A Child Is Torn : Natural Mother Wants Custody of Daughter Raised by Another Woman

Until their reunion two weeks ago, Patricia Jannel Morales of Paramount had not seen her 2 1/2-year-old daughter since the girl was an infant in Mexico. But Morales says she never considered giving up her search for Haydee Jeanette. “I never lost hope,” the 21-year-old Morales said. “I always thought I would find her.”

The girl disappeared after being left temporarily with a friend in Mexico, according to Morales, and now the child is the subject of a heated custody battle between Morales, who is her natural mother, and the woman who has raised her as a daughter for the last two years.

To Morales, the story of Haydee Jeanette’s disappearance is a tale of a stolen child. But to Mary Alyce Ruiz, the 40-year-old Yucaipa woman who has been raising the girl, it is a story of abandonment. Both hope to get custody of the little girl at a hearing Tuesday in San Bernardino County Juvenile Court.

C. David Weed, the deputy district attorney appointed to represent the child, said it is the most unusual case he has seen in his 11 years in juvenile court.

The girl, who was picked up by San Bernardino County authorities April 9, is in a temporary foster home. Two weeks ago, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge John F. Ingro ruled that Ruiz could have visiting rights, but not Morales. Superior Court Judge Patrick S. Morris, who is assigned to Juvenile Court, later changed that order, allowing both women to visit.

Morales, a Mexican citizen who was raised in Los Angeles County and now lives in Paramount, gave birth to the girl June 4, 1984, in Martin Luther King Hospital in Los Angeles. She claims that Ruiz, a U.S. citizen, and her 21-year-old Mexican husband, Jorge, took advantage of circumstances when Morales had to interrupt a visit with relatives in Rosarito Beach and return to the United States.

Morales, who has three other children, said she left Haydee temporarily with an aunt in Rosarito Beach; Ruiz claims that Morales, whom she calls Patty, abandoned the girl there.

“We started out as baby sitters for Patty’s aunt,” Ruiz said. “But when it became apparent that Patty was not going to return, we started growing attached to the child, and when she was five months old, I found myself calling her ‘Mommy’s little girl.’ ”

Ruiz claims that she and her husband have been trying for two years to legally adopt the girl in Mexico. She said she did not learn until the first San Bernardino hearing in Ingro’s court that the little girl, whom she has renamed Leticia Susana, is a U.S. citizen.

Southern California authorities became involved in the case when Morales telephoned Yvonne Parker, an investigator in the child abduction unit of the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office, last December. Parker remembers that Morales told her she had been searching for Ruiz and had heard from friends that Ruiz and the girl might be in San Bernardino.

“I listened to her but told her that I didn’t have any jurisdiction to help her,” Parker said. “But she was insistent, and I’m glad she was.”

“We absolutely believe that the child belongs with its natural mother,” Parker said.

Couldn’t Find a Job

Morales told the two investigators that she had moved to Mexico in September, 1984, with her 2-year-old daughter, Jennifer, and Haydee, to live near an aunt. But when she could not find adequate work, she returned to Los Angeles in early November with Jennifer. Haydee remained with a friend near the aunt’s home, Morales said.

Morales said she had planned to pick up Haydee as soon as she was financially able. Her mother went to Rosarito Beach that same week to pick up Haydee.

There was a mix-up, however. Patricia Morales said she and her mother thought the aunt had the necessary birth records to bring Haydee to the United States. When it was discovered that she didn’t, Haydee’s grandmother had to return without her.

Morales said because she lacked money, she had to wait until February, 1985, to return to Rosarito Beach for the child. And, she said, her aunt assured her that the baby--who by then had been taken into the aunt’s home--was fine.

Spent Time in Jail

On her way to retrieve Haydee, Morales said, she had a car accident and wound up in a Mexican jail. It was while she was still there that she learned, during a telephone call, that her daughter was with Jorge and Mary Ruiz.

“I was angry with my aunt, but she told me they were only baby-sitting because she could not afford to take care of Haydee,” Morales said.

Morales claims that her aunt and Jorge Ruiz then came to the jail and asked her to sign papers letting Jorge adopt the child. Morales said she refused, adding she never gave the Ruizes permission to care for her child.

When she was released from jail, Morales begged her aunt to tell where the child was, but the woman refused, Morales said.

“I started going door to door asking people if they knew where an older white woman lived with a young Mexican, with a baby girl,” Morales said. Morales finally found them in early April, 1985.

Baby Was Seriously Ill

Ruiz, who claims that Morales abandoned her daughter in Rosarito Beach in June, 1984, only days after birth, said she took the girl into her home three months later. She said the aunt already had given the child to another woman and that the baby was seriously ill and was not getting proper care.

Ruiz contends that Morales came looking for her daughter because she was in trouble with welfare officials because she had claimed the child was living with her.

“I looked at her and said, ‘I don’t know where your baby is, but I know where mine is,’ ” Ruiz said. “And I shut the door.”

Morales, who denies she said anything about welfare, went back to the United States and did not return to Mexico until November, 1985. Morales explained that she waited that long because she was pregnant again, had no money and was trying to persuade her aunt to help her get the child back.

When she finally returned to the Ruiz home, she took the Rosarito Beach police with her. Jorge Ruiz told them that his wife and the child had moved to the United States.

Made Calls to Consulates

Once again, Morales returned to California empty-handed. But this time she called the American consulate in Mexico, the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles and several police agencies on both sides of the border.

“They all said the same thing--that they couldn’t help me,” Morales said. “One Mexican official told me the child was better off with an American.”

Her first glimmer of hope, she said, was when Parker reluctantly agreed to see her.

“I almost turned her away, but she was crying and kept wondering why no one cared about her baby,” Parker said.

Morales has no job, no husband and has had two more children since Haydee.

“But I love my children,” she said. “And even if Haydee didn’t have as much with me, the point is, she is mine.”

Center of Their Lives

Ruiz says she and Jorge are still married and do not consider themselves separated, although he has no green card for entry to the United States. She says both she and her sister consider “Susie” the center of their lives.

“She was abandoned once, and I don’t want her to think she’s going to be abandoned again,” Ruiz said. “I love her dearly, and she belongs with me.”

Despite Parker’s clear favoritism for the natural mother, Weed said he remains independent and will not make a recommendation to the court until he has heard all the facts.

“I’ve never seen one this complicated, involving two national jurisdictions, with both the natural mother and the de facto mother having such distinct claims,” Weed said.

“I’m in the middle, and the only one I care about is the kid. I’m going to recommend what is ultimately best for the child, and let the chips fall where they may.”