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International Child Visitation to Colombia

By Jeremy Morley

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.hrw.org/images/maps/colombia.gif"img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 181px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 204px" alt="" src="http://www.hrw.org/images/maps/colombia.gif" border="0" //aspan style="font-family:arial;"span style="color:#660000;"strongWe represented the mother in successfully defeating ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /st1:city st="on"the Hague/st1:city International Child Abduction Convention portion of this case in st1:state st="on"st1:place st="on"North Carolina/st1:place/st1:state./strong/span /span?xml:namespace prefix = o /o:pbr //o:pbr /h2 style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-ALIGN: center"span style="font-size:100%;"International child-custody case settledo:p/o:p/span/h2div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"/divh3 style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-ALIGN: center"span style="font-size:85%;"A boy, 12, will live in the st1:country-region st="on"st1:place st="on"U.S./st1:place/st1:country-region with his mother. His father can visit but can't take the boy to visit st1:country-region st="on"st1:place st="on"Colombia/st1:place/st1:country-region against his will/spano:p/o:p/h3span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"/spano:p style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"/o:pp class="MsoNormal" style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"A custody tug-of-war spanning two continents was settled Monday in st1:city st="on"Durham/st1:city County court [st1:state st="on"st1:place st="on"North Carolina/st1:place/st1:state], ending a protracted dispute embodying international treaties and questions of travel safety. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"Alejandro Ramirez Polania, a 12-year-old in st1:city st="on"Durham/st1:city, will live in the st1:country-region st="on"st1:place st="on"United States/st1:place/st1:country-region with his mother, a judge ruled. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"His father, who lives in st1:country-region st="on"st1:place st="on"Colombia/st1:place/st1:country-region, may visit, according to the settlement agreement, but the boy will not be forced against his will to visit a country where his mother fears he might be a target of kidnappers. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"The case resulted in at least one complaint to the Judicial Standards Commission about Judge Craig Brown, who since has stepped down from the bench. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"Alejandro's mother, Claudia Krehbiel, also filed a federal lawsuit against the state attorney general because of her dissatisfaction with Brown's finding in August that st1:country-region st="on"st1:place st="on"Colombia/st1:place/st1:country-region was safe enough for her son to visit. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"During a four-day hearing in July and August, experts debated the safety of st1:city st="on"Bogota/st1:city in a st1:city st="on"st1:place st="on"Durham/st1:place/st1:cityo:p/o:p/span courtroom. A former FBI agent and a Colombian colonel testified to dangers lurking in the capital. The father presented reports showing a decline in crime. /pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"bJudge removes self/bo:p/o:p/span /pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"After the complaint to the judicial standards commission, a grievance that was never publicly investigated, Brown removed himself from the case. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"When Brown stepped down from the bench in May, he did not reveal his reasons for the sudden departure. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"As the family waited for a hearing in front of a different judge, mother, son and stepfather tried to enlist a global audience in their battle. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"The Web site savealejandro.com shows a picture of Alejandro, his arms crossed, standing by an American flag. "My life, my story. ... please help keep me safe!" the banner reads. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"Alejandro moved to the st1:country-region st="on"st1:place st="on"United States/st1:place/st1:country-region with his mother when he was 6. His parents, both native Colombians, never married. But both wanted to play a role in his life. o:p/o:p/span/pp style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:100%;"The judge ordered regular communication via e-mail and other computer technologies. He ordered the family to take down the Web site and said the visitation issue could be revisited only through a court order./span o:p/o:p/pp class="MsoNormal" style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"span style="font-size:78%;"The News amp; Observer, Jun 24, 2008,span class="author" Anne Blythe/span, Staff Writer/span/p

Full post as published by International Family Law on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).