Columnist Sandy Thompson: Taking one final stand on behalf of children

Sandy Thompson

Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 | 6:19 a.m.

Editor's note: On the morning of August 9, a Friday, Sun vice president and columnist Sandy Thompson was killed in a car accident. Later that day we checked Sandy's computer to see if her column for the upcoming Sunday had already been written, but we couldn't find anything. Last week we discovered on her desk a printed version of a column she had written and intended for publication on Sunday, August 11. Today we are publishing that column. It is fitting that her last work for the Sun concerns Family Court. Through her writing, she was instrumental in bringing about significant reforms to this court. In this final column, as it always was, her overriding concern was for the child involved.

SHOULD A FATHER have his parental rights terminated because of unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse?

"There was no trial, no due process," says a Las Vegas doctor whose rights to his now 11-year-old adopted son were terminated by a California judge. Because the boy has the same name as his father, no names are being used.

The father wants Nevada to reinvestigate the case and take jurisdiction.

The doctor says he never sexually abused his son. He believes the judge was biased against him because the doctor is gay. However, the issue here is not gay rights or whether a gay man should adopt a child. That's a topic for debate at another time. The issue is whether a parent's rights should be terminated because of unsubstantiated allegations.

The doctor and his son came to the attention of California child welfare authorities because of a grossly negligent and potentially dangerous situation that the doctor admits was a mistake -- a mistake from which he has learned, he says.

While on a February 1999 trip to Los Angeles with his then 7-year-old son, the doctor says he developed a migraine while driving. He says he parked the car and walked to find some ice. He left his sleeping son in the locked car thinking he was safer there than walking with the doctor. He couldn't have been more wrong. A passer-by saw the boy and called the police, who rightfully turned him over to child welfare.

During the investigation of the incident, a California caseworker said the boy exhibited signs of sexual abuse. Although those alleged incidents occurred in Las Vegas, the case went before a California court. Clark County Family Court refused to take jurisdiction.

A California judge placed the boy in a foster home, refusing to consider a request by the doctor's parents to adopt the boy. The doctor was ordered to undergo counseling. He also attended parenting classes. Although adamant that he did not abuse the boy, the doctor completed several sessions with different professionals and programs in hopes the boy would be returned home.

Despite various reports from therapists and Clark County Child Protective Services saying there was no inappropriate touching between father and son, and despite several letters stating the doctor did undergo intensive therapy, the judge said the doctor "failed to make an effort at therapy." According to court documents, the judge claimed the doctor "conned" his own therapist.

The case sounds cut and dried, but it isn't. The doctor is not your average Joe and does have some quirky personal issues. But, according to some of the counseling reports, he is not a "disturbed" individual who has sexual thoughts of his son. Some of the strange behaviors exhibited by his son -- which one therapist attributed to possible sexual abuse -- are caused by the boy's mental and physical condition, the doctor says.

The boy was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and weighed less than 5 pounds. At age 2 1/2, the boy was taken from his mother because of neglect and placed with the doctor who was a foster parent. The doctor adopted him in 1995.

According to two professionals familiar with the case, the boy thrived under the doctor's care -- mentally and physically. However, one disturbing report notes that the boy often brought fish crackers and water for lunch at school. (The doctor, an Orthodox Jew, says he was following strict diet regimens.) School officials also noted that the boy brought the same foul-smelling sandwich three days in a row.

CPS had previously investigated the case but found no evidence of abuse or neglect. Today the doctor says his son is a "legal orphan" who is being shuffled around the California foster care system. Neither he nor his parents can communicate with the boy.

It may never be known -- without a trial or due process -- whether the doctor is telling the truth. What is known is that the boy will be forever affected by this trauma -- whether it was inflicted by his father as alleged or by the system. That's a penalty no child deserves.