Mississippi Judge Jails Ukrainian Boys Who Do Not Want to Live with their Adoptive Mother UPDATED

What the Hell?!?Now I have seen everything!

“When 16-year-old Ruslan Stubbs and his brother 18-year-old Elijah Stubbs told a Rankin County judge as politely as they could they didn’t want to live with their adoptive mother, he ordered them to jail.

Both boys are from the Ukraine and speak little English. Reservoir residents Tim and Suzanne Stubbs, who couldn’t have children of their own, adopted them two years ago. Before coming to the U.S., the boys lived in an orphanage for five years.

Their mother was too poor to take care of them, and their father was not around.

Suzanne and Tim divorced shortly after adopting the boys, and a custody battle landed them in front of Judge Dan Fairly in Rankin County Chancery Court.

Now the Ukrainian government is involved and a complaint has been filed with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance, a commission that investigates judicial misconduct.

The commission would not say whether it is conducting an investigation of Fairly.

But experts say sending children to jail for contempt of court is no everyday occurrence.

“I personally haven’t had any children who refused to go (live with a parent) be sent to jail,” family law attorney Kathleen Conway of Jackson law firm Allen & Conway said. Conway has practiced family law since 1992.

Mississippi College School of Law professor Matt Steffey echoed Conway, saying he’d “never heard of” kids being sent to jail in a custody case.

Fairly said he could not comment as the case involves minors and is sealed.

In March, Tim Stubbs filed for full custody of the two boys who were living with him and his parents at the time. What happened next was something he describes as a bizarre and strange series of actions on the part of Fairly, including sending Ruslan and Elijah to jail.

On Aug. 12, the judge entered an order awarding Suzanne Stubbs visitation on alternating weekends. The children visited her on two weekends, but she alleged the children “were not respectful to her and did not ‘bond’ with her,” according to a letter written by Tim Stubbs’ lawyer to the Ukrainian embassy.

At the Sept. 10 hearing to review the children’s compliance with the August order, the judge heard testimony from Suzanne and Tim Stubbs, but not from the boys. At this hearing, the judge ordered them to live with Suzanne, which they “politely declined,” according to the same letter.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey confirmed Elijah Stubbs was booked on contempt of court in the Rankin County Detention Center that day.

Elijah stayed at the jail for a little over 24 hours. Ruslan was sent to the Rankin County Juvenile Detention Center for about the same period.

According to Tim Stubbs, they were released only after the Ukrainian embassy contacted the governor and other elected officials in the state.

“It’s something that I’m never going to forget,” Tim said of seeing the boys in court the next day. “The older boy was brought in in the prison outfit and handcuffed and in leg chains. You would’ve thought he just killed somebody. Even the younger one was brought in all handcuffed, though he was in street clothes.”

“In the past year they’ve lost their homeland, their home and their family,” Tim Stubbs said of Elijah and Ruslan.

Suzanne Stubbs, when reached for comment, declined.

A Sept. 24 letter from the Ukrainian embassy to the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance stated that the judge’s decision to incarcerate the children “cannot be considered as ‘in the best interests’ of these children.”

The judge also reportedly ordered the two boys’ Ukraine and United States passports (they are dual citizens) confiscated that same day.[Unbelievable!]

“The Consular Office of the Embassy of Ukraine would like to bring to your attention that adoption of Ukrainian children by foreigners is granted on the condition that the scope of child’s rights will be secured to the extent not less than established by Ukrainian laws,” the letter from the embassy continued. “It should also be noted that the Passport of the Citizen of Ukraine for Traveling Abroad is a property of Ukraine. Under Ukrainian law it could be temporary held or withdrawn only by Ukrainian authorities and only in clear-cut by law cases.”

Yurii Tokuar of the Ukrainian embassy said it also contacted the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues, which he says is “taking some measures on the issue,” though he did not know what.

On Sept. 11, the day the children were released from jail, Fairly awarded custody to a woman he appointed as guardian ad litem.

After being advised to request copies of the hearing transcripts, Tim Stubbs sent in his request and two checks. He received a letter back from the court reporter with his checks enclosed. The letter said “no hearings are to be transcribed unless or until an appeal is filed.”

A public records request for the transcripts from The Clarion-Ledger was submitted to the court reporter Oct. 3.

On Monday, the case was sealed by Fairly.

The next hearing is set for Nov. 13.

“I would love for it to be resolved that they come back and live with me … If they want to go live with her, I’m just for making them happy,” Tim Stubbs said. “I believe right now with me is where they want to be, and I know that every minute we’re apart we’re just losing that bond we made. It’s getting weaker, and we’re losing ground.””

Rankin judge jailed adopted minors in custody case

[The Clarion Ledger 10/10/14 by Kate Royals]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update: “Ukrainian brothers Ruslan and Elijah Stubbs are back at home with their adoptive father Timothy Stubbs after Rankin County Judge Dan Fairly unexpectedly ordered that the boys be returned to live with Tim earlier this week.

Both 18-year-old Elijah and 16-year-old Ruslan were adopted from the Ukraine two years ago, which they say has been a hard enough adjustment. However, they’ve had even more to deal with after a custody battle between their adoptive parents brought them in front of Fairly in the Rankin County Chancery Court earlier this year.

In what family law experts said was a very rare event, Fairly sent both Elijah and Ruslan to jail for contempt of court when they told him they did not want to live with their adoptive mother. Both of the boys are still learning English. Elijah spent the night in the Rankin County Detention Center and Ruslan spent the same amount of time in the Rankin County Juvenile Detention Center.

After the judge sent the boys to jail and confiscated their Ukrainian passports, the Ukrainian government got involved and a complaint has been filed with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance, a commission that investigates judicial misconduct.

“I can’t believe what all they’ve been through, what all we’ve been through as a family,” Tim said. “It’s wonderful to have them back … I just hope it becomes a permanent order. I’m tired of living for these temporary orders that every time we go (to court), something changes.”

Fairly told The Clarion-Ledger in October he could not comment on the case because it involved minors and was sealed.

He was unable to be reached for comment Wednesday.

Suzanne, the boys’ adoptive mother, declined to comment when reached Wednesday.

Ruslan, a soccer player at Brandon High School with a 3.5 GPA, said he was in a communal area in the detention center with others who were accused of stealing cars and getting in fights.

“I just went into my room … but you don’t have a blanket, you don’t have nothing. But if you go to sleep they wake you up, they don’t let you sleep,” Ruslan recalled about his time there.

“I was so confused,” Elijah said when he was sent to the adult facility, where he was placed in a cell by himself.

When the boys were released from jail, they were then ordered by Fairly to live with Camala Wyatt, a friend’s mother who is also an attorney and was appointed guardian ad litem by Fairly. He also put a no contact order on both Tim and Suzanne.

Tim said he was never told why.

Elijah said although Wyatt did everything she could to take care of them, he was not comfortable living there.

“She has her own family – two sons and one daughter,” Elijah said.

The case is not yet resolved, so Fairly could award custody to someone else in the future. Most recently, the boys were living with Camala Wyatt, a friend’s mother who is also an attorney and was appointed guardian ad litem by Fairly.

Both Ruslan and Elijah said they were shocked but happy when they heard they would be allowed to go back to live with Tim.

“I was excited,” Ruslan, a soccer player at Brandon High School, said when he found out about the order.

Elijah was also happy, but shocked and is unsure of what will happen next.

“We have to move every couple of weeks or months, we were given orders to live with Suzanne (adoptive mother) but we don’t want to live with her. And now this hearing, I don’t know what’s going to happen again,” Eiljah said of the upcoming court date on Nov. 13.”

Judge orders Ukrainian teens returned to adoptive father
[The Clarion Ledger 11/5/14 by Kate Royals]