Governors' office kept tabs on Cuban girl's case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Governors' office kept tabs on Cuban girl's case
Top state officials took extraordinary steps in the handling of a potentially explosive custody case.
Posted on Fri, Dec. 21, 2007

By CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]

As a child custody case involving a then-4-year-old girl from Cuba was taking shape in early 2006, a spokeswoman for Florida's child-welfare agency sent word to the highest levels of state government: The case had the potential to get ``very public.''
(snip)

There's nothing improper about the governor's office overseeing an agency like DCF -- the governor appoints DCF's head, for example. Additionally no specific directives from either governor were documented in state e-mails about the case. But DCF's strategy was expensive, costing more than $250,000. And, in the context of child-custody cases, it was unusual.

''I've never seen a case like that,'' said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, a nearly 10-year veteran of child-welfare court. She was referring to DCF's request to strip Izquierdo of custody of his daughter, even though he was declared a fit parent. ``Ever, ever, ever, ever.''
(snip)

Among other criticisms, Cohen noted that DCF asked her to leave the girl with the Cubases under a permanent guardianship -- a custody arrangement virtually unheard of for a young child with a fit parent. And she noted that it took DCF about three months to formally notify Izquierdo in Cuba that his daughter was in state care, and that he was at risk of losing custody.

''The department had phone numbers and didn't call him,'' Cohen said during the trial's closing arguments.''If the father lived in Alabama, we would not have this situation, because you would have contacted him immediately,'' Cohen told DCF attorney Rebecca Kapusta. ``You would have handled it differently if the parent lived in Switzerland.''



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/352670.html

[flordehinojos]

1. who the hell do the bushes think they are? yeah. they have the power to do what the damn hell they

want but who the hell are they little shits to do what they do? they had no damn right to control the life and outcome of that little girl ... no damn right at all, except for the fact that joe cubas might have been kissing their collective asses!

no apologies for my french. i am livid.

does any one damn of these bushes believe in laws or anything related to laws? NO. they just smash and grab, shock and awe, kill and burn ... they are power grabbers and very sick power and control freaks.

[Mika]

2. Thanks to the faithful to the exile extremists media, it wasn't "very public".

:puke:

[Mika]

3. "Kept tabs"? big $$ into the kidnapping attempt - AP: Fla. Spent Heavily on Cuban Custody Case

Fla. Spent Heavily on Cuban Custody Case
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h9cG1JDW3Tsx7sz-1fbBPLh-P5AQD8TLBMBG0

Top Florida officials say they treated the politically charged custody fight over a young Cuban girl like any other case, but documents obtained by The Associated Press show they took extraordinary steps to stop the youngster's father from taking her back to the communist island.

E-mails obtained from the state through an open-records request and other documents show that the Department of Children & Families spent more than $250,000 and accepted many hours of free legal assistance in its unsuccessful effort to have a wealthy Cuban-American couple, former sports agent Joe Cubas and his wife, become the permanent guardians for Rafael Izquierdo's 5-year-old daughter.

Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and aides to his successor, Charlie Crist, were kept apprised of developments, the documents show.

The state also tried unsuccessfully to keep the case secret, apparently to avoid the kind of furor that surrounded Elian Gonzalez in 1999 and 2000, according to the documents.

The state's stance runs counter to federal and state policies that say families should be kept intact whenever possible, no matter where they live. Children from other poor countries in Latin America, such as Guatemala, are regularly sent back to their home countries by DCF.

Many members of Miami's highly influential Cuban exile community oppose sending children back to the island while Fidel Castro and the communists retain power.

In 2000, President Clinton used armed federal agents to take 5-year-old Elian from a Miami uncle's home and send him back to his father in Cuba. The political fallout may well have cost Vice President Al Gore the White House, since he lost Florida by 537 votes to George W. Bush later that year.

Immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, who represented Izquierdo, said he believes decisions in the case were made out of the state capital from the beginning "to pander to the right-wing elements in the Cuban community."

DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth declined to comment for this story, but spokeswoman Flora Beal said the department was happy "that we were able to come to a mutually agreeable settlement in the case."

The saga began in 2005 after the girl's mother won a visa to leave Cuba and bring her daughter and her son by another man to the United States. Izquierdo, a pig farmer in Cuba, had fathered the girl during a temporary separation from his common-law wife.

The girl's mother attempted suicide days before Christmas of that year and her children were taken into state custody. They were placed with the Cubases and, by all accounts, the couple doted on their charges.

The boy's father eventually let the Cubases adopt his son, but Izquierdo demanded that his daughter be returned to Cuba. State officials and the girl's state-contracted guardian did not want her to go back.

Attorneys gave a host of reasons, including that she would be rejected by her stepmother because she was the result of an affair. They also sought unsuccessfully to call experts to testify about Cuba's poor social services and medical care.

"They pulled out all the stops," said University of Miami child welfare expert Bernard Perlmutter.

According to a Dec. 29, 2006, e-mail written by an outside agency contracted to conduct the home study of Izquierdo in Cuba, the girl's independent guardian "appeared very biased in favor of keeping the child in the U.S. no matter what and indicated that she wished for a negative report."

Eventually, DCF argued in court that Izquierdo was an unfit parent who abandoned and neglected his daughter by spending little time with her in Cuba and then failed to contact her for nine months once she had moved to the U.S.

The documents show that the Cubases' lawyer, Alan Mishael, helped with the state's strategy, including persuading Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen to initially seal the case — a request that the girl's father also supported.

"This case has the potential to become very high profile very fast and we want to try to prevent that," Mishael said at a hearing. He added: "Nothing could be more injurious to these children than having them become another Elian."

Meanwhile, state attorneys ignored the judge's repeated warnings that their case was weak and took the case to trial. As early as April 2006, Cohen told state attorneys that in any other case, if they had a father like Izquierdo, they would not be trying to remove his child.

In September of this year, Cohen ruled in Izquierdo's favor, but the state appealed.

Last month, it dropped its appeal after Izquierdo promised to remain with the girl in the U.S. for the next three years and allow the Cubases visitation rights.

All told, the state spent the equivalent of eight DCF child caseworker salaries to fight Izquierdo and received hundreds more pro bono hours from half a dozen private attorneys.

[Toots]

4. IMO The father should sue the State and the Cubases as well

Why should he be forced to allow visitation rights to people that are not relatives or have any legal interest in his family? They are trying to kidnap his child with the help of the State of Florida because they don't like the politics of his country. Cuba has never done anything to America, has never threatened America in any manner. Why shouldn't the father sue?

[boricua79]

6. he agreed on that settlement

but...in a few years, he won't have to be with those people again.

Better than risking a custody battle that he'd mostly likely win...but when it comes to children, you don't gamble on "most likely", when you're offered a settlement that guarantees you sole custody, provided that you allow the guardians a few years of supervised visitation rights, on your own turf, and under your rules. The guardians (Cubases) will not able to visit the girl alone or do anything that is not acceptable to the father. If I were Mr. Izquierdo, I'd be present at every meeting of the Cubases and make sure they don't make ANY attempts to strenghten their emotional bond with the girl or destroy Mr. Izquierdo's reputation. I'd also structure the meetings at some noisy kid place (like Chuck and Cheese), to make it harder for the guardians to get any type of meaningful, emotional bond-type of interaction with the kid. They could get their "visitation" rights...but in a setting that would negate any ulterior motives.

and when they period was over, I'd look them in the eye and say, "fuck you" with a big middle finger in their face...for all they put him through.

[boricua79]

5. My respect for Judge Cohen

You would have handled it differently if the parent lived in Switzerland.''

Hit the nail right on the head...it's a Cuba thing...and it's about "sticking it" to Castro and his Communists. They were willing to overwhelm a father's right to his child for political purposes.

Disgraceful and disgusting.