Parents Regain Custody of Son After Six Year Legal Battle

First, the story from the victims from Friends of Noah Levi Bond Website . The adoptive parent cruel keepaway game didn’t work this time:

“I, Ibbaanika Bond, and my son’s father, Craig Lentz, are fighting for the best interest of our son, Noah Levi Bond. Three years ago Megan and Stuart Taylor coerced me into signing away my parental rights through legal fraud. I was in college when I found out that I was pregnant. I told my family I was going on an internship and hid my pregnancy from my family out of embarrassment and fear of disappointing them. After my baby was born I met Eileen and Randal Bakers who attended the International House of Prayer, a church in Kansas City. The Bakers said that they wanted to help me “get right with God” and help me break the news of my pregnancy to my family. The Bakers introduced me to their friends Megan and Stuart Taylor who also presented themselves to me as Christian people who wanted to help me through this difficult time. In reality, when the Bakers told them about me they saw an opportunity to take my only child easily and inexpensively, although they have their own biological children. The Bakers offered to let my son stay in their house for a short time while I broke the news of my pregnancy to my family. I was to take care of Noah during the day and Eileen would take care of him at night.

When I brought Noah to Eileen and Randy’s house Eileen took me aside and told me that, as a condition for their help, I now had to sign a childcare agreement with them for liability purposes in case anything happened to Noah at their house. It would be evidence that I didn’t abandon him so that he wouldn’t be taken into DFS custody. It was hand written on a piece of stationary, which I signed. The Bakers have since refused to give it to me, and it has never been produced in court.

Without my knowledge the Bakers gave this piece of paper to the Taylors who, along with Michael Mann, a lawyer that the Taylors hired, who claimed to represent me though he didn’t, went to court behind my back and claimed that this piece of paper was a foster care agreement, and that because he was a “foster child,” the court had jurisdiction over my son. The paper I signed was not a foster care agreement.

I had never signed any retainer agreement with Michael Mann or any other agreement that he represented me. Contrary to what the Bakers told me, the true purpose of having me sign that paper was so that the Taylors could go to court behind my back, claim that I was ready to relinquish my parental rights and request that a family court commissioner prohibit me from taking Noah out of “foster care.” Commissioner Alan, the family court Commissioner residing over the case granted the Taylors this legal hold. With the aid of the Bakers, the Taylors and Michel Mann committed fraud in court to gain control over my son and keep me in a position to be coerced because I had to go through the Bakers to see my son.

Later, Eileen claimed that she had to go out of town to visit her daughter and she couldn’t take back the plane tickets. Randy Baker wouldn’t help me care for Noah and I didn’t want him to go anywhere else so I planned to just take my son home and I thought my family would just have to find out this way. When I told Eileen what I planned to do she told me that a Commissioner had said I was a bad mother and placed a hold on my son, so I couldn’t take him away from her home. She showed me part of the hold papers that had been filed in court. There were two pages to the hold papers (though I wouldn’t find that out until months later in court), one that was the request by the Taylor’s that the hold be placed on my child, and the other (the one Eileen Baker showed me) where the judge ordered the hold. Eileen hid the first page from me because she knew I would never sign away my parental rights if I knew that the Taylor’s had been going to court behind my back to manipulate my child away from me. Because I couldn’t take him home, she said that if I didn’t move into her house my baby would have to be cared for by another lady in a foster home and if anything bad happened there my child would likely go to the state.

During the time I stayed at the Baker’s, Randy Baker, who had not left town with his wife, constantly pressured me to relinquish my parental rights, saying it was God’s will–using my belief in God to manipulate me. My child was sick and I had to stay up round the clock caring for him and Randy offered me no help. What Randy did do was discourage me, saying that my lack of parenting experience would not be good for my son, and that for my sons sake I should just give him up. As a new mother experiencing postpartum depression and exhaustion from lack of sleep this pressure was overwhelming. I was eventually taken to the Baker’s and Taylor’s church, the International House of Prayer where I received taped prophecies that the Taylors later played repeatedly for me to finally convince me to relinquish my rights against the will of my son’s father Craig Lentz.
At the time the Taylors and Bakers were coercing me, my son’s father Craig Lentz, who had been involved in his son’s life from the time I found out I was pregnant and continued to call me every day, was living and working in another town trying to find work in Kansas City in preparation for raising our son. During our phone conversations he began to suspect something was wrong and came into town to see me. When he found out what the Taylors were doing he met with them and pleaded with them not to try to adopt his son. They told him they were going to adopt his son whether he liked it or not and went to court the next day, claiming they didn’t know who Noah’s father was, and got temporary custody. Craig immediately hired a lawyer and brought a case to gain custody of Noah. After the pretrial hearing for his case the Jackson County Family Court put Craig and I under a gag order for the next two years and threatened to throw me in jail if I ever talked about what happened to me.

Once I got away from the Baker’s house I realized that I had made the worst mistake of my life and went to court to revoke my relinquishment, but the court denied my motions without so much as a hearing or any other kind of consideration of the overwhelming evidence of duress in my case. When the Taylors asked that a hold be placed on my son in the first place, Commissioner Alan saw that I wasn’t at the court date, but didn’t bother to verify whether Michael Mann was really my lawyer. He didn’t bother to verify whether anything the Taylors were claiming about my intentions to relinquish were true and he didn’t question the Taylors’ need to have a hold placed on my son if I really planned on relinquishing my rights. He didn’t even bother to verify the authenticity of the fake foster care agreement the Taylors claimed to have but never showed him, which supposedly gave him jurisdiction over the matter in the first place. Instead of doing his job he gave the Taylors control of a child who had a legal and custodial guardian who had done nothing wrong, without even questioning it. When I tried to revoke my relinquishment, Commissioner Alan had an opportunity to right this wrong but he wouldn’t even do that. Commissioner Alan actions were negligent and corrupt.

The corruption didn’t stop there. Craig never signed away his rights and did everything the state said he had to do to establish his paternity. The local family court said that under a new law, section 453.030 of the Missouri Statutes, he had no right to his son and would not allow him to present any evidence of his paternity. Craig was on the birth certificate, and the local court would not take that into account. He had a DNA test, and the local family circuit court BARRED DNA FROM BEING ADMITTED. He had been involved and supporting his son from the time he found out I was pregnant but the local court deemed that to be inadmissible. They gave Craig’s baby to the Taylors and threatened to throw him in jail if he ever talked about it.

Craig’s case went to the Supreme Court of Missouri in December of 2006. He won unanimously. The Taylors tried to have the Supreme Court case put under a gag order but the Supreme Court denied their request to gag the case. The Supreme Court found that it could never be found that Craig abandoned his son. He had done everything the state required to establish his paternity. The Supreme Court sent it back down to the local court so Craig could present evidence of his fitness as a parent and get his son back. When Craig got back down to the local level, instead of letting him present evidence of his fitness as a parent, Commissioner John F. Payne refused to acknowledge the Supreme Court of Missouri’s finding that his paternity had been established–that he had the same rights as any married father under the Missouri State Constitution and the United States Constitution. Instead he let the Taylors just file for a third adoption petition which was almost identical to the other two adoption petitions that they had already filed which were overturned by the Supreme Court of Missouri. This was illegal. This child was unadoptable without the legal father’s–Craig Lentz’s consent. Craig’s lawyer filed a motion for the dismissal of this petition, but Commissioner Payne did whatever he pleased.

The Taylors first two adoption petitions which had been overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court included abandonment and neglect as charges against Craig and this third petition cited these same charges, thus revisiting issues that the Missouri Supreme Court had already decided on. The main reason that was stated on the third petition for the adoption and termination of Craig rights were that he had neglected and abandoned his son for 6 months prior to the filing of this third petition for adoption. The Supreme Court had already made a finding that he did not abandon his son. Craig was winning in the Supreme Court three months prior to the filing of the Taylor’s new petition. He also sent a check for $450.00 for child support, one of many support checks sent to the Taylors, though he was never ordered to pay child support, which the Taylors received and signed for a day before they filed this third petition for adoption. However Commissioner Payne just gave an order for the date of filing to be back dated six days and let them file the adoption petition anyway.

Then Commissioner Payne just kept scheduling hearings and at the last minute he would cancel them. He canceled one for a procedural reason a week after the Supreme Courts decision was finalized. Two months later he canceled the hearing because he “had a divorce that was running long” (this was illegal because according to state law contested adoption proceedings are supposed to be heard before all other hearings because the permanency of the child is of utmost importance). Three months later Commissioner Payne gave an all summer, three month long extension to the Taylors because their attorney Cheri Cole Simpkins’, 9 month old son might have to have a tonsillectomy, which he never had. Commissioner Payne was removed from the case for letting the Taylors have that extension. The new commissioner, Molly Merrigan, tried to have a hearing at the end of July but the Taylor’s attorney Cheri Cole Simpkins said that “no time would be good for her until the end of August,” Finally, in August Commissioner Molly Merrigan was supposed to have a hearing on the adoption and Craig’s fitness as a parent.

At that hearing she acknowledged, and gave an order stating, that indeed Craig’s paternity had been established, and that it had been a finding by the Supreme Court that he was Noah Levi Bond’s natural father and that his paternity was established. As such the Adoption petition should have been dismissed then because Craig was a fit parent and he did not consent to the adoption of his son. Instead though, Commissioner Molly Merrigan refused to have a trial and started a 211 DFS investigation for abuse on Craig even though he had never abused or neglected his son and had never been accused of any abuse, neglect, or wrong doing. At the cost of the taxpayers Commissioner Molly Merrigan had Craig investigated up one side and down the other—just like a person that committed child abuse would be, only he never committed any abuse. She only gave Craig supervised visitation—just like an child abusing parent would get though there was never any abuse. A court date was then set for October 22, 2007 where the petition for adoption was to be decided and the abuse investigation was to be decided.

On October 22, 2007 the juvenile officer for the DFS dropped the investigation against Craig because he had never done anything wrong and he was a fit parent and the DFS therapist recommended a six week plan for reunification with his son. As such the court had no jurisdiction and they definitely should have given Craig’s son back to him. But Molly Merrigan continued on with hearings on the adoption petition. In court it was revealed that the Taylors had actually been breaking the gag order that they had requested for three years with a blog that chronicled the way that they planned to steal baby Noah that was posted online. This blog also revealed in their own words that they had been committing welfare fraud and lying to the court about it, that they were mean to Noah when his parents sent gifts, and that they were planning to flee the country with baby Noah. In this blog Megan Taylor describes herself as semi-stable and talks about how she wants Craig dead when he sends his son a Christmas present because it would simplify her life. Though the court allowed this to be entered into evidence, Commissioner Molly Merrigan said that she thought it was normal for these things to be written given the stress of the trial and that even though specific information was posted about trial dates and their outcomes on the internet Commissioner Merrigan said that she didn’t think that the blog violated the gag order.

On January 1, 2007 Commissioner Molly Merrigan terminated Craig’s parental rights for the exact same reasons that the Supreme Court had already overturned the earlier petition. She directly defied the Supreme Court of Missouri and cut off all visitation that Craig had with his son immediately. Craig didn’t even get a chance to tell Noah good-bye.

Craig had been visiting with Noah twice a week in Craig’s home for seven months, planning for Noah’s homecoming. Noah is a very sweet boy and has gotten very close with his father and his grandmother as well. He told them ‘I love you’ all the time. He has his own room at Craig’s home that he calls his room, with toys he picked out and furniture bought just for him. Now his room sits empty and according to Commissioner Molly Merrigan Craig will never see his son again.

This is a kidnapping. The Supreme Court of Missouri already decided that Craig was Noah’s legal father. He did everything he was supposed to, as required by the state, to establish himself as Noah’s legal father–as was found by the Missouri Supreme Court. Through a DFS investigation the state has declared him to be a fit father and found that he never abused or neglected his son. Commissioner Molly Merrigan cannot just terminate Craig Lentz’s parental rights and cut him out of his sons life forever just because she feels like it. That is illegal–and that is what she is trying to do. She is defying the Missouri state Constitution, the US Constitution, the Supreme Court of Missouri and the Missouri state laws governing adoption. This Commissioner must not be allowed to assist in the kidnapping of this child, she must be stopped. This court has wasted a year of Noah Levi Bond’s life.”

Now, the Better News

“Seven years after he was born, a Raytown boy is finally living with his biological parents.”

“Noah Bond is now seven-years-old, but his birthday in December was the first he ever spent with his parents. It was December 2004 when Craig Lentz filmed the birth of his son when his girlfriend gave birth. But during a bout of what she says was postpartum depression, Ebbie Bond agreed to give up custody.

Lentz’s name wasn’t on the birth certificate so he had no legal standing to stop the process.

“When we went to get it, there was no record that Noah was ever born.”

““Somehow the Taylor’s had changed Noah’s birth certificate without ever having an adoption and that if I died in the accident there would be no record that he was ever born and he would’ve just disappeared into Texas and that would’ve been that,” said Craig Lentz.

The accident Lentz refers to was a car crash on Highway 350 in June of 2010. He died on the operating table twice only to survive months of painful rehabilitation and more delays to his expensive custody battle.”

“Justice for Craig and Ebbie came in August when Craig was finally awarded permanent custody of Noah.

Parents Regain Custody of Son After Six Year Legal Battle
[Fox Kansas City 2/21/12 by Rob Low]

REFORM Puzzle Piece