Child in Bitter Custody Fight Moved to Florida

A woman who lost custody of her biological daughter to a man unrelated to the girl in an extraordinary court ruling--just reversed on appeal--has now discovered that the man moved with her child to Florida late last year.

Catherine Thomas--who says she has tried in vain for 2 1/2 years to see or speak to her daughter--said Thursday she was never told of the cross-country move. She said she learned about it only last week in legal papers that were filed after a state court of appeal reversed the unusual custody award.

“I was very surprised,” said Thomas, who spoke at length Thursday of her renewed hope that her daughter Courtney, now 8, will live with her again.

“I want us to be a family again,” she said. “I want to see her. I want to watch her grow up. She was part of our lives, part of our family, and she’s missing, you know?”

The bitter fight over Courtney arose in 1992 when Thomas, a single mother of three who lived in the San Fernando Valley, was sued for parental rights to the girl by a former family friend who had helped care for the child.

Acknowledging that he had no blood ties to the girl, Douglas “Kevin” Thomas of Van Nuys successfully argued that he had played such a significant role in Courtney’s daily life that he deserved legal recognition as her “natural father.”

Indeed, Kevin Thomas said, he felt so strongly about his bond to Courtney since birth that he listed his name as her father on her birth certificate, though he is openly gay. He also legally changed his name from Douglas McCain to match Courtney’s and her mother’s name.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge agreed, and after Catherine Thomas twice fled with Courtney in violation of court orders, awarded Kevin Thomas sole physical custody of the child.

Because she was deemed a flight risk, Catherine Thomas was allowed visits with her daughter only if she could arrange for them in a secured place with paid monitors, measures she said she could not afford after depleting her savings and giving up her job during the legal battle.

But earlier this month, the 2nd District Court of Appeal overturned the custody award by Judge Martha Goldin of Los Angeles, saying acceptance of the judge’s reasoning could pave the way for any baby-sitter, friend or stepparent to assert their rights over those of biological parents.

Noting that Catherine Thomas was never found to be an unfit mother, the appeal court ordered Goldin to hear the case again and said custody should go to the mother unless a specific finding is made that it would be detrimental to the child.

A hearing in the case, in which Kevin Thomas could still win visitation rights, has yet to be scheduled.

Kevin Thomas’ lawyer, paternity rights specialist Glen Schwartz of Encino, said Thursday that Catherine Thomas has made no effort to see her daughter since losing custody and had effectively “disappeared” by moving to Las Vegas.

Schwartz acknowledged that Kevin Thomas gave no notice of his move to Florida last October--to either Catherine Thomas or the court--and said he was under no legal obligation to do so. Nothing in Goldin’s order limited where Kevin Thomas could live, Schwartz added.

But Catherine Thomas maintained Thursday that she and her two sons, ages 15 and 19, have made “several” attempts to contact Courtney without any response. Her lawyer, Michael Goch of Encino, would not allow her to elaborate but said they would present corroborating evidence when they returned to court.

Catherine Thomas also learned through the recent legal papers filed by Schwartz that Courtney--who was born with a rare neurological disorder and several other birth defects--has had two operations during the past two years.

In an interview in Goch’s office, Catherine Thomas, nearly 49, said she thinks of her daughter and prays for her daily but is trying to overcome her anger toward Kevin Thomas, once a close friend whom she says she grew to mistrust because of his increasing demands for control over Courtney. Kevin Thomas filed his paternity rights suit after Catherine Thomas moved with her children from the Valley to Thousand Oaks in what she says was an effort to distance her family from him.

For a long time, she said, she was living in an emotional fog, unable to fully grasp what had happened to her. She says she spent a lot of time simply sitting by the pool at her apartment complex, feeling defeated and paralyzed by depression.

But in the past six months, she has found a full-time job as an office manager for a marketing-research company. She has started watching home videos of Courtney again, something she said she could not bear to do for a long time.