spent. If this were your child, you would want as much attention paid and as much done for her as possible.”
‘Two families that love her’
Mills’ attorneys as well as other legal experts say the custody battle could have been avoided by searching the Ohio Putative Father Registry before approving placement in an adoptive home. University of Dayton associate law professor Pamela Laufer-Ukeles agrees: “If there is a strong parental preference, as there is in Ohio, it makes sense to check the registry before allowing the child to be placed in an adoptive home. It’s a logical flaw in the system.”
Under Ohio law, the search is required before finalizing an adoption but not before making a placement. Ohio law permits an attorney or agency to search the registry at any time, according to ODJFS spokeswoman Angela Terez, “but the court cannot accept the results of the search as being final for the purposes of a final decree of adoption until 31 days or more after the date of the minor’s birth. This is because a putative father is allowed to register before or not later than 30 days after the birth of the child.”
Laufer-Ukeles doesn’t see why the registry couldn’t be searched before placement as well as after the 31-day deadline. “What’s the justification for waiting?” she asked.
ODJFS seems to have adopted the same attitude, at least informally. Because of cases like this, standard practice is now to search the registry before placing a child, according to spokesman Benjamin Johnson.
Observed Vanessa’s aunt, Katrena Mills, “She is certainly a lucky little princess to have two families that love her and truly do have her best interest at heart.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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