Parents End Battle, Agree to Share Custody of Girl

A mother who briefly lost custody of her daughter because she put the girl in day care will share custody of the 5-year-old with the father, ending a bitter, two-year court battle.

Jennifer Ireland and Steven Smith agreed Wednesday to share custody of Maranda Ireland-Smith, splitting weekends, holidays and summer vacations.

“It’s a decision they made, I believe, after a great deal of soul searching,” Macomb County Circuit Judge Lido Bucci said. “It’s an agreement that I think shows both parents are taking the best interest of this child at heart.”

Ireland, 21, will drop out of the University of Michigan and move to the Detroit suburb of Harrison Township with her mother, allowing her daughter to live near both parents. Smith, 22, lives in the suburb of St. Clair Shores. The couple never married.

Smith sued for custody in 1993, saying the girl would be better off with him because his own mother, a homemaker, could care for the child.

In June 1994, Judge Raymond Cashen ruled that Maranda would be better off with Smith because Ireland placed her in day care while she was at class. Cashen said the plan would mean the little girl would be “raised and supervised a great part of the time by strangers.”

The decision triggered protests from such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women.

“It’s just unfair,” Ireland said at the time. “It’s a decision based on the 1950s. She loves going to day care. She wouldn’t be with strangers.”

Howard Simon of the ACLU said in 1994 that a ruling in favor of Smith would not be a victory for men but could hurt both men and women who work.

“It’s not pro-male. It’s anti-parents who are dependent on day care,” he said.

The Michigan Court of Appeals ordered a retrial last November, leaving Maranda with her mother, who had raised her from birth. The state Supreme Court in May agreed that the use of day care couldn’t be used against a parent in determining custody.

Bucci said he will review the settlement in a year. Cashen, 71, died in August.