Biological Dad of 'Baby Veronica' Arrested, Refuses Extradition

As a dad, I side with the father 100%, he WAS NOT told he had a child, and when he did find out, he claimed custody of her.

The biological father of a Cherokee Indian girl at the center of a contentious custody battle has been arrested after resisting a court order to return the girl to her adoptive parents. who claim the 3-year-old has been kidnapped. Dusten Brown surrendered Monday to the Sequoyah County Sheriff's Office in eastern Oklahoma. Brown, an Iraq war veteran, appeared before a judge but refused extradition without a governor's warrant from South Carolina, where the adoptive parents, Melanie and Matt Capobianco, live.
"He is a very loving father, a responsible citizen and he is serving his country in the military," Brown's attorney, Rob Nigh, said.
"He has consistently indicated that custody of his daughter is of critical importance to him and he intends to assert his legal rights."

SPC Brown was not aware of the child, as he was told by the mother she had an abortion. When he found out he had a child, and she was to be adopted, he asserted his paternal rights, as ANY good father would do.

After Veronica's birth mother, who is not a member of the Cherokee tribe, rejected Dusten Brown's marriage proposal, he was not present for the pregnancy and did not pay child support after Veronica was born in September 2009. The Capobiancos were picked by Veronica's birth mother to be her adoptive parents and the girl was raised from birth by the couple in South Carolina for two years.
However, when Dusten Brown, who is of Cherokee descent, found out that the Capobiancos were going to adopt her, he objected.
Brown gained custody of Veronica at the very end of 2011 after the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that he had a prevailing right to claim custody based on the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which aimed to keep Indian children from being placed with non-Indian adoptive or foster parents.

Dad should be allowed to keep his daughter, bottom line.
Story

Its a #ty situation for everyone involved.

But bloods blood, and this man did not wave his rights, he never knew he had them.

I can't help but feel his efforts are doomed. Men have no rights when it comes to custody and child support. The court will mandate that the child be kept by the adoptive parents:

They are a couple; he is not.

These are the only parents the child has known; he is a stranger.

This is the only home the child has known; too disruptive to move her.

The adoptive parents have outlaid time, money, and invested their emotions in the adoption; removing the child would penalize them in favor of a stranger.

I'm sure there are other reasons but you get my drift.

What part am I missing? It isn't that he will lose... It's that he already HAS lost, isn't it? From your link...

After the ruling, the Capobiancos appealed the South Carolina Supreme Court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the lower court should reconsider their ruling. The lower court then reversed its ruling.

Two weeks ago, a South Carolina family court judge finalized the Capobianco's adoption of Veronica. The judge also approved a transition plan for Veronica so that she would be gradually reintroduced to the Capobiancos.

Brown failed to produce Veronica during a court-ordered transitional meeting Aug. 4. Then, the judge issued an order that Veronica be immediately turned over to the Capobiancos. South Carolina authorities issued a warrant for Brown's arrest, charging him with custodial interference.

Source

I think the court had it right the first time and the Super Court blew it...but there isn't appeal above them. So..by the same authority he took the child when first determined to have the rights? He now has to release the child. He can't embrace one ruling and respect the authority, then say the next one in appeal doesn't count.

Unless I'm reading this wrong, he's closer to kidnapping than interference, however I think he may have been right on a personal level?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


AS soon as he asserted parental rights, the adoption processed should have stopped immediately.

reply to post by HomerinNC


I agree. The article indicates it didn't pick back up and finalize until the Super Court ruled against him and the lower court then reversed his victory though, right? So...basically, he'd lost with nowhere left to really go at the moment....hadn't he?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Well, the Cherokee Nation has stepped in and is getting involved, since she is considered a member of the Tribe

reply to post by HomerinNC


It should make this very interesting to watch. Don't get me wrong...as a Father myself, I'm on the Dad's side completely. Blood IS blood, as another post said, which is where legally right and morally right part company.

The strictly legal side of things could get wild though. After all, there have been little disputes like this before.....and not always turning out how people would think. Everyone must remember this one?



...and many would say we were a kinder, gentler nation back then too.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


you gotta remember, Elian Gonzalez's father wanted him back, and legally, he is the direct re;ative, I agreed with the court on that too. he belonged with the surviving parent

reply to post by HomerinNC

Many of us didn't agree and for different reasons. Which is the point.... Roles are different here, but the basic issue isn't. The law says the people with the right to the child are the ones the child has currently been taken from. He took the child and refuses to give it back. At the heart of the matter, it's about that simple.

Now I would ask...if the Indian Tribal resources were a viable option? Why did he run through the whole process of the courts in South Carolina and apparently content to use them to take the child from the adoptive parents when it ruled his way ...but now, when feeling cornered? Only now does he invoke the Tribe's status of a nation within a nation. It's a fair question I'd personally ask and one I imagine the court will ask too, if it isn't just treated as a law enforcement issue.

Time will tell?

the cherokee nation court has granted the dads parents temporary guardianship while he trains in iowa.

there will be no extradition. and i think its clear who they are siding with.

good luck to you south carolina.

reply to post by LurkingRelentlessly


Looks like SC did send an extradition order

CHARLESTON, S.C. - South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed an extradition order Monday for Dusten Brown, the biological father of a Cherokee child at the center of a custody fight with a South Carolina couple.
The order asks for the extradition of Brown to South Carolina to face felony custodial interference charges. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin's office acknowledged receipt of the request and is expected to release a statement later Tuesday.
Fallin will have 90 days to decide what action to take.

Source

Matt Capobianco made a vow to get on a plane to Oklahoma and take his daughter on his own. Nowata County Sheriff Jim Hallett said if Capobianco takes Veronica he could face kidnapping charges because adoption orders from other states do not apply in Oklahoma.

this does not fall 100% onto governor fallin like the media is making it seem.

Veronica is a citizen of the cherokee nation and they have already made it clear they wont be extraditing anybody.(indians hardly ever do).

if in the end the cherokees decide to keep them, there's not a whole lot anybody can do about it. i mean even if it came down to a federal/state/tribal standoff, the cherokee nation is only subject to US law through a handful of treaties that can be dissolved at any time. would it ever come to that?....doubtful...but its still in the realm of possibility.

people forget that its a lot easier for an indian tribe to leave the union than it is for a state. several Sioux tribes already have (i.e. Lakota nation)

to further muck up the waters, the adoption agency, and now possibly the state of south carolina are in violation of the 1978 indian wellfare act. pretty sure the cherokee nation with its unlimited gambling funds would have no problem starting a lawsuit war.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


the mother tryed to play the same game.

she was trying to secure her own tribal enrollment by applying for a CDIB card, in an attempt to counter his invoking of the tribal wellfare law.

Apparently, it mattered enough to Maldonado that, according to the letter to the tribe's ICWA office, she was also inquiring about securing her own Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) card, presumably in the hope that it would nullify Brown's potential enforcement of ICWA. Under federal law, it would not have made any difference. In fact, according to tribal lawyers, had Maldonado been successful in her 11th hour attempt to seek tribal membership a month before Veronica's birth, it would have automatically guaranteed the intervention of the Cherokee Nation into the adoption proceedings. Had that been the outcome, perhaps this case might have been settled a long time ago, without the enormous amount of heartache and legal fees incurred by all the parties involved. But that didn't happen. Read more at indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com...

Originally posted by Foundryman
Men have no rights when it comes to custody and child support.

I wonder if Usher's ex would agree with this?

He is the father, single man or not. There are many single parents out there. Weather the adoptive parents are a couple should be of no concern in this particular case.


Edited again to say, I saw this on Dr. Philbilly. The lawyers and adoptive parents, etc. Dr. Philbilly

not sure if anybody has already mentioned this or not but the adopting couple paid the mother $10,000 for veronica. thats after already funding the adoption costs on both ends.

follow the $$$ ATS....

Perhaps all of you who are asking these questions and assuming things that are not true could read, like, the Wiki for the case, at least. He signed away his parental rights rather than pay child support because the mother wouldn't marry him. He is *barely* native american and used it in the 11th hour to try and win his case, years after the little girl was already bonded to her adoptive parents. Perhaps if he had cared about his child just the tiniest bit while she was being created, born, and cared for the first 4 months, then he wouldn't be in this situation.

Wiki on the case

Dusten Brown was a member of the Cherokee Nation[16] and serving in the United States Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and the father of one other child. Christina Maldonado was a non-Indian single mother of two. Brown and Maldonado became engaged to be married in December 2008, and Maldonado informed Brown that she was pregnant in January 2009.[17] On learning Maldonado was pregnant, Brown began to press her to go ahead and marry him, and refused to provide any financial support until after the two had married.[18] In May 2009, Maldonado broke off the engagement by text message and cut all communications with Brown.[19] In June, Maldonado sent Brown a text message asking if he would rather pay child support or relinquish his parental rights. Brown responded via text message that he relinquished his rights.[20] A few months prior to the baby's birth, she began to work with an adoption attorney to place the child with Matt and Melanie Capobianco of South Carolina.[21] Although Oklahoma law requires that an Indian tribe be notified, Maldonado's attorney misspelled Brown's name and provided an incorrect date of birth, so the tribe was not put on notice of the proposed adoption.[fn 2][23] It is undisputed that, for the duration of the pregnancy and the first four months after the baby's birth, Brown provided no financial assistance to Maldonado or the baby, even though he had the ability to do so. [24] After receiving permission from Oklahoma authorities, based in part on the identification of the child as Hispanic instead of Native American, the Capobiancos took the child to South Carolina.[fn 3] Four months after the birth of the child and just days from deployment to Iraq, Brown was served with notice of the proposed adoption.[25] Brown signed the document, believing that he was relinquishing rights to Maldonado.[fn 4][25] Brown, once he realized what he was signing, immediately tried to retrieve the document, and failing that, contacted the Judge Advocate General at Fort Sill for assistance.[25] Seven days after being notified of the proposed adoption by the Capobiancos, Brown had obtained a stay of the adoption proceedings under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act[fn 5][25] and he deployed with his Army unit to Iraq.[fn 6][25]

reply to post by 00nunya00


Nevermind.

Originally posted by LurkingRelentlessly
not sure if anybody has already mentioned this or not but the adopting couple paid the mother $10,000 for veronica. thats after already funding the adoption costs on both ends.

follow the $$$ ATS....

That's actually very common, if not standard operating procedure in private adoptions. If they had been paying her directly for the service of delivering them a baby, they'd be sitting in federal prison along with her and the baby would be with Daddy for lack of anyone else still free from the correctional system. Paying for expenses and issues related to birth though? Happens every day, probably more than once.

reply to post by 00nunya00


It's still his blood. He's had her almost 2 years now. She's bonded with him. he made a mistake, but it's his child.

I feel bad for the adoptive parents, but these things are difficult and I think they should understand at this point, that this child belongs with him. Or would they like to rip here, again, from family she has bonded with?

Now if this had been a longer amount of time, say 5+ years with the adoptive parents, I might feel a bit differently, but this child was with the adoptive parents until the age of 2 and she now does not remember them.