DAYTON - The process under which 2 year old Vanessa Doss was placed in an adoptive home in California private came under review Monday on the first day of the "Baby Vanessa" custody hearing.
Solicitors for the biological father, Benjamin Mills Jr., argued that the baby was removed, in California, shortly after his birth in violation of the right of the Ohio.
Lead counsel that legal aid of Western Ohio Inc. Elizabeth Gorman said that the procedure has not been followed pursuant to Interstate Compact the Ohio on the Placement of children law, which governs the adoption of children in other States.
Mills is seeking custody of the child, which was raised by Stacey Doss of California since birth. Mills mother, Rena Jordan of Middletown, raises two elderly sisters Vanessa and also seeks custody at the hearing before Montgomery County juvenile court judge Nick Kuntz, is expected to last throughout the week.
Most of the testimony Monday focused on the birth mother, Andrea Conley.
Maintain focus on Conley drew protests from Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias Heck, that represents the child for children Services. Conley does not seek custody, Heck noted: "It is not his actions but the inaction of Mr. Mills that have brought us here."
Mills stood up and began to respond, but has been reduced to silence by Mia Wortham-sorts, one of the counsel of the Jordan. "Stop," Wortham-spells said on several occasions when Mills attempted to express themselves. It assigns worries Mills explosions for her mother and the emotional toll of the situation. Noting the national publicity surrounding Doss, said Wortham-spells, "the other side of the story did not say."
Donna Merrill, a supervisor with Montgomery County Children Services, was on the stand of almost the entire day, questioned the role of the Agency in the placement of the child.
Merrill, said she learned of the plan adopted when she visited Conley, on 16 June 2008, at Miami Valley Hospital, three days after the birth of the baby.
Mills filed a petition for custody on July 3, 2008, less than three weeks after the birth of Vanessa. Merrill testified that one of its agents initially asked Jordan if she would be interested in guardianship. Merrill testified about a report in November 2008, who stated that the "parents were not connected with the baby that she is out of their care and visits are not taking place." Gorman argued that the actions of children Services prevent binding Mills with his daughter.
Gorman, said that it expected to testify for seven or eight.
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