John Wyatt just wants his baby back. He and his family have been fighting for custody since “Baby Emma” was given to adoptive parents in Utah two weeks after she was born, without John’s consent. John has never been allowed to see Emma – her mother, Emily Colleen Fahland, now 20, had promised to call him when she went into labor but instead she turned off her cellphone. John had been calling for hours when an operator at Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, Virginia, confirmed that Emily and Emma were there. By the time he arrived at the hospital Emily and the baby were gone and the administrators insisted that they’d never been there. Records confirm that Emma was, in fact, born in the hospital and stayed in hotels nearby for two weeks before being put up for adoption.
Their dispute has pitted state against state, with Virginia, Emma’s birth state and John’s state of residence going up against Utah, where Emma’s adoptive parents reside. A Stafford County judge awarded custody to John and cited federal kidnapping statue in his order that she be returned from Utah. However, in Salt Lake City, a Utah judge issued a competing order giving temporary custody to her adoptive parents. The Utah courts claim that John failed to assert his parental rights in time to contest the adoption, despite the fact that he filed for custody only 8 days after the child was born, before the adoption papers were filed. Virginia authorities say they lack the legal backing to retrieve the child from Utah against the will of the courts in that state.
The case has put a spotlight on Utah adoption laws that legal experts say are unusually hard on unmarried fathers. There have been at least 10 recent cases of babies that have been placed for adoption in Utah without an out of state father’s consent. In a case last year, the Utah Supreme Court ruled in favor of an unwed mother who lied to her child’s father, telling him she’d had a miscarriage, then traveled to Utah to put the baby up for adoption. ”Utah risks becoming a magnet for those seeking to unfairly cut off opportunities for biological fathers to assert their rights to connection with their children,” Chief Justice Christine Durham wrote in dissent to that decision.
David Hardy, a lawyer for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a powerful force in Utah, says, “The Utah statues can be harsh, but they are looking at what’s best for the child: stable placements and two-parent families.”
Emma’s mother, Emily Fahland was convinced that adoption was the best thing for Emma at first, despite knowing John’s deep desire to raise the baby. The pregnancy was unplanned, she and John had no long term plans and she wanted to finish college. But seeing how hard John has fought for custody has changed her mind. Unfortunately, with the baby in Utah and the Utah courts refusing to honor the Virginia court’s decision, there is little to be done but wait for John’s challenge to the Utah decision to be considered.
