Ruling Keeps Parents From Taking Child

A couple who gave their infant daughter to family friends for temporary care-taking and subsequently claimed the girl had been abducted were blocked Friday from taking the girl home with them.

A State Supreme Court judge temporarily delayed the reunion of biological parents Ernest Barnett and Lazalia Urick of Ridge Manor, Fla., and their daughter Crystal Ann Urick, whom they had not seen in seven years.

Judge Robert F. Orr said the temporary delay is in response to a motion filed late Thursday by a child-advocacy group on behalf of Crystal, 7.

“They are obviously disappointed,” attorney Rob J. Lane III said of the couple. “They were planning on packing up the car and going back to Florida this weekend with Crystal.”

Legal Services of North Carolina raised new concerns about whether Barnett and Urick were fit to raise Crystal. The motion claims that Wake County Human Services in North Carolina failed to thoroughly investigate the parents before a custody hearing.

Lewis Pitts, a director for Legal Services, said that Barnett had pleaded guilty to several felony charges over the past decade in Florida, and the convictions were never reported to the judge who granted custody.

“The state has miserably failed in its duty to investigate and present all of the evidence,” Pitts said.

Officials with Wake County did not immediately return calls.

Barnett, 29, was put on three years probation last year after pleading guilty to two felony counts of cashing stolen checks. In 1995, he served time after pleading guilty to two felonies dealing with stolen property and fraudulent use of a debit card.

Orr ordered the parties to respond by May 7. Meanwhile, Crystal will stay in foster care.

The judge’s ruling came a day after a hearing in which the charge against the woman originally accused of abducting Crystal was changed to felonious restraint. Katherine Gaytan’s bond was reduced from $1 million to $25,000.