Lesbian pastor international child kidnap sort of thing

[Gob]

Missing ... Isabella and Lisa Miller. Photo: Connecticut Lesbian and Gay Law

A TENNESSEE pastor has been charged with aiding in the ''international parental kidnapping'' of an American girl who has been missing since late 2009 and is at the centre of a long custody battle between her two mothers - a one-time lesbian couple in a civil union who had a bitter falling-out after one became an evangelical Christian and denounced the other's continued ''homosexual lifestyle''.

Their legal battle over visitation rights and custody, carried out over the past seven years in Vermont and Virginia courts, received wide publicity because of the clashes over sexual orientation and religion, and because it raised questions about the rights of non-biological parents in same-sex unions that are not recognised in many states.

Lisa Miller, the girl's biological mother and a newly fervent Baptist, was championed by conservatives for her efforts to shield her daughter from homosexuality. A Vermont court had granted her primary custody of the daughter, Isabella Ruth Miller-Jenkins, after Ms Miller split with Janet Jenkins in 2003. But the court also declared Ms Jenkins to be a legal parent with liberal visiting rights. Ms Miller, who had moved to Virginia, defied orders to permit the visits.

The case took a turn in late 2009, as the Vermont family court, citing Ms Miller's noncompliance, shifted primary custody to Ms Jenkins. Ms Miller and Isabella, who is now 9, disappeared. A warrant was issued for Ms Miller's arrest, and they have not been heard from since.

An FBI affidavit unsealed in Vermont on Thursday showed the pastor, Timothy David Miller of Crossville, Tennessee, helped arrange for Ms Miller and Isabella to fly from Canada to Mexico in September 2009 and travel on to Nicaragua.

Ms Miller and Isabella stayed in a beach house in Nicaragua that is owned by a conservative businessman, Philip Zodhiates, with close ties to Liberty University, an evangelical school in Lynchburg, Virginia, and whose daughter works at the university's law school, the affidavit said.

Lawyers from Liberty represented Ms Miller in appeals on the custody issues. They argued without success that Ms Jenkins had no parental rights and that laws in Virginia, which ban same-sex unions, should prevail.

Mr Zodhiates, who runs Response Unlimited, a Christian direct-mail company, told The Advocate magazine that the pair were not living at his house in Nicaragua and called the accusations ''absurd''.

Isabella was conceived through artificial insemination and born to Ms Miller in 2002, with Ms Jenkins present. But their relationship soured over the following year.

Last June the FBI affidavit showed an unnamed person called one of Ms Jenkins's lawyers and said that the mother and daughter were hiding in Mr Zodhiates's Nicaraguan house.

Much of the evidence in support of the criminal charges and other accusations, the affidavit said, was obtained through court-approved, covert searches of email accounts, uncovering messages from Mr Miller that appear to arrange the mother and daughter's 2009 flight to Nicaragua and from Mr Zodhiates arranging to send them supplies.

On Friday, Ms Jenkins issued a statement through Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, a rights group in Boston that has also represented her in court.

''I know very little at this point, but I really hope that this means that Isabella is safe and well,'' it said. ''I am looking forward to having my daughter home safe with me very soon.''

The US attorney for Vermont, Tristram Coffin, told the Rutland Herald newspaper that Mr Miller had been arrested on Monday night in Virginia and was scheduled to appear in court today.

Officials declined to say whether others may be arrested or what measures they are taking to find Ms Miller, who faces criminal charges, and Isabella, who should be in the primary custody of Ms Jenkins, with visitation rights for Ms Miller.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/pastor-link ... z1KVYlEL2E

[dgs49]

Just trying to keep score here.

Ms Miller conceived and bore the child. There is a male human somewhere who is the "father." Ms Miller and another woman, Ms Jenkins, were, at the time of conception involved in some sort of contractual arrangement which some might erroneously refer to as a "marriage." Under the contract, Miller and Jenkins would live as though they were husband...er...wife and...whatever, and they would do a "Heather has two Mommies" sort of thing with this unfortunate baby.

If everything else remained the same, but Jenkins were a man (not the biological father), and they were not married, who would give fifty cents for Jenkins' rights to custody of the child?

Why couldn't they have just adopted a cat?

[Scooter]

If everything else remained the same, but Jenkins were a man (not the biological father), and they were not married, who would give fifty cents for Jenkins' rights to custody of the child?

If he had been declared the legal parent (i.e. he had adopted the child), as Jenkins had, then there would be no question that he would have had custodial rights, and if the biological parent had attempted to interfere with those rights, as Miller did, there is no question that primary custody would have passed to him .

[dgs49]

The article says that the Vermont court declared Ms. Jenkins to be a legal parent. I am not familiar with this concept. It does not say (as far as I can see) that Jenkins adopted the child.

My comment addressed the situation where a man & woman were shacked up, and the woman had a baby - not the man's child. In that case, the man's "rights" to custody, etc. - and conversely the obligation to support the child financially, would be non-existent.

Disfunctional relationships have a detrimental effect on the offspring, regardless of sexual orientation.

[Scooter]

My comment addressed the situation where a man & woman were shacked up, and the woman had a baby - not the man's child.

In this case, the child in question was also legally the child of the non-biological parent. If a woman's male partner also became the child's legal parent, he would also have rights equal to any biological parent.

[oldr_n_wsr]

There is a male human somewhere who is the "father."

There's the answer, give the kid to him.

[Scooter]

There is a male human somewhere who provided the sperm, whether he has ever been a "father" to this child, or even knows that his sperm was used to conceive a child, is unknown. The fact that a court has ruled that the child already has two parents other than him would suggest otherwise.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Could be a sperm donor.
Good point.