Reply #125: Judge blames all for Cuban girl's plight

[Mika]

Judge blames all for Cuban girl's plight
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/243783.html

The judge in the contentious child custody battle that spans the Florida Straits interrupted closing arguments in the case Wednesday to lament that nearly everyone in the courtroom -- including herself -- shares blame in a ``tragic situation.''

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen said that responsibility for what has become a long, tense legal battle lies with several parties, including the father of the 5-year-old girl at the center of the dispute, who failed to act decisively when his child entered foster care in December 2005.

Cohen also blamed herself, for listening to a state child-welfare lawyer who insisted that father Rafael Izquierdo come to the United States from Cuba to fight for his daughter, instead of letting him plead his case on the telephone -- as the judge said she allows in cases virtually every week.

But Cohen reserved her harshest criticism for the Florida Department of Children & Families, saying the agency could offer no explanation for waiting months before notifying the father, a farmer from Cabaiguán in Central Cuba, that the state wanted to strip him forever of custody of his child.

''You blame, you blame and you blame,'' Cohen said, looking at DCF attorney Rebecca Kapusta. ``But the Department of Children & Families a lot of responsibility for the tragic situation we have here. You a lot of the responsibility because you let politics get in the way.''

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For the second time in a week, Cohen also criticized the department for treating Izquierdo differently, because he lives in Cuba, than any of the other parents who show up in juvenile court seeking to reclaim a child in state care.

''If the father lived in Alabama, we would not have this situation, because you would have contacted him immediately,'' Cohen said to Kapusta. ``You would have handled it differently if the parent lived in Switzerland.''

An hour later, when Kapusta argued that the father's 40 or so visits with the girl since he arrived in May were meaningless because Cohen had ordered them, the judge exploded: ``This is what angers me about your department, and it's a pervasive problem: You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.''

Cohen said she ordered the visits because Izquierdo said he wanted to spend time with his daughter.

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As appeals courts have interpreted state law, a father must show ''a settled purpose'' to ''willfully reject'' his parental duties before abandonment can be proven, the judge said, adding that appellate judges have construed the law so leniently that the most uninvolved and uncaring parent can get his or her children back.

Under that precedent, said Izquierdo's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, the state has failed to prove Izquierdo is unfit.

''There is little doubt what the threshold is'' to be a fit parent, Kurzban said. ``He has far exceeded it. Is he a perfect parent? None of us are.''

In fact, Kurzban said, Izquierdo ought to be congratulated for leaving his family in Cuba, abandoning his job as a farmer and subjecting himself to weeks of grueling interrogation to regain the daughter he loves.

INSIGHT ON RULING

As the closing arguments neared an end Wednesday, Cohen offered some insights into how she may rule, most likely early next week.

Cohen questioned whether Izquierdo's failure to apply for a humanitarian visa earlier to fight for his daughter means he abandoned he girl. ''I don't believe you've made a case for abandonment,'' she told state lawyers. ``I think you've made a very good effort.''

Moments later, Cohen became frustrated with a DCF lawyer who argued Izquierdo forfeited his rights to the child by allowing her to travel to the United States with her mother.

Cuban parents often make the decision to let their children leave to begin new lives in America, Cohen said.

''Isn't that the policy of the United States, that you want children to come here and grow up here?'' she asked. ``Don't you, as a department, want children to be able to come here with their parents and grow up here? Then don't argue that to me.''

Toward the end of the day, she summed up her frustration: ``I hate this stuff. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.''

No wonder she hates it. If she rules according to the law, hard line anti Castro Miamicubano politics will play a major part in her career. She faces election in Miami, where hard line anti Castro politics is THE core of politics here. Her 'giving this child back to Castro' (as most of Miami's RW Cuban talk radio stations portray it) isn't good for her political campaigns.