Press Release from the Coalition for the Restoration of
Parental Rights.
For Immediate Release.
CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL SCHEDULED FOR JAILED PARENTS IN
KENTUCKY GRANDPARENTS RIGHTS CASE.
When children are adopted
into new families it is with the knowledge that all ties to the biological
family are legally severed. However, a
Kentucky couple now faces jail time for not allowing visitation between their
nine-year-old adopted daughter and her biological paternal grandmother. The grandmother sued for grandparents
visitation rights six weeks after the adoption was final, and won.
David and
Melanie Brown of Worthington, Kentucky are the parents of their adopted foster
daughter, Odessa, her two sisters, two biological children, and five foster
children, four of which they are adopting.
The Brown’s,
Melanie a pediatric nurse, and David a stay at home dad, have already served
one jail sentence December 16-17 on contempt charges filed in a December 8 hearing
by Greenup County Circuit Judge Lewis D. Nicholls. They are to report again to Greenup County Jail in Greenup,
Kentucky at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, January 20th to January 21st at 7:00 pm to
serve out their daughter’s visitation time.
This is to happen one weekend a month and seven days during the summer.
The Brown’s plan to do this until their daughter is 18 if necessary.
They originally
denied visitation because the child’s grandmother, Shirley Kitts of Franklin
Furnace, Ohio, who allowed her granddaughter’s foster care and adoption,
threatened to flee with the child and also allegedly made other threats. The Brown’s also said their daughter seemed
deteriorated after each visit and has repeatedly requested to not be sent
back. They decided the visits were not
in their daughter’s best interest and ceased the visitations.
The Brown’s, who
have been foster parents for over nine years, are filing an appeal hoping to
overturn the Kentucky grandparents rights law on constitutional grounds. They feel it conflicts with adoption laws
that sever rights following an adoption and their 14th Amendment constitutional
rights as parents. They are also
concerned with the message this ruling will send to foster parents who choose
to adopt and prospective adoptive parents.
A candle light
vigil is planned for Saturday before the Brown’s are taken into custody.
There is also a petition in circulation for the Brown’s that
will be available for viewing at the vigil.
A mass national call in to the Greenup County Detention Center is being
planned by the Coalition for the Restoration of Parental Rights.
The Brown’s are
backed by the Coalition, known as CRPR, a non-profit parents rights group
founded by a grandparent. CRPR is
currently lobbying to change the legislation on the grandparents rights laws
around the nation and in Canada. CRPR
also filed an amicus brief on behalf of mother Tommie Wynn in Troxel v.
Granville, the grandparents rights case that went before the Supreme Court earlier
this year. There are CRPR
representatives in most states. They
can be reached at www.parentsrights.org, www.parentsrights.com, and
www.parentsrights.net.
There are
currently other contempt cases for denying grandparent visitation in Arizona, Ohio,
Missouri, and Illinois. Grandparents
rights have currently been declared unconstitutional in several states
including Washington State, Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia. Only 1% of grandparents feel they are
deprived from seeing their grandchildren as much as they would like. The grandparents claim it is due to divorce
or death of one of the parents. Most
cases in the CRPR, however, involve grandparents who were themselves, abusive
parents to their own children, physically, mentally and emotionally. The CRPR parents have found that this
carries over even when their parents become grandparents. Over 10,000 children in the United States
alone will be affected by the stresses of these laws this year.
Plea from Odessa Brown to Judge Nicholls and Greenup County:
My name is Odessa Brown. I am almost 10 years old.
My family has been in the newspaper and on TV because this woman named Shirley
Kitts sued my Mom and dad to visit with me. My Mom and Dad adopted me when I
was a baby. No body will listen to me and ask me how I feel about my parents
going to jail to protect me.
Judge Nichols said he did not want to put me in
the middle. I am the middle!!
I want to know that if Shirley Kitts loved me so
much how come see didn't
want me when I was in fostercare before I was
adopted? I don't even know her.
I tried to get to know her but she was really
weird. I don't love her. I have
a good grandmother, my mamaw Helen who loves me
for me. My Mamaw Helen would never do this to us. If Shirley Kitts loved me
like she says she does Why did she not even talk to me in court? She doesn't
love me because if she did she would leave me alone and care about my feelings.
Shirley Kitts, I do not want to visit you. I do not even like you. I will never
like you. I will never forgive you for doing this to my family and sending my
Mom and dad to jail.
Leave Us Alone. Judge Nichols, Please ask me how I
feel and what I want. The court cannot make me like Shirley Kitts just because
of a court order.
Grandma relationships are not started in court.
Shirley Kitts makes me feel
sad and like I am not a real part of my family.
Odessa Brown
Worthington, KY 41183-0552