The Nation - News from May 25, 1989

A mother’s 21-month jail stay should end because further incarceration won’t end a bitter child custody battle or persuade her to reveal where she has hidden her daughter, a Washington appeals court was told. Dr. Elizabeth Morgan, a prominent plastic surgeon, was sent to the District of Columbia Jail on civil contempt charges in August, 1987, after refusing to produce her daughter Hilary for court-ordered visits with Eric Foretich, Morgan’s ex-husband and the girl’s father. Morgan said she hid the girl because Foretich had sexually abused her; Foretich has denied those charges. Morgan has been in prison ever since, and the 6-year-old Hilary’s whereabouts are unknown. “She will not trade her freedom for her daughter’s safety,” Stephen Sachs, Morgan’s attorney, told a three-judge District of Columbia Court of Appeals panel that was reviewing a lower court judge’s decision to keep Morgan behind bars.