Veronica plays in the backyard of the Cherokee Nation's Jack Brown House on Aug. 6. MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World file
Considering that Veronica will turn 4 this weekend, a United Nations investigator avoided calling her "Baby" in a statement issued Tuesday from Geneva.
James Anaya also avoided taking sides, at least explicitly, in the ongoing custody battle between Veronica's biological father in Oklahoma and her adoptive parents from South Carolina.
But international law demands that Oklahoma respect her "human rights as a child and as a member of the Cherokee Nation," said Anaya, the U.N. special investigator, or "rapporteur," on the rights of indigenous peoples.
Veronica has the right "to maintain her cultural identity and to maintain relations with her indigenous family and people," Anaya said.
For nearly her entire life, Veronica has been caught in the middle of a custody battle between her Cherokee father, Dusten Brown, and her adoptive parents, Matt and Melanie Capobianco.
The Capobiancos want to "make sure Veronica knows where she comes from," including her Cherokee heritage, according to one of their attorneys.
"Mr. Anaya is entitled to his opinion," said Lori Alvino McGill, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represented Veronica's birth mother and supports the adoptive parents. "But, fortunately, any further court proceedings about Veronica's custody are governed by the laws of the United States."
NO LONGER A BABY
Veronica: The child, who will turn 4 this weekend, has spent roughly half her life with her adoptive parents in South Carolina and half with her biological father in Oklahoma.
Brown has had custody of Veronica for nearly two years, but courts in both South Carolina and Oklahoma have ordered him to return her to her adoptive parents.
Brown and the Cherokee Nation are appealing that decision to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which could issue a ruling any day.
Meanwhile, court-ordered visitations have been going on for weeks, preparing Veronica for a smooth transition back to her adoptive parents, Alvino McGill said.
"The only violation of Veronica's rights is happening because Veronica is being unlawfully detained from her only lawful parents," she said. "In this country, we call that kidnapping."
The case apparently was brought to the U.N.'s attention by Angel Smith, an attorney appointed by a Cherokee tribal court to represent Veronica's best interest.
So far, no court has considered what's best for Veronica before giving custody to the adoptive parents, Smith said.
"She has her own words and her own voice," Smith said. "It's time Veronica is heard because it is, after all, Veronica's life."
Along with the National Indian Child Welfare Association and the National Congress of American Indians, Smith has filed a federal lawsuit in South Carolina on Veronica's behalf.
The suit alleges that South Carolina violated Veronica's civil rights by not having a best-interest hearing.
Terry Cross, executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, said that "the courts have utterly failed to protect what is guaranteed to her by international law and established treaties, best adoption practices, and - in my opinion - basic tenets of decency."
"Her rights have been violated, pure and simple," Cross said.
Four years ago, the Capobiancos arranged a private adoption with Brown's ex-fiancee and came to Oklahoma for the birth.
Widely known as "Baby Veronica," the girl has now spent roughly half her life with each family - the first two years with the Capobiancos in a Charleston, S.C., suburb, and the past two years with the Browns in Nowata, an hour north of Tulsa.
Brown has said he was tricked into signing away his parental rights when he thought he was only agreeing to give custody to Veronica's birth mother.
He challenged the adoption in South Carolina, where the courts gave him custody in December 2011.
But the Capobiancos appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled this summer that South Carolina had misinterpreted a federal law in its original decision to give custody to Brown.
South Carolina then had to reconsider the case but didn't necessarily have to take custody away from Brown.
In July, however, the South Carolina Supreme Court gave legal custody back to the Capobiancos.
The couple came to Oklahoma in mid-August, vowing not to leave without Veronica.
Brown is facing possible extradition to South Carolina to face a felony complaint of custodial interference, a felony that carries up to five years in prison.
But his attorneys have said he has broken no law because he was under no obligation to obey the South Carolina court order while appealing the case in Oklahoma.
Michael Overall 918-581-8383
michael.overall@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: U.N. official addresses Baby Veronica case
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