Below is the NY Times Article about my case 9 years ago. I was awarded custody of my toddler son. Unfortunately, I lost in appellate court and lost visitation rights to see my son. I did not know how to proceed after this ruling and I exhausted all of my funds by paying legal fees and gave up all hope of having my son. I wanted to know if there is any chance after all these years of gaining custody of my son by fighting this decision. He is now 10 years old and I haven't seen him or know where he is since the appeal. I am desperate for help. Someone, please understand me as a father who thinks about his son daily.
What steps should I take if I have a chance?
Thanks
Adoption Agency Thwarted Father's Rights, Judge Says
By KATHERINE E. FINKELSTEIN
Published: November 21, 1999
Saying that an adoption agency had deceitfully thwarted a young father's rights, a judge in Brooklyn awarded a 20-year-old man custody of his infant son on Friday, and described their two-year separation as a ''human tragedy.''
The judge, Philip C. Segal of Family Court, said in a harshly worded decision that the Catholic Home Bureau, a foster care agency, had obstructed the father's efforts to establish a relationship with his son, at one point by helping the child's mother prepare a false affidavit asserting that ''no one acting as the father'' had requested custody.
Despite these circumstances, the judge wrote, the young father -- identified as Mr. Simms, a pseudonym -- had done ''virtually all that was possible to establish a relationship with his son.''
''By not involving Mr. Simms when he was legally entitled to be involved,'' the judge wrote, ''the Catholic Home Bureau failed the foster parents, failed the child and failed to live up to its obligations under the law.''
A lawyer for the Catholic Home Bureau, Frederick J. Magovern, said yesterday that the agency would appeal. The affidavit by the child's mother is ''completely the truth,'' Mr. Magovern insisted, adding that Judge Segal had misunderstood the law and failed to consider the child's best interests.
Mr. Magovern added that the father had failed to exhaust every avenue for custody before the child was adopted, as required by New York State law. ''Believe you me, if he had, the Catholic Home Bureau would not have placed this child with anyone,'' Mr. Magovern said. ''Having failed to do so, he can't come forward now and say, 'Gee, I want to be a responsible father.' ''
But Steven S. London, the lawyer for the father, said that the bureau had not contacted Mr. Simms until four months after his son was placed in adoption, despite the agency's own policy and a state law requiring it to contact him six months before the child's placement.
Mr. London said he was pleased by the judge's ruling. ''This decision is about what someone has to do in order to be considered the father,'' he said. ''Every time this guy knocked on a door, the door was shut in his face. No one from the agency contacted him.''
The agency's director, Sister Una McCormack, could not be reached for comment last night.
Fathers' rights advocates welcomed the decision yesterday. ''It calls attention to the need for fathers to be contacted and notified that they have the right to adopt the child,'' said Sari M. Friedman, general counsel for the Fathers Rights Association of New York State. ''There have to be some procedural safeguards to ensure that adoption agencies follow these steps.''
It is not uncommon for foster-care agencies to skirt the rights of natural parents, said Eleanor B. Alter, a lawyer specializing in family law. ''There's a bias,'' she said. ''They've found another home for the child and they don't look very objectively at natural parents. They make a judgment that may or may not be right.''
According to the decision, Mr. Simms was 18 in the spring of 1997 when he learned that his 15-year-old girlfriend was pregnant. At the time, they both lived with their families in Central Nyack, Rockland County.
The girl's parents sent her to a maternity home in Putnam County affiliated with the Catholic Home Bureau, and prohibited her from telling Mr. Simms where she was.
The decision said that Mr. Simms had offered to cover the medical cost of the pregnancy, and had saved $800 with the help of his parents. He also filed a paternity suit when the boy was 3 months old, and got documentation that he was the father from Family Court in Rockland County.
The decision said that even after a court gave Mr. Simms weekly visiting rights in February, the bureau provided only a small windowless room without toys.
Mr. Simms is now in college and has a full-time job with benefits to help support the child, Mr. London said.
What steps should I take if I have a chance?
Thanks
Adoption Agency Thwarted Father's Rights, Judge Says
By KATHERINE E. FINKELSTEIN
Published: November 21, 1999
Saying that an adoption agency had deceitfully thwarted a young father's rights, a judge in Brooklyn awarded a 20-year-old man custody of his infant son on Friday, and described their two-year separation as a ''human tragedy.''
The judge, Philip C. Segal of Family Court, said in a harshly worded decision that the Catholic Home Bureau, a foster care agency, had obstructed the father's efforts to establish a relationship with his son, at one point by helping the child's mother prepare a false affidavit asserting that ''no one acting as the father'' had requested custody.
Despite these circumstances, the judge wrote, the young father -- identified as Mr. Simms, a pseudonym -- had done ''virtually all that was possible to establish a relationship with his son.''
''By not involving Mr. Simms when he was legally entitled to be involved,'' the judge wrote, ''the Catholic Home Bureau failed the foster parents, failed the child and failed to live up to its obligations under the law.''
A lawyer for the Catholic Home Bureau, Frederick J. Magovern, said yesterday that the agency would appeal. The affidavit by the child's mother is ''completely the truth,'' Mr. Magovern insisted, adding that Judge Segal had misunderstood the law and failed to consider the child's best interests.
Mr. Magovern added that the father had failed to exhaust every avenue for custody before the child was adopted, as required by New York State law. ''Believe you me, if he had, the Catholic Home Bureau would not have placed this child with anyone,'' Mr. Magovern said. ''Having failed to do so, he can't come forward now and say, 'Gee, I want to be a responsible father.' ''
But Steven S. London, the lawyer for the father, said that the bureau had not contacted Mr. Simms until four months after his son was placed in adoption, despite the agency's own policy and a state law requiring it to contact him six months before the child's placement.
Mr. London said he was pleased by the judge's ruling. ''This decision is about what someone has to do in order to be considered the father,'' he said. ''Every time this guy knocked on a door, the door was shut in his face. No one from the agency contacted him.''
The agency's director, Sister Una McCormack, could not be reached for comment last night.
Fathers' rights advocates welcomed the decision yesterday. ''It calls attention to the need for fathers to be contacted and notified that they have the right to adopt the child,'' said Sari M. Friedman, general counsel for the Fathers Rights Association of New York State. ''There have to be some procedural safeguards to ensure that adoption agencies follow these steps.''
It is not uncommon for foster-care agencies to skirt the rights of natural parents, said Eleanor B. Alter, a lawyer specializing in family law. ''There's a bias,'' she said. ''They've found another home for the child and they don't look very objectively at natural parents. They make a judgment that may or may not be right.''
According to the decision, Mr. Simms was 18 in the spring of 1997 when he learned that his 15-year-old girlfriend was pregnant. At the time, they both lived with their families in Central Nyack, Rockland County.
The girl's parents sent her to a maternity home in Putnam County affiliated with the Catholic Home Bureau, and prohibited her from telling Mr. Simms where she was.
The decision said that Mr. Simms had offered to cover the medical cost of the pregnancy, and had saved $800 with the help of his parents. He also filed a paternity suit when the boy was 3 months old, and got documentation that he was the father from Family Court in Rockland County.
The decision said that even after a court gave Mr. Simms weekly visiting rights in February, the bureau provided only a small windowless room without toys.
Mr. Simms is now in college and has a full-time job with benefits to help support the child, Mr. London said.
