Unwed Father Seeks His 4-Month-Old Son

Mark Hylland, one of a handful of unmarried fathers ever to win custody of a child, spends his days searching for the son he has never seen.

Hylland’s former girlfriend, Janet K. Ohnemus, all but disappeared when she was 7 1/2 months pregnant. She later put the child up for adoption in Oregon, officials said. Meanwhile, Hylland went to court and won custody.

Now Hylland, 26, a resident of Norwalk, is a man obsessed. Last August, he quit his job as a truck dispatcher to devote his time to a search that has so far cost $40,000. His mother, Dee, supports him.

There are the countless telephone calls and faxes to government offices, the periodic appearances on television and radio shows to publicize his plight, the trip to Oregon in search of adoption records. Hylland’s mission is to find the baby, now about 4 months old, and have the adoption nullified.

“I feel my son has been kidnaped and has been taken from his natural family,” Hylland said in an interview Wednesday. “I will do anything as a parent to have the child returned safely.”

Ohnemus, 25, could not be reached for comment. But in a television broadcast last August, she indicated that the child would be better off with adoptive parents than with a man she says has a violent temper. She has accused Hylland of abusing her, throwing her off the bed when she was five months pregnant. She said at the time that she has never disputed that Hylland is the baby’s father, only whether he would make a good one.

“I am fighting for my rights to protect an innocent child’s life,” Ohnemus said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

The 6-month-old case is focusing new attention on a gray legal area--the rights of unwed fathers. It is rare for a father, much less an unwed father, to win custody of a child. And experts disagree about a man’s right to raise a child born out of wedlock.

Reuben Pannor, a nationally recognized authority on adoption, said that based on U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating from 1972, Hylland should have had an opportunity to contest the adoption.

But other experts, such as Beverly Hills adoption attorney David K. Leavitt, say the law does not extend such rights to fathers in casual relationships where there was not any intent to procreate. Ohnemus and Hylland did not plan the pregnancy.

Hylland’s widely publicized fight has drawn notable supporters, including Jon Ryan, founder and president of the National Organization for Birth Fathers and Adoption Reform, which advocates the expansion of fathers’ rights.

“Being a father, he has a right to develop the relationship and continue the relationship,” Ryan said.

Hylland met Ohnemus a little more than two years ago when she came to Southern California to work as a music teacher with the Little Lake City School District, which has several schools in Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs.

Hylland, a part-time football coach and referee for the district, said he met Ohnemus on her first day on the job. He quickly befriended the young teacher from Napa, Calif., and the two began dating.

A month later, Ohnemus received news that her father had died. Hylland drove her to Napa for the funeral. Upon their return, she moved out of her Long Beach apartment and into his Norwalk home.

Battles over money and other issues began after about a year, Hylland said. In April, 1990, Hylland’s mother, tired of the arguing, kicked the two out of the home she had loaned her son. They moved into a Downey apartment, where the fighting continued. Ohnemus called the police on several occasions to report alleged abuse, but Hylland was never charged with a crime, officials said.

In December, 1990, Ohnemus moved in with a girlfriend. The next month, Ohnemus informed Hylland she was pregnant, and they moved in together again.

Ohnemus spoke of adoption occasionally, but Hylland said he wanted the child. In the middle of the night he would find her, five months pregnant, crying on the couch.

The music teacher often dreamed of being a singer or an actress, Hylland said. “She said we could both do so much more with our lives,” he said.

On June 17, Ohnemus left for good. She called in sick the last three days of the school year and told officials she had no intention of returning, said Little Lake Assistant Supt. Juan Lopez.

Hylland’s search for Ohnemus has been relentless since. He called her mother at work so many times that her employer, the Napa Volunteer Center, obtained a restraining order against Hylland, said Doug Smith, the center’s lawyer.

Last September, Hylland hired a private detective to help track down Ohnemus at a Santa Rosa maternity home. He then sent papers to Ohnemus informing her of a custody hearing in Norwalk Superior Court on Nov. 19.

But the mother failed to appear, and Judge Pro Tem Russell Varn awarded Hylland custody of the child. Varn, who declined to comment on the case, also ordered the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to assist in the search.

A break in the case came last week when district attorney’s investigators informed Hylland that Ohnemus had given up the baby for adoption in Oregon.

Hylland spent the past week in Oregon searching. He plans to seek a court order to have the adoption records unsealed so he can locate his son. But the battle clearly will not end there.

Oregon law requires that the father be notified, if at all possible, before an adoption is approved, said Sharon Gustafson, supervisor of adoption at the Oregon Children Services Department.

But Gustafson said confidentiality laws prevent her from even confirming whether the adoption had taken place in Oregon.