Whiz Kid Caught in Tug-of-War Made Permanent Ward of Court

SANTA CRUZ — Whiz kid Adragon De Mello, a 12-year-old college graduate caught in a tug-of-war between his parents, was made a permanent ward of Juvenile Court on Wednesday but will spend Thanksgiving with his mother .

The compromise agreement, in which Adragon participated, makes the court his legal parent and calls for the gifted child to spend increasing amounts of time with his natural parents--with the goal of eventual reunification with one or the other of them.

Judge Thomas Black of the Santa Cruz County Juvenile Court made the decision.

The parents were never married and are not living together. Adragon has been in a foster home since Sept. 20, after his mother alleged that the father and son had made a suicide pact.

Adragon graduated in June from UC Santa Cruz at the age of 11 with a degree in computational mathematics. He completed two years of school in one calendar year at the Santa Cruz campus after earning an A.A. degree from the two-year Cabrillo College in Aptos.

Gordon Salisbury, attorney for Adragon, described the boy as being “comfortable with the current situation” and anticipating the opportunity to spend more time with each parent.

Agustin De Mello, 59, the boy’s father, against whom the Santa Cruz district attorney had contemplated filing child felony endangerment charges, said he was pleased with Adragon’s anticipated visits.

“It’s gratifying to know that my son will keep his home,” the father said.

Adragon’s mother, Cathy Gunn, 36, who left the Santa Cruz home she shared with De Mello and her son two years ago, said the slow legal process had finally borne results.

“It’s starting to move in the right direction,” Gunn said.

De Mello said he will be spending Christmas with the boy. Paul Meltzer, De Mello’s attorney, added that Adragon will be with Gunn for Thanksgiving.

“It’s going to be like any other shared custody agreement,’ Meltzer said.

Adragon’s education, a point of contention between the parents, has yet to be resolved by the court, but a decision is expected by the first of the year, Salisbury said.

Adragon, accepted in a master’s degree program at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourn, Fla., had been scheduled to enroll there in September before his mother intervened. She filed a civil custody suit that was in part prompted by the father’s announced intentions of taking the child out of the state for education.