Mom Loses Long Fight For Custody of Brian Batey

The extraordinary saga of Brian Batey, the boy at the center of a bitter custody dispute between his fundamentalist mother and his homosexual father, apparently ended Thursday when a judge awarded custody of the teen-ager to the male companion of Brian’s late father.

During a hearing punctuated by profane outbursts from Brian’s relatives, Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell appointed Craig Corbett as the youth’s legal guardian, concurring with an independent investigator that the Palm Springs man can provide “a stable, wholesome environment” where Brian can “complete his growing up.”

“This has been a difficult case for all persons involved,” McConnell said after announcing her decision. “(Brian) and the court have been subjected to unprecedented attacks. I hope these will now end.”

Walked Out of Court

Brian’s mother, Betty Lou Batey, and an entourage of other family members walked out of the courtroom midway through the hearing, declining to present arguments against Corbett’s appointment as guardian. Mrs. Batey, tearful and nearly hysterical, said it was “useless” for her to testify because the judge “is biased against me and will never let me have my son back.”

“I am not fighting any more,” Batey said, “because it will do no good. All I can say is that I believe in the ultimate judge, God. We will all stand before Him at some time, and I have faith that He will return Brian to me.”

Brushing away tears after the hearing, Corbett said he was pleased with the judge’s decision but not optimistic that it marks the end of the turmoil surrounding the unusual case.

“You can’t put it behind you,” said Corbett, who has had temporary custody of Brian since July. “It’s been a part of our lives for five years. And it won’t stop now.”

Brian, now a lanky 16-year-old with shoulder-length, light-brown hair, left the courtroom through a rear exit with Corbett without commenting on the decision.

The boy’s attorney, Lee Selvig, said his client “is taking everything remarkably well” but noted that Brian’s state of mind was “not helped in the least bit by the loud outbursts and profane outbursts directed at the court” by his relatives.

“He’s a very normal teen-ager at this point and I personally have high hopes he will turn out to be a very productive member of society,” Selvig said.

The custody battle first made national headlines in August, 1982, when Mrs. Batey stole away with her son, then 11, rather than allow him to live with his homosexual father, Frank, who had won custody of the boy because Mrs. Batey refused to respect his visitation rights. After a nationwide hunt by the FBI, Batey resurfaced in Denver in April, 1984. She spent two weeks in jail for violating the court’s custody order, and Brian returned to the home his father shared with Corbett in Palm Springs.

In May, a San Diego Superior Court judge dismissed charges of felony child-stealing against Batey, ruling that she had her son’s safety at heart when she took the boy underground for 19 months.

A month later, Brian’s father died in surgery while suffering from AIDS. Mrs. Batey immediately announced that Brian would be moving in with her, citing a law that automatically switches custody to the surviving parent in such circumstances. But Brian instead requested that the court name Corbett his legal guardian.

Mrs. Batey’s attorney, Cimron Campbell, then sought to disqualify Judge McConnell from presiding over the custody matter, alleging that she is “biased and prejudiced” against his client. McConnell rejected the request, but in September she voluntarily withdrew from the case, assigning it to another judge, Sheridan Reed.

Batey then filed a successful challenge against Reed, and the case reverted to McConnell, who is the presiding judge in Juvenile Court. Next, Batey’s attorneys took their complaint against McConnell to the 4th District Court of Appeal, seeking postponement of Thursday’s hearing pending a decision on their request that the judge be disqualified.

‘Hostility’ Claimed

In court papers, Campbell charged that McConnell is an “active feminist” whose politics are “diametrically opposed” to those of Mrs. Batey, who belongs to Concerned Women for America, a right-wing lobbying group that is headed by fundamentalist Beverly La Haye and provided Batey with legal representation.

Campbell also argued that the judge had demonstrated “hostility” toward Batey through her “words, acts, body language, facial expressions and voice tones.”

Finally, Campbell said McConnell was biased by a 1957 episode in which the judge’s father, Raymond Arnott McConnell, was allegedly arrested in Nebraska for soliciting a young soldier in a public restroom, an incident said to have caused him to resign as editor of the Lincoln Journal. That experience, Batey’s attorney charged, has caused the judge to exhibit a bias toward the homosexual community.

“Would the average person on the street entertain a doubt as to whether this judge could be fair and impartial to Betty Batey and her attorneys?” Campbell asked the appellate justices. On Wednesday, they gave their answer, ruling that such evidence raised no doubts about McConnell’s impartiality.

McConnell, meanwhile, has declined to discuss any aspect of the Batey case. In a written response to the allegation involving her father, however, she wrote that because the argument contains “not facts but only conclusions,” it did not constitute grounds for her disqualification.

Tinged With Drama

Thursday’s hearing was tinged with all the drama and emotion that typified the lengthy tug-of-war over Brian. Attorneys participating in the proceeding--it was closed to the press until McConnell announced her decision--said two of Brian’s relatives made profane statements about the judge, Corbett’s attorney and Frank Batey at various points during the morning session.

“There was a lot of shouting and the bailiffs had their hands full,” said Carol Sobel, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Corbett. “It was interesting that these Christian fundamentalists carried the Bible in one hand and spoke to the rest of us in such abusive language.”

Outside the courthouse, Brian’s half-sister, Tammy Kron, 26, lashed out at reporters, screaming at them for “reporting lies” and vowing that they would pay for their errors. At one point, other family members physically restrained the sobbing woman.

In making her ruling, McConnell said she relied on an “extremely thorough” investigation by the county Probation Department, which evaluated Brian’s “home life in Palm Springs, his school life, his employment and his relationships with peers and adults.” A similar study was made of Mrs. Batey’s home.

McConnell said the investigator decided that it would “be detrimental to remove Brian from this loving, stable environment where he is beginning to make his own independent decisions.” The judge concluded that she was aware of no evidence contrary to that evaluation.

“It would be detrimental to give custody to Mrs. Batey,” McConnell said. “She has consistently interfered with his education, interfered with his need for therapy, and interfered with his attempt to make independent decisions. Despite all this, the boy has turned out remarkably well.”

Concluding the hearing, the judge urged Brian to concentrate on his school work and wished him well.

“You were a good son to your father . . . and I know you feel his loss keenly,” McConnell said. “You are fortunate to have in the person of Craig Corbett a man who will provide you a stable, wholesome environment . . . Good luck to you, Brian.”