Pennsylvania Man Gets “Jenkins”ed in Another Utah Father’s Rights Case UPDATED
Larry is involved in so many cases that we coined a new phrase. To get “Jenkins”-ed means that your child was moved across state lines into Utah to be adopted without your knowledge.
Christopher Carlton began dating Shalonda Brown in 2009. Later that year, she became pregnant and they broke up a few months after that. Christopher had children from a previous marriage and still wanted to help her. He gave her money and bought her a car.
“But around the time Brown should have been giving birth, she vanished.
“Do you all know where she is?” Carlton said he asked her family when he contacted them about Brown’s whereabouts. “They said, ‘We don’t know.’ And I said, ‘We should file a missing persons report.’ The police told me I couldn’t because we weren’t married.”
Carlton said a few days passed and he received a phone call from Brown.
“I was really concerned, and I said, ‘Listen, forget pretty much what’s happening with us, where are you at?'” he recalled.
Carlton said Brown only told him that she had given birth to a boy, whom she named Jaylen. She told him the baby had respiratory problems and died.
“Even if my child was alive for two days and you kept it from me, it’s still unforgivable. But at least being a father, the honorable thing to do would let me give my child a proper burial.” he said.
Not knowing where Brown was or where his son’s body was buried, Carlton began searching.
“I called every single NICU unit on the Eastern Seaboard looking for that child,” he said. “I spent a couple thousand dollars renting cars, driving.”
“Carlton said privacy laws prevented him from learning anything about where his child might have been born and, subsequently buried.
In the meantime, he said he kept calling Brown for information.
“She got tired of me bugging her, so she went downtown and filed an emergency protection from abuse order,” he said.
In court documents filed in Lycoming County, Penn., Brown claimed that Carlton had “pushed” her and threatened to “make [her] life a living hell.”
However, court transcripts obtained by KSL News show the charges were dropped when Judge Dudley Anderson told Brown he would be required to put her on the witness stand where she would be forced to tell Carlton where the child was buried.
The transcripts show Brown told Judge Anderson she wanted to drop the charges. He dismissed the order without prejudice.
“If I was such a hateful person, if I tried to cause her harm, if I tried to do anything evil to her, wouldn’t she still want to get on that stand?,” he asked. “(Wouldn’t she) still want to prosecute me so much?”
The truth
Months went by and Carlton still didn’t have any answers, until one day when his phone rang.
“She called on Oct. 19. [She said,]‘I want to tell you about the baby,'” Carlton recalled. “I said, ‘Woman, you’ve done enough. You won’t tell me where the body is. You won’t tell me how my son died.'”
This time, Carlton said Brown told him she wanted to talk but in front of a grief counselor the next day.
“She looked at me pretty much crying and said flat out, ‘The baby is not dead,'” Carlton said.
Brown then told him she put the baby up for adoption.
“Before I left, I said, ‘Where did you put my child up for adoption?’ And she wouldn’t say anything,” he said.
On November 1, 2010, Carlton filed a Complaint for Custody in Lycoming County, Penn. It was during the emergency hearing on Nov. 23 that Carlton learned where his child was.
“The judge said, ‘Mr. Carlton, your child was put up for adoption at a place called the Adoption Center of Choice located in Orem, Utah,'” Carlton said.
Carlton said he found the adoption agency’s phone number and called, thinking employees there would recognize the mistake.
“We made a mistake, yes,” he said. “But, these people came back to me with papers and said I don’t have any rights to know anything regarding that child — that means birth certificates, where the child was born, how much she weighed, nothing! I’m thinking how is this possible? She stole my child!”
Another lie discovered through the court process: Carlton’s attorney discovered the child was, in fact, a girl.
“Remember that boy you were fighting for?” he recalled his attorney asking him. “‘Yeah, my son?’ (He said,) ‘What if we told you it was a little girl?'”
The Utah court battle
On January 11, 2011, Carlton’s attorney filed a Motion to Intervene in Fourth District Court in Utah.
In court documents filed by the attorney representing the Adoption Center of Choice and Shalonda Brown, Larry Jenkins argued that “an unmarried biological father’s consent to the adoption is not required unless he strictly complied with requirement of the Adoption Act to timely establish parental rights.”
Jenkins maintained that Carlton did not establish his parental rights in Utah under the schedule required. Judge Steven Hansen agreed with that argument and dismissed Carlton’s case.
“The court said, ‘I’ve got enough information here and don’t need to know anything more. You’re done Mr. Carlton,'” said Wes Hutchins, Carlton’s attorney.
Hutchins has now filed an appeal to the Utah Supreme Court. “His constitutional rights were violated, and we’re asking the Supreme Court to recognize that and overturn the incorrect decision of the trial court.” he said.
When contacted, Brown refused to speak to KSL News regarding the court case.
However, the Adoption Center of Choice sent a statement through its attorney, Larry Jenkins, which read in part: “The district court carefully evaluated the facts alleged by Mr. Carlton and the claims he raised. The Adoption Center believes the district court ruled correctly and that second-guessing the district court’s decision or trying the case in the media is inappropriate.”
A child he may never know
“The only thing that gives me peace of mind is karma. When you do something that evil, it comes back to you. She’s got to wake up every day knowing what she did,” Carlton said.
Yet, he hopes karma will one day bring his daughter back.
“I’ll be sitting right here in this chair and I’ll get a knock at the door, and there will be some person there that I’ve never seen in my life,” he said. “She’ll say, ‘Hello, I think you are my father.'”
He said when she asks why he didn’t fight for her, he’ll tell her he did. But he’ll tell her Utah adoption laws stopped him cold.
“I’ve been through the foster care system. I know what that’s like,” Carlton said. “But Utah has no right to manipulate and misuse the laws that were in place to protect children. You’re using them for your own gain.””
Search for child stopped cold by Utah adoption laws, father says
[KSL 3/15/12 by Lori Pritchard]
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
Law changes need to happen in Utah. How many other cases are there like this one? How many other fathers think that their child has died when the child really has been adopted in Utah?
Update: “Chris Carlton of Williamsport has spent almost two years trying to find his child.
His story raises questions about the rights of biological fathers whose children are put up for adoption without their knowledge.
His journey to get to the truth has been filled with frustration and pain.
With six tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chris Carlton is used to battle.
But now, he`s home in Williamsport, fighting a different kind of fight.
“Where`s my baby?” asks Carlton, about the child he and his then-girlfriend conceived in late September 2010.
The couple split two months later, but Chris wanted to be a part of his child`s life.
So he says he kept in touch with the woman throughout the winter.
But, Chris says she left Williamsport without telling him in May 2011, eight months into her pregnancy.
Then in June, a week after the due date, Carlton says, the woman contacted a couple of his friends, who in turn told Chris the news.
“She called and told us the baby was born,” Carlton says quoting a friend. “And I was like: `What? Why didn`t she call me?”
Two weeks after that, Chris says she sent pictures to his phone claiming it was their baby son.
He wanted to see him.
But in July, Chris says the woman showed up at his house, claiming, the baby had died.
“I`ve never felt that kind of pain,” recounts Carlton. “And I believe no parent should feel that pain. And for the people that have already felt the pain, God!”
Chris demanded to know where the baby was buried. He persisted for three months.
Chris Carlton says he received a call to hurry down to a women’s center in Williamsport, to meet with a counselor and his ex. It was here, Chris says, the woman dropped a bombshell that changed everything.
“The baby`s not dead,” Carlton quotes the woman as saying. “And I looked and I said, `What? What do you mean my child isn’t dead.’ And she said, `Wait, I put the child up for adoption.’”
Chris says she would not tell him where the adoption took place. So he took her to court in Lycoming County.
“The first thing the judge said to her, looking through the papers, `Where`s the baby?’” said Carlton.
After the court hearing, Chris says the woman told him that she had flown to Utah to give birth and to give up the baby to a business called “The Adoption Agency of Choice” Near Salt Lake City.
Chris Carlton says called the agency saying this: “My child was put up for adoption illegally, against my will, y`all need to give my child back. ‘We don`t have to do anything ,sir.’”
Chris flew to Utah.
And he took his case to court.
But in January, a Utah judge ruled against Chris claiming he didn’t establish his parental rights in Utah fast enough to stop the adoption.
The attorney for the Adoption Center of Choice near Salt Lake City sent us this statement:
“In June, 2010, the Adoption Center of Choice (“Adoption Center”) assisted a birth mother from Pennsylvania with an adoption plan because she believed it was in her child’s best interests for the child to be placed for adoption. Because she was not married to the father of the child, she exercised her right to privacy and chose not to name him.
The Adoption Center ascertained that no man had established any rights regarding the child in either Pennsylvania or Utah prior to the birth mother’s placement of the child for adoption and, therefore, the decision whether to place the child for adoption was the mother’s decision to make. While the Adoption Center believes Mr. Carlton’s claim that the mother lied to him that the child had died is unfortunate, if true, this information was allegedly provided to him after the time for him to take action to establish rights had passed and did not affect the mother’s right to determine what she believed was in the child’s best interests. The court specifically found that Mr. Carlton was not misled prior to the adoptive placement and that he had been presented with circumstances that would have alerted him to the need to take legal action if he wanted to be involved in his child’s life.
No timely proceedings were initiated in either Pennsylvania or Utah by Mr. Carlton. The adoption was finalized after the child had been in the home of the adoptive parents for over six months because finalization of the adoption was in the child’s best interests. Importantly, the child has now been with the adoptive parents for over two years.
The court in Mr. Carlton’s case carefully evaluated his claims and correctly determined that Mr. Carlton could not disrupt the adoption.”
“It’s my child,” says Chris Carlton, vowing to fight on, as his daughter is being raised by others.
“My daughter is two years old,” says Carlton. “I`ve never seen my child.”
By phone from Utah, Chris Carlton’s Attorney told us, Utah is home to several adoption agencies catering to out-of-state women because state laws are weighted against biological fathers.
Chris Carlton is appealing his case to Utah`s Supreme Court.
He claims that since he was told his child was dead, he had no chance to establish his parental rights in that state in what the court called, “a timely fashion.”
[WNEP 7/10/12 by Dave Bohman]
This birthmother is just plain CRUEL! And the APs are no better!
The legislation we discussed last week HR 6035 Protecting Adoption and Promoting Responsible Fatherhood isn’t going to work EVER in cases where the birthmother tells the father that the baby has died.
Update 2: “The Utah Supreme Court is currently hearing the case and trying to determine what rights out-of-state birth fathers should have in adoption cases, reported The Salt Lake Tribune on March 26.”
“Despite the falsehoods, Carlton still has no rights to fight the adoption, according to Utah adoption laws. At issues, notes The Salt Lake Tribune, is “a controversial provision in Utah’s adoption law, which says unmarried biological fathers like Carlton can not use fraud or misrepresentations as a defense for failing to protect parental rights.”
Utah Justice Jill Parrish Utah law rules when conflicts between state laws occur. “Utah’s law says a father who is unaware of a Utah connection must take steps in his home state to protect his rights before a birth mother relinquishes a child to be entitled to notice of an adoption proceeding,” says the article.
The Utah Supreme Court has yet to make an official decision in the case. Carlton vows to continue his fight on behalf of his daughter.”
Adoption laws in Utah challenged by duped father
[Examiner 3/26/13 by Shawna O’Reilly]
Update 3:“Christopher Carlton of Williamsport won the right to pursue custody of a daughter he’s never met, due to a ruling by the Utah Supreme Court.
Utah’s highest court unanimously found a lower court judge made a mistake when ruling that Carlton forfeited his parental rights in the case that involves his biological daughter, who is now almost four years old.
In 2010, Carlton served as a military contractor in Afghanistan. He was away when his then-girlfriend gave birth to a baby girl.
When Carlton returned to Williamsport, he claims she said the baby was a boy and had died before Carlton returned stateside.
A few months later, as Carlton was pressing for details on the child’s death, he says his ex’s friends persuaded her to tell the truth: She flew from Williamsport to Utah, gave birth to a baby girl, and enlisted the help of a company named “The Adoption Agency of Choice” to place the child with an adoptive family.
When Carlton first tried to get custody, a lower court in Utah ruled that he had waited too long and that the time to challenge the adoption expired.
But, Tuesday, Utah’s Supreme Court ruled that the lower court did not take into account Carlton’s Constitutional rights and ordered that the Williamsport man be given a chance to claim that some of Utah’s adoption laws do not take into account his rights as a father.
In recent years, several military fathers have made the same claim about Utah, as they say their lost their parental rights while serving out of the country while children’s mothers were flown to Utah and paid to surrender custody of their newborns.
Last month, the Utah Supreme Court awarded custody of a two-year-old girl who had been raised by an adoptive family to the biological father, who serves in the US Army. In that case, Sgt. Terry Achane’s estranged wife allegedly claimed he was in Texas, when he was in South Carolina, and could not be served. The judge in that case called Achane’s treatment by The Adoption Center of Choice “utterly indefensible.”
Carlton, whose biological daughter’s placement was also handled by The Adoption Center of Choice, says he expects to have a new hearing on his case next month.
Meantime, the state of Utah revoked the license of The Adoption Center of Choice last week.”
Update: Williamsport Man Gets New Chance at Custody of Child He’s Never Seen[WNEP 2/25/14 By Dave Bohman]
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