Emergency Hearing Called In Cuban Custody Case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Local 10, Miami

Emergency Hearing Called In Cuban Custody Case
Attorneys For Foster Parents Claim Child Doesn't Want To Go To Cuba

POSTED: 4:44 pm EDT October 2, 2007

MIAMI -- A judge deciding whether a 5-year-old Cuban girl should remain with her foster parents in the United States or return to Cuba with her father warned both parties Tuesday against pulling the girl into a political debate about living in Cuba.

Attorneys for the girl's foster parents requested an emergency hearing Tuesday before Judge Jeri Beth Cohen to relate the child's apparent anxiety about the possibility of returning to Cuba. A court-appointed therapist told the judge by phone that the girl appeared very fearful Monday during a scheduled meeting when she was asked about Cuba and repeatedly said she did not want to go there.

The judge ordered another court-appointed therapist, scheduled to meet with the girl and her father later Tuesday, to begin broaching with the girl the idea of living with her pig farmer father. But Cohen also instructed both Rafael Izquierdo and her foster parents, Joe and Maria Cubas, to refrain from discussing with her a potential return to Cuba.

"You're making a 5-year-old make an ideological value judgment about Cuba. The issue is not do you want to go Cuba? The issue is do you want to be with your father?" Cohen said. "We need to change the issue here. There's too much emotional content related to the name of the country."

Read more: http://www.local10.com/news/14254633/detail.html

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Does this remind you of the video the Miami Cuban family made, with their advisors, of Elián Gonzalez, at around 1:00 in the morning, of the little boy finally saying he didn't want to go back to Cuba?



From Univision..

From a PBS program:

KWAME HOLMAN: Elian and his Miami relatives returned to little Havana late last night. Shortly afterward, family members released a home video of Elian. It is unknown whether the boy was prompted in what he said.

ELIAN GONZALEZ (Translated): I don't want to go to Cuba. If you to want to stay here , but I don't want to go back to Cuba. I'm telling you now, you say I want to go back to Cuba. I tell you now that I don't want to go back to Cuba. I want you, if you want, to stay here. But I don't want to come back to Cuba.
(snip)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/jan-june00/elian_4-13.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Judge: Focus on living with father, not living in Cuba

Judge: Focus on living with father, not living in Cuba
Posted on Tue, Oct. 02, 2007
By JENNIFER KAY
Associated Press Writer

MIAMI -- A judge deciding whether a Cuban girl should remain with her foster parents in Florida or return to Cuba with her father warned both parties on Tuesday against pulling the girl into a political debate about living in Cuba.

Attorneys for the girl's Miami foster parents requested an emergency hearing Tuesday before Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen to relate the child's apparent anxiety about the possibility of returning to Cuba. A court-appointed therapist told the judge by phone that the girl appeared very fearful Monday during a scheduled meeting when she was asked about Cuba, and repeatedly said she did not want to go there.

The judge ordered another court-appointed therapist, scheduled to meet with the girl and her father later Tuesday, to begin broaching with the girl the idea of living with Izquierdo. But Cohen also instructed both Rafael Izquierdo, a Cuban farmer, and the foster parents, wealthy Cuban-American couple Joe and Maria Cubas, to refrain from discussing with the girl a potential return to Cuba.

"You're making a 5-year-old make an ideological value judgment about Cuba. The issue is not, do you want to go Cuba? The issue is, do you want to be with your father? We need to change the issue here," Cohen said.

"There's too much emotional content related to the name of the country."

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/775/story/258054.html

[Mika]

2. Now here we go. Its now out in the open. It is all about Cuba/Castro.

Miami's exile RW radio has been at this for days now - since the first ruling by the judge that the dad was a fit parent.

Now its out in the open - its all about "Castro's Cuba". The Fla DCF started off with the dad being "unfit" because he didn't come to the US sooner to get his kid (ignoring the fact that the US state dept wouldn't grant him a visa, and even after the DCF put the child up for adoption without the father's consent the state dept still wouldn't grant him a visa). Didn't stop the politically administered DCF from making such an absurd claim.

I'm glad that this story has exposed what this case has been about all along. Just as in the Elian case, the Florida side of the case will put children through a meat grinder to win a fantasized "victory" over "Castro's Cuba".


-

Remember DUer pnwmom?

I guess that I was right all along in a response, earlier in the case.

I wonder what I wonder what pnwmom would have to say now?

[kskiska]

3. I remember Ileana Ros-Lehtinen saying

that 5-yr.-old Elian knew the difference between living in Cuba and living in freedom.

"…But they know what little Elian will be facing is what every Cuban child faces: no milk after the age of seven because it goes for the tourists; compulsory farm education, because in Cuba the person who owns the child is Fidel Castro."


Elian enjoying his "freedom" in Miami.

[Mika]

4. She's wrong. The person who owns the child is the Fla DCF.

-

The judge in the current case still hasn't enforced the father's parental right. The child is still in DCF custody - with the Joe Cubas' acting as the custodial family.

The 99.999% politically motivated administration of the DCF will grind this little girl into sausage before handing her back to her Cuban father..
..and the Joe Cubas family will turn the handle.



-

[Mika]

5. Judge: Cuban girl to spend more time with dad

Judge: Cuban girl to spend more time with dad
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/259722.html

Days before she is set to determine whether a 5-year-old girl would be harmed by returning to Cuba with her father, a Miami judge dramatically revised the girl's living arrangements Wednesday, ordering that she spend the lion's share of her time with her father.
The new custody schedule was the recommendation of Julio Vigil, the girl's court-appointed therapist, who said Wednesday that the youngster, in a tug of war between her Cuban father and her Coral Gables foster parents, appears to have accepted the possibility that she may be returned to her father.

''This has been a very telling transition I believe the child has made -- not only intellectually, but emotionally,'' Vigil told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen of the child's latest visit with her father, Rafael Izquierdo. ``She didn't cry. She didn't raise her voice. She did not show any distress.''

The girl appeared ''playful'' with her dad, ''combing his hair,'' Vigil added. ``She did indicate she would miss her family. But she did accept the idea. . . . She said she would send her brother pictures.''

The judge ordered that the girl spend weekdays with Izquierdo and weekends with her foster parents -- reversing the schedule that had been in place for months.

The girl's foster parents did not object to the new schedule.

Cohen insisted, as she has done repeatedly in recent days, that she has yet to decide who will raise the youngster permanently. But she asked Izquierdo to assure her that, should he prevail, he will not abruptly take the girl from Miami without allowing her time to say goodbye to her foster family.

''If I make a decision to send her back, promise me you will help make a smooth transition here and help deal with the emotional'' consequences, the judge said. ``Will you stay here and help us transition, and not just get on a plane?''

''Yes,'' Izquierdo replied. ``I promise you that.''

SEPARATION ISSUES

Still, the girl's foster parents, Joe and Maria Cubas, said they fear the curly-haired girl may not fully understand that going to live with her father permanently may mean a complete separation from them and from her 13-year-old half-brother, whom the couple has adopted.

The foster parents are insisting that Cohen ''tell the truth'' to the girl by making it clear that she may not see her brother or foster family for many years if she returns to Cabaiguán, in Central Cuba, with her father.

Failing to prepare the girl, said the Cubases' lawyer, Alan Mishael, ``will be viewed by her as a betrayal by everybody she has placed trust in in this case.''

The Department of Children & Families, the Cubases and the girl's court-appointed guardian ad litem are asking the judge to give Joe and Maria Cubas permanent guardianship.

They say returning the girl to Izquierdo would be emotionally damaging because the girl has bonded with her foster family.

Pointing to a wooden plaque hanging above Cohen's head that reads ''We Who Labor Here Seek Only Truth,'' Cubas pleaded with Cohen to level with the girl and make clear that there's a distinct possibility she will be told to leave her Coral Gables family behind, perhaps forever.

''I believe it is fundamentally unfair, and harmful to her emotional well-being, for her to not be told the truth about what is in store for her,'' Mishael said.

But the judge accused Mishael of advocating a confrontation with the girl to gain a strategic advantage in his argument that she would be emotionally harmed if taken away from the foster family.

'If we lay a bombshell on her and say, `You know, you're not going back ,' she falls apart,'' the judge told Mishael. 'And you come back and say, `Look, the child fell apart.' I'm not going to get sucked into that trap. I'm one step ahead of you guys.''

A few moments later, Ira Kurzban, one of Izquierdo's attorneys, criticized the Cubas camp for wanting to tell the girl in blunt terms that if she goes to Cuba she will not return to their home anytime soon, and asked that Cohen turn the girl over to his client immediately.

''They are willing to sacrifice this child psychologically, and that what's troubling me,'' said Kurzban. ``They are willing, for strategic reasons, to push this child over the edge.''

Kurzban also asked the judge to strike from the court record what he called ''false and scurrilous'' claims made by the Cubas family Tuesday that the girl told Joe Cubas she was made to look into a camera with Izquierdo and his wife and say that she wanted to return to Cuba.

The girl, Cubas said, claimed that Kurzban's wife and fellow attorney was operating the camera -- a claim she denies.

On Wednesday, Cohen said she believes the girl may well have told a story about being forced to speak in front of a camera, but, she added, ``I don't believe it happened.''

PRAISE FOR CUBASES

Cohen declined to give Izquierdo full custody and said she disagreed with Kurzban's criticism of Joe and Maria Cubas.

''I think the Cubases have been wonderful caretakers for this child,'' she said, adding that the couple allowed the girl to make an emotional attachment to them at a time that many experts say is crucial to a child's future ability to form bonds.

Calling Izquierdo to the podium, she told him that despite the rancor of the legal battle, he should be grateful to Joe and Maria Cubas.

''You need to find it in your heart to thank these people,'' she said.

``They have provided this little girl something that no amount of money can buy.''

Answered Izquierdo: ``I know.''

[Judi Lynn]

6. You could have knocked some of us over with a feather this morning, Mika! Wow.

Of course, there could still be such a long way to go, but this news is so dramatically different from what we've been seeing.

Good point made in the story by the father's attorney:

''They are willing to sacrifice this child psychologically, and that what's troubling me,'' said Kurzban. ``They are willing, for strategic reasons, to push this child over the edge.''

There's no doubt about it. They couldn't care less about the child: it's all about WINNING against "Castro."

You've given those of us who care about this case a mega vitamin shot today. It's a reason to hope against hope that this one has the possibility of turning out right, like Elián's case, with luck! We've been worried they had already figured out how to avoid the same pitfalls that may have led to the judgement in Elián's father's favor.

They have used so many of the very same tricks: attacking, smearing the father, working up the easily led locals to a fever pitch against Cuba, etc., etc., etc. So many times justice has been derailed in that town, in favor of politics. Hope this can be an exception.

THANKS, MIKA!

[Judi Lynn]

7. I hope the judge's comments about their claim the girl, E.P.I., told a story about

being prompted to make a tape (like Elián, in reverse!) claiming she WANTED to go back to Cuba, are as promising as they sound today: ``I don't believe it happened.''

Neither does anyone else with a semi-functioning brain, or better!

[Mika]

8. How about this little gem from the judge.

''I think the Cubases have been wonderful caretakers for this child,'' she said, adding that the couple allowed the girl to make an emotional attachment to them at a time that many experts say is crucial to a child's future ability to form bonds.

Calling Izquierdo to the podium, she told him that despite the rancor of the legal battle, he should be grateful to Joe and Maria Cubas.

''You need to find it in your heart to thank these people,'' she said.

``They have provided this little girl something that no amount of money can buy.''

:puke:

Yeah right. Mr Izquierdo should be thankfull that they have falsely smeared him, up, down, and sideways, and put his daughter through a meat grinder, and will continue to do so as long as they can.

The judge is doing all she can to salvage votes from the exile community.


Pathetic.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Oh! Is THAT what she was doing! Well, now I get it. I couldn't begin to understand it

when I read it yesterday. It seemed absolutely insane, like the ravings of someone with malaria.

So it's just old fashioned pandering. Well, well, well.

Maybe she's had a few death threats, and is starting to fear she's going to start her car sometime soon for the LAST TIME! I'm sure Miami is still the C 4 capital of the country!

Like you, I wondered what on earth Mr. Izquierdo could be thinking when he attempted to form a reply to that unbelievable comment. He's been through hell because of Mr. Cubas, apparently just like a lot of the Cuban ball players Cubas has really reamed on his way to getting thrown out of baseball forever, finding himself having to learn how to sell real estate suddenly.