Reply #121: You might appreciate seeing the sheer size of the force the state is using against the father:

[Judi Lynn]

Cuban girl's custody fight costs taxpayers
Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[email protected]

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''I can't remember a single dependency case that has consumed this magnitude of precious state funds,'' said Bernard Perlmutter, who heads the University of Miami Law School's Children & Youth Law Clinic and has devoted 20 years to child-welfare legal work in Miami.
(snip)

Child-welfare administrators and their contracted foster care agency alone have spent $90,000 fighting to keep the 5-year-old from her father, who is a pig and malanga farmer from Cabaiguán, in Central Cuba. They say he abandoned her and failed to protect her.

According to state records obtained by The Miami Herald, the state anticipates spending another $90,000 before the case is concluded, mostly for court reporting, translations and overnight mail.

Adding the salaries of DCF Chief of Staff Jason Dimitris, who is spearheading the court case, and other high-ranking DCF attorneys, costs of the case are considerably higher.

DCF records show Dimitris, who is considered ''dedicated'' to the case -- meaning more than half his time is devoted exclusively to the matter -- already has spent 1,100 hours preparing for and arguing the case. DCF attorney Stacey Blume has spent 1,800 hours on the case; attorney Rebecca Kapusta has logged 600 hours; and lawyer Kelly Swartz has devoted 215.

All three also were considered ''dedicated'' to the dispute, although Kapusta left the legal team after the first week of trial.

Based upon the attorneys' salaries, DCF has devoted close to $164,000 in legal hours fighting Izquierdo, records show. Another 16 lawyers -- including DCF chief Butterworth, one of his top deputies, George Sheldon, and his general counsel, John J. Copelan -- have spent time working on the case, said DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman.

Two other DCF employees have spent about 465 hours on the case, Zimmerman said, and the girl's private foster care caseworker, Maria Zamora, whose salary is ultimately paid by DCF, has spent much of the last three weeks in court.

Hogan & Hartson, a prominent Washington, D.C., firm with Miami offices, has deployed about a half-dozen attorneys to work pro bono on behalf of the Guardian ad Litem Program in Miami, which also has an attorney in court. The law firm has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars traveling to Cuba, videotaping depositions and providing satellite uplink to beam the interviews back to Miami, a source with knowledge of the case told The Miami Herald.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/240151.html