Michigan Court Orders Child Sent Back to Biological Parents in Iowa

A 2-year-old girl must leave the couple who raised her since birth and go back to the biological parents she never knew, Michigan’s top court ruled Friday in an interstate custody dispute.

The state Supreme Court ordered the child sent back to Daniel and Cara Schmidt in Iowa, saying that Michigan courts have no jurisdiction in the case.

The 6-1 ruling gives Jan and Roberta DeBoer of Ann Arbor, who call the girl Jessica, until Aug. 2 to surrender her to the Schmidts, who call her Anna.

The DeBoers will ask the U.S. Supreme Court next week to block the ruling, their lawyer said.

The dispute began when Cara Schmidt, then unmarried, signed adoption papers shortly after giving birth in February, 1991.

She changed her mind about the adoption, informed Daniel Schmidt of the baby and, within a few weeks of the girl’s birth, started a legal battle to get her back. The couple later married.

Iowa courts upheld the Schmidts’ rights to the child, but the DeBoers brought the case to Michigan, where a circuit court judge awarded them custody in February. In March, the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned that decision. The DeBoers appealed to the state Supreme Court.

In its ruling Friday, the court said federal child custody and parental kidnaping laws give Michigan courts no jurisdiction in the case.