Teen Wins Battle for New Parents

A teen who won a groundbreaking legal battle last summer to “divorce” his imprisoned father walked out of court Thursday with new adoptive parents.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be over it,” Patrick Holland said of his mother’s 1998 slaying by his father. “But it’s a step forward. It’s about the biggest step you can take at one time.”

Patrick, 15, was adopted by Ron and Rita Lazisky; they have been his guardians and were close friends of his mother.

The Laziskys, of Sandown, N.H., have cared for Patrick since shortly after Daniel Holland fatally shot Liz Holland at the family’s home in Quincy, Mass. Then 8, Patrick found his mother’s body the next morning. Daniel Holland is serving life in prison without parole.

Patrick was one of the first children to initiate a parental-rights termination proceeding against one parent for killing the other. He argued that Daniel Holland had forfeited any right to be his father the night he shot Liz Holland eight times.

The Massachusetts Department of Social Services placed the boy in a so-called bridge home while grandparents on each side competed with the Laziskys for custody. But Patrick wanted to live with the Laziskys, and stayed with them after they qualified as foster parents.

“I’m just so happy. I never thought I’d see the day,” a beaming Rita Lazisky said after the closed hearing in Norfolk County Probate and Family Court.

Her husband added: “I had to hold back tears. It’s been a very uphill battle for us for four years.”

The Laziskys’ names will be on Patrick’s new birth certificate.

The boy will keep the name Holland -- the last name he shared with his mother.

After Patrick moved in with the Laziskys, Massachusetts social workers brokered a settlement with Daniel Holland’s parents that made the Laziskys the boy’s legal guardians; the agreement stipulated they could not seek adoption until 2005.

Because there was no adoption, Daniel Holland’s parental rights were not terminated then.

That was fine with Patrick, until his father started asking for his school and counseling records. The teen then decided to go to court.

After about three years of legal wrangling over whether a minor could sue to terminate parental rights -- and whether the case belonged in Massachusetts or New Hampshire -- Patrick got a hearing date.

In July, on the eve of the trial, Daniel Holland agreed to settle, signing away his parental rights in an agreement specifying that Patrick was the sole heir to the slain woman’s estate. That move cleared the way for the adoption.