Calif. woman trying to adopt girl must return her to Ohio as biological father seeks custody

Calif. woman in child-custody battle with Ohio man

ORANGE, Calif. — A Southern California woman faces the prospect of relinquishing a little girl she has been trying to adopt for 18 months while an Ohio court considers the biological father’s custody claim, according to a court decision Friday.

A teleconference between judges and lawyers in Orange County, Calif., and Montgomery County, Ohio, determined that Ohio has jurisdiction in the case, said Stacey Doss, 45, of Rancho Santa Margarita.

Doss, a public relations consultant, has raised 2-year-old Vanessa since just after the girl’s birth and has been trying to adopt the toddler for the last 18 months.

An attorney for the case and Doss said they have begun the process of filing an appeal. If an appeal fails, the girl will be taken to Ohio on July 16 and placed in foster care.

A July 29 hearing will determine whether the child can then be placed with her paternal grandmother.

Montgomery County Juvenile Court Administrative Judge Nick Kuntz says the California judge agreed to remove an order that the child remain in Orange County.

Messages left for the biological father and his attorneys were not immediately returned.

Doss said she believes her own rights and her biological father’s rights are superseded by Vanessa’s needs.

“I have until the 16th to save my daughter,” she stammered, teary-eyed after the hearing.

Doss, who is divorced, said Vanessa’s birth mother contacted Doss’ adoption agency in 2008 to give the child up for adoption. The women “clicked” and the child was due on Doss’ father’s birthday, which was another reason Doss thought they were a match.

The birth mother signed a document under penalty of perjury asserting that the biological father was out of the picture, Doss said. The mother said the child was the result of a one night stand.

On June 13, 2008, Vanessa was born and Doss flew out to meet her the next day. But the birth father filed a motion seeking custody of the newborn in Ohio before the adoption was completed.

In September, the father asked for a DNA test and the results came back positive. Since then, the issue was about jurisdiction, Doss said.

She said the man had four other children. Two children from a previous marriage were in his mother’s custody and Vanessa’s birth mother had custody of the other two.

“A blood relative does not make a parent,” Doss said. “Her mother gave her to me for a reason.”

Doss said she hasn’t seen any effort to parent from the child’s biological father either. In June 2009, she flew him out to California to see Vanessa but said he was more concerned with sightseeing than spending time with his daughter.

“He said he’d never been to California and wanted to go the beach,” she said. “I thought he would want to take Vanessa to the park.”

Doss has even sought studies by behavioral psychologists to see how being separated from Doss would affect the curly haired toddler.

Doss’ family and friends have set up a website and Facebook page to ask for donations. More than 20 supporters picketed outside the courthouse during the conference call Friday.

Her mother, Carolyn Doss, 70, of Dana Point, said her daughter has dipped into her savings repeatedly to finance the custody battle and was threatened with foreclosure on her townhome twice.

“(Stacey) has to choose between paying her mortgage and paying her attorneys fees,” she said.