Sean Goldman To Speak Out
Nine-year-old Sean Goldman and his Brazilian family at the center of the international custody battle will appear on The Early Show Tuesday in an exclusive interview.
In June 2004, Sean's mother Bruna Bianchi took Sean to her native Brazil for a vacation and never returned. Upon arrival, she asked her American husband, David Goldman, for a divorce and three years later married Rio de Janeiro lawyer Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, who has since adopted Sean.
Since Bianchi's death last year, Sean's father, David, who lives in Tinton Falls, N.J., has waged a lengthy court battle to bring his son back to the United States under the Hague Convention on international child abductions.
A lower court in Brazil ruled this month that Sean must be returned to the U.S., but that decision was suspended by a supreme court justice based on a petition filed by a political party that argued that removing Sean from his current family environment would hurt him.
And two weeks ago, Brazil's Supreme Court rebuffed the bid to stop Sean from being taken to the United States, instead ruling that the decision on the boy's fate must be made by a federal court. It's not clear when that ruling may come.
But aside from all the political maneuvering, what does Sean want?
On Tuesday, Early Show viewers will hear for the first time -- directly from Sean -- where he really wants to live.
Though Sean's Brazilian family released a transcript last Wednesday of an interview in which the boy tells a psychologist repeatedly, "I want to stay here in Brazil" and that he will "break down totally" if he is sent to the United States, the video interview is highly contested by David Goldman's supporters.
Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who has traveled with Goldman to Brazil several times, called the video itself "abusive."
"It reminded me of a hostage situation where you get somebody and you ask them questions in front of the camera," Smith said."There's no doubt that he was coached."
Patricia Apy, David's lawyer, said she believes the Brazilian family is trying to take advantage of a provision in the Hague Convention that can give children a say in whether they should be returned to another country. But she said it does not apply in this case because of Sean's young age and psychological fragility.
"The psychological pressure it places on a child is so extreme," she said.
Sergio Tostes, the lawyer for Lins e Silva who plans to file the appeal, said Apy is misinterpreting the law.
"There is no age limitation for a child to be heard, and, in fact, the provision says that if a child is able to express himself -- even if he is only five years old," Tostes said, "then his opinion must be heard and taken into consideration by the judge."