Meeting for a second-straight day, Baby Veronica's competing sets of parents spent several hours at a downtown Tulsa courthouse Tuesday.
Repeating Monday's routine, they arrived early, broke for lunch and came back for most of the afternoon. But the entire sixth floor of the Kerr State Office Building, where the Court of Civil Appeals meets in Tulsa, was closed to the public.
Sealed records and a gag order made it impossible to know what was happening beyond the elevators.
The length of the proceedings, however, make them stand out from other hearings in the case, which has now visited seven courthouses in six counties since Veronica's adoptive parents came to Oklahoma last month.
With court orders from both states giving them custody of the 4-year-old girl, Matt and Melanie Capobianco hope to take her home to South Carolina.
But the Oklahoma Supreme Court has so far agreed to keep her in Oklahoma while her biological father and the Cherokee Nation appeal the decisions.
Dusten Brown won custody of Veronica in 2011 after courts in South Carolina ruled that he had not given "voluntary consent" to the adoption.
But the Capobiancos regained legal custody this summer after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that South Carolina had misapplied the Indian Child Welfare Act in its original decision to take custody away from the adoptive parents. Brown and Veronica are both members of the Cherokee Nation.
In theory, the South Carolina courts could have given custody to Brown again. But instead, the courts there finalized the adoption for the Capobiancos and ordered Brown to hand over the girl immediately.
Brown has asked the courts in Oklahoma to have a "best interest" hearing before deciding whether to send Veronica back to South Carolina.
But with no outside witnesses seen coming or going, the proceedings this week don't appear to be such a hearing.
After they came to Oklahoma last month, the Capobiancos had a news conference at which they spoke about the possibility of compromise, but they didn't offer specifics.
"I'm here wide-eyed, open-minded," Matt Capobianco said at the time.
Earlier in the summer, members of the Brown family revealed their offer to share custody, with Veronica spending the school year in Oklahoma and summers in South Carolina.
But that was several hearings ago, and before Brown was arrested on a felony complaint of custodial interference, facing possible extradition to South Carolina.
If found guilty, he could be sentenced to as much as five years in prison.
It's not known whether any offers of compromise remain on the table.
Michael Overall 918-581-8383
michael.overall@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Court proceeding continues
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