Nightlight Christian Adoption Services
This adoption agency has a crazy history that is associated with the darker side of adoption history. This agency is the one that former President Bush lavishes his thanks upon. They are involved in embryo adoptions also known as Snowflake Adoptions. They are involved in embryo adoptions, international adoption, domestic adoption, and foster care adoption. They earned a little over two million dollars. They claim to be associated with A Helping Hand Adoption Agency. They actually own the agency. Ronald Stoddart is the president of Nightlight Christian adoption services while he is on the board of A Helping Hand Adoption Services. A Helping Hand is their international adoption office. They are a big promoter of Orphan Sunday. They even have their own version--Orphan Galaxy. They claim to help rescue children from child trafficking situations. Adoption in itself is a form of child trafficking. This agency works in Cambodia but sadly, the United States has banned all adoptions from that country. They work in Nicargua, Aftrica (specifically Uganda), China, Russia, and other Eastern European countries. Ronald Stoddard also has his own law practice, Schmiesing, Blied, Stoddard and Mackey. You can read much more here at Pound Pup Legacy.
Paul Clement
The attorney for the Copobiancos and the child advocate (hired by the Capobiancos) is none other than Paul Clement. He was hired by the House of Representatives to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in April of 2011. Our House of Representatives spent 2.3 million dollars to defend this act which was recently overturned by the Supreme Court. He continued to defend the act even after the Department of Justice withdrew from the case. He resigned from King and Spaulding to continue fighting for DOMA. He now works for Bankcroft PLLC. He has appeared more before the Supreme Court than any other attorney since 2000. He is the former Solicitor General of the United States. He is currently a Georgetown Law Professor as well as an Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law. He clerked for Judge Antonin Scalia as well as many other justices.
Chrissy Maldonado
She is the birthmother in this situation. She worked at an Osage Casino. She is also a noncustodial mother who has to pay child support to the paternal grandmother of her children. She is said to have a very contentious and acrimonious relationship with the father of her first two children. People wonder why she has lost custody. I would garner a guess is that she is a classic alienator judging how she is in this case. As a former noncustodial mom myself, I do not support a woman who trash talks, alienates, and verbally abuses the father of her children. She filed for her medical expenses to be paid by the state of Oklahoma which was never repaid back by the Capobiancos. There are rumors of her receiving financial aid from the Capobiancos(approximately $10,000 to $40,000 which was not declared to the state of Oklahoma nor the IRS) exceeding the Oklahoma limit of $1,000 without court approval. She is an Oklahoma resident just like Dusten Brown. Veronica was born in Oklahoma. This case has jurisdiction in the state of Oklahoma. After reading the court case, the ICPC forms signed by Chrissy state that Veronica is Hispanic, not Cherokee which allowed the Capobiancos to remove Veronica out of state. If this paperwork was properly annotated to reflect her Cherokee heritage, this child would be in the custody of her father long ago. There seems to be some intent, both willfully and negligently, to deny Dusten access to his daughter plus deny his daughter her Cherokee heritage. There is a perpetuation of fraud and perjury running wild in this case.
Interesting enough as well, Chrissy has filed a lawsuit in federal courts to force Erik Holder to declare that parts of the ICWA unconstitutional. According to the lawsuit, Chrissy as well as other birthmothers state:
"But there is no federal interest,” the mothers stated, in halting a birth mother’s “state-law right to secure a fit and stable adoptive placement for her birth child and delegating that decision to a legal stranger (a tribe), on the basis of the child’s ancestry.”What Chrissy fails to understand is that no woman has the constitutional right to place her child for adoption just like no woman in this country has the right to an abortion. She has the right to keep her pregnancy choices private but no absolute right to place a child for adoption nor have an abortion. Even with that knowledge, there is no total anonymity either for her. Once her daughter was born, there are two parents whose rights must be considered, the mother AND THE FATHER.
Dusten Brown
Dusten is a registered member of the Cherokee Nation. He is a decorated veteran of the Iraq War. During all this time, he never spoke ill of the birthmother, Chrissy Maldonaldo, and the so called adopters, Matt and Melanie Capobiancos. The agency and the Capobiancos waited until he was on lockdown with the military to terminate his rights. He is a good, fit father who has the capability of raising his daughter. He never intended to sign away his rights. He has never used his military status to garner attention to his plight. He never used his Native American status to garner attention to his plight. He did what was right to protect his daughter from the media onslaught. He kept her out of the media unlike the Capobiancos. What people do not understand with the military, when you are on duty, you can't just get up and leave like you would with a regular job. You have to get special permission from the military and your chain of command especially during a war time situation or on duty with the National Guard.
The Capobiancos, their lawyers, and their PR team, Trio Solutions began a media attack against Dusten Brown and his family. They dissed his family and the Cherokee Nation. They went on attack against a law that was put into place to protect all Native American nations and their families. The ICWA was put into place to prevent the wholesale onslaught of forced adoptions by the United States. Since 1869, the Indian Nations had been forced to relinquish their children until this law was passed in the seventies. What people do not understand is that all declared Native American Nations are afforded sovereignty over their people, land, and laws. While they may be a conquered nation, they are still a sovereign nation with its own laws concerning the children of their nation. The ICWA supports that sovereignty. The United States does not have jurisdiction over the Native American nations in our country. Period. No more discussion.
Because the ICPC laws were circumvented by both the birthmother, the adoption agency, and the adoptive parents, this case needs to go back to Oklahoma to be decided. South Carolina no longer has jurisdiction over this case. This little girl belongs with her father.
Now that the judge in South Carolina has put down a gag order, maybe just maybe Dusten and his family will get some reprieve. Maybe the Capobianco and Maldonaldo PR machine will stop. Maybe the Christian Right will also stop and give this man a break.
Please sign this petition!
