High Court Upholds Revocation of Rights of Mexican Parents : Children: Ruling clears way for U.S. parents to adopt a 5-year-old girl. Her parents are suspected of beating her.

In a case that sparked a tug of war with Mexico, the California Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a San Diego court properly revoked the parental rights of a Mexican couple suspected of battering their child.

The unanimous decision clears the way for an American couple to adopt 5-year-old Stephanie M., a Mexican citizen, who had been in their foster care for four years.

The Mexican government had contended that the San Diego Juvenile Court should have granted it jurisdiction in the case and allowed the child to live with her grandmother in Mexico. Justice Stanley Mosk, writing for the court, noted that Mexico did not assert jurisdiction until after the parents’ rights had already been severed. The Mexican Consulate was aware of the proceedings and had participated in them, Mosk noted.

San Diego County authorities removed Stephanie from her parents’ San Diego home after a doctor reported signs of abuse. At 1 year, Stephanie had three bone fractures and substantial bruising.

Her parents, who had entered the country illegally, denied they abused her and insisted she received the injuries in a fall.

The county placed the child in the Encinitas home of Brian and Lynn Parker, who have an 8-year-old daughter. Experts testified in the case that she bonded strongly with her foster mother and should be allowed to stay in the home. The Parkers agreed to adopt her.

But the child’s grandmother, a resident of Guadalajara, also wanted her, and Mexico intervened in the case on her behalf. A Court of Appeal in San Diego overturned the Juvenile Court’s decision and ordered the girl to be sent to live with her Mexican grandmother.

“The essence of the Juvenile Court’s ruling,” wrote Mosk, “was that the child was fragile, that she had a strong, healthy bond with the foster mother, and essentially no bond with the grandmother. . . . The Juvenile Court correctly focused on these factors in deciding the best interest of the child.”

But Carmela Simoncini, an attorney for the child’s biological mother, complained that the decision will create “long-range problems and really a lot of deterioration of what we like to think of as family.”

“I have a feeling you would hear quite a different response if an American citizen had been freed for adoption in Mexico,” the attorney said, adding that the child is being raised in an “Anglo Saxon” home where the parents cannot speak Spanish.

Stephanie’s foster parents were delighted. “This was a child who was near death . . . , “ said Brian Parker, a broadcasting manager. “It’s been painful for everyone--we understand that. But especially for Steph. She is the one the court chose to rule for.”

He said she is “tremendously loved” in their home.

“She has a family, a life, a school that loves her, a Catholic church that loves her, friends, dance, pets and a sister who loves her very, very much and who she loves very, very much.”

Stephanie’s biological parents had complied with a county plan to reunite them with their daughter, visiting her at her foster parents’ home. But the Juvenile Court noted that the child displayed fear of her parents and became emotionally upset after their visits.

Determining that her return to them would create “a substantial risk of harm to her physical and emotional well-being,” the Juvenile Court denied them custody. The parents then sought to have the girl given to her grandmother or to an aunt in Long Beach.

Mexican officials investigated the grandmother’s home and reported that she would be a suitable guardian. They also promised to supervise the child’s placement with the grandmother.

But a county social worker said the grandmother would be unable to protect the child from her parents and recommended foster care.

Simoncini, the biological mother’s attorney, said the couple has returned to Mexico, and they now have a son. She said the mother was 17 when Stephanie was born, and no one saw her or her husband injure the child.