Source:
Miami HeraldGovernors' office kept tabs on Cuban girl's case
Top state officials took extraordinary steps in the handling of a potentially explosive custody case.
Posted on Fri, Dec. 21, 2007
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
As a child custody case involving a then-4-year-old girl from Cuba was taking shape in early 2006, a spokeswoman for Florida's child-welfare agency sent word to the highest levels of state government: The case had the potential to get ``very public.''
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There's nothing improper about the governor's office overseeing an agency like DCF -- the governor appoints DCF's head, for example. Additionally no specific directives from either governor were documented in state e-mails about the case. But DCF's strategy was expensive, costing more than $250,000. And, in the context of child-custody cases, it was unusual.
''I've never seen a case like that,'' said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, a nearly 10-year veteran of child-welfare court. She was referring to DCF's request to strip Izquierdo of custody of his daughter, even though he was declared a fit parent. ``Ever, ever, ever, ever.''
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Among other criticisms, Cohen noted that DCF asked her to leave the girl with the Cubases under a permanent guardianship -- a custody arrangement virtually unheard of for a young child with a fit parent. And she noted that it took DCF about three months to formally notify Izquierdo in Cuba that his daughter was in state care, and that he was at risk of losing custody.
''The department had phone numbers and didn't call him,'' Cohen said during the trial's closing arguments.''If the father lived in Alabama, we would not have this situation, because you would have contacted him immediately,'' Cohen told DCF attorney Rebecca Kapusta. ``You would have handled it differently if the parent lived in Switzerland.''
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/352670.html