NEW YORK, June 23, 2009
Stepfamily: Sean Wants To Stay In Brazil
Assert Former N.J. Boy, 9, At Center Of International Custody Dispute, Loves Them, Doesn't Want To Live With Father In U.S.
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Harry Smith, far left, with Sean Goldman's maternal grandmother, Silvana Bianchi, his stepfather, Joao Paulo Silva, and the Brazilian family's attorney, Sergio Tostes, on The Early Show Tuesday (CBS)
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Sean Goldman, now 9, when he was 8. (Family Photo)
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Sean Goldman was taken in 2004 by his mother, Bruna Bianchi, for what was portrayed as a vacation to her native Brazil. They never returned. She later filed for divorce, married a Rio de Janeiro lawyer and died last year giving birth to a daughter. Sean is now living with his mother's new husband, Joao Paulo Silva, who wants to retain custody.
Sean's father, David Goldman, who lives in Tinton Falls, N.J., has been waging a heated battle, seeking custody of Sean under the Hague Convention on international child abductions.
It's a dramatic fight that's reached the highest levels of the Brazilian legal system and United States diplomacy.
But on The Early Show, Silvana Bianchi, Sean's maternal grandmother, told co-anchor Harry Smith there was deep trouble in the Goldman marriage before her daughter left New Jersey. Goldman has described the marriage as a good one.
Bianchi and Silva said Sean loves his stepfamily and feel safe and secure with them, and wants to continue living with them. Silva said he loves Sean as much as he does his biological daughter, and Bianchi said Goldman is welcome to visit Sean as frequently as he wants. Goldman has been accusing the stepfamily of blocking such efforts.
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More From The Early Show
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 253 CommentsIf The Morning Show has any integrity, it will actually take a look at the facts and correct the gross misrepresentations that Mr. Smith's interviewed allowed. Had Smith done his homework, he'd have discovered:
1) The claim that Sean "wants to stay in Brazil:" Judge Pinto stated very clearly in his ruling on June 1st that Sean is a victim of parental alienation syndrome. Had Smith been prepared, he'd have caught the lie and challenged it.
2) The claim that there was no second kidnapping: Please. Brazil has a statute that clearly states that when a parent dies, custody automatically passes to the surviving parent -- not the step-parent, but the surviving parent. Joao Paulo Lins e Silva's unlawful retention of Sean after his mother died is a second kidnapping.
3) Tostes' claim that the issues have already been decided by the courts and cannot be relitigated is a gross mis-statement of the law in Brazil. The doctrine of "res judicata" doesn't apply when the parties are not identical. It's not Bruna vs David anymore. It's Lins e Silva vs David Goldman.
4) Lins e Silva's claim that Dean should stay in Brazil because it's what he knows . . . because Sean has become adapted to his environment in Brazil is a position devoid of legal basis, as Judge Pinto clearly stated in his June 1st ruling. Judge Pinto said that Sean was adapted to his life with his mother, but that wasn't the same thing as being adapted to his life in Brazil.
Judge Pinto said that, in fact, Lins e Silva will not be allowed to use the defense that Sean is "adapted to Brazil" and he cannot claim that Sean's "habitual residence" was Brazil at the time of the second abduction (wrongful detention). Upon the death of his mother, the right to custody of Sean as a matter of law -- Brazilian law, no less -- passed to his biological surviving parent, David Goldman. Since Goldman filed his second petition for return under the Hague Convention only 35 days after Bruna's death, the defense of adaptation to the new environment won't be accepted. To quote Judge Pinto:
"In other words, and thinking in theory, it is not reasonable - indeed, it reaches the level of surrealism - to admit that a given person, devoid of familial power upon the minor - a third party -, objects to the delivery of the child to the father or the mother, or both, under the basis that the child is integrated into their new environment.
"To admit this possibility means to open dangerous gaps capable of constituting real absurdities. And the absurd, as is well known, cannot find refuge in the Judiciary."
Judge Pinto then gave an example . . . theater of the absurd . . . a stranger kidnaps child, raises child as his own, gets married, now the child has a "father" and a "mother" . . . and later "siblings." Can anyone reasonably believe that the law would reward the kidnapper by refusing to return the child to his lawful parents (who have tracked him down) on the claim that the child is "adapted to Brazil?"
"Of course not!" (Judge Pinto's exclamation mark)
I invite Smith to read a brief summary of Judge Pinto's 85 page opinion (which, among other useful documents, Smith obviously did not review prior to granting this sensational TV oppotunity to the Brazilian family). He can read it here. http://tinyurl.com/lsfa8k
Then I ask that Mr. Smith do the right thing: admit that his soft lobs and his sympathetic stance was wrong and admit that he should have done his homework.
Jeanne M Hannah
Family Lawyer, Traverse City, Michigan
http://parental-kidnapping.com/
http://traversecityfamilylaw.com/
All three of them should have been held against their will, until Sean was returned to his father and brought back to NJ.
And how can CBS be so nice to them.
"Most troubling of all, however, were the statements from doctors included in the criminal complaint filed by prosecutors earlier this week. "Upon the statement of Dr. Angela Bier at Children's Hospital that [the boy Jesse] suffers severely from failure to thrive, is considered short and underweight for his age, is diagnosed with osteopenia (lack of density in the bones), which is likely rickets caused by a dietary deficiency, and fractures to the right tibia and fibula, and a fracture to the left ulna." Another doctor explained that the fractures appear old and had never been treated."
Full article here from Time: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1846551,00.html
AND ANOTHER ONE
HERE IS THE WEBSITE
Sean was illegally taken to Brazil, and his father was deprived the ability to be with his son for the last 5 years. Yes, the grandmother loves him, but let her spend thousands of dollars per month to fly to NJ and spend time with Sean. A 9 year old does not have the maturity level to make these decisions, especially under the constant manipulation and pressure he is constantly under in Brazil.
Where were the tough questions? I am disgusted.
FreeAprilGriffn - If you want support for your cause, this is not the way to do it. You are not garnering any supporters here with your venomous spewing rants. A change of tone would help your cause far more than the mess you write here.
CBS, you people officially suck.
How can an interviewer be so incompetent. He asked the ******* grandmother, "do you think David should be allowed to visit with Sean and bring him back to the USA." He let her just NOT answer the question as she said, "Sean wants to be with us in Brazil."
What a joke of an interview.
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See all 253 Comments