Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993 TAG: 9308190211
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: SARASOTA, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
The ruling, likely to be appealed, is the latest high-profile case advancing children's legal rights in Florida, the state generally regarded as national leader in the movement.
The judge granted Kimberly's plea for freedom from Ernest and Regina Twigg's persistent efforts to reclaim her as the daughter they lost 14 years ago in a bizarre hospital nursery mix-up.
Circuit Judge Stephen Dakan said that he put Kimberly's psychological relationship with Robert Mays, who raised her, ahead of her biological link with the Twiggs.
Both sides have been able to bankroll their long legal battle with proceeds from multimillion-dollar settlements each won from the small Wachula, Fla., hospital where the mix-up occurred in 1978.
During a seven-day trial that ended last week, Kimberly pleaded with Dakan to recognize that Robert Mays is her father and that the law should recognize and protect that relationship. The articulate, soft-spoken teen argued that her biological tie to the Twiggs means nothing, and that their efforts to see her have ruined her life.
Dakan agreed. It is clear, the judge wrote, "that Robert Mays is [Kimberly's] psychological parent and that the Twiggs are seen by her as a constant source of danger to her father and to her family relationship." The Twiggs' efforts to get custody of Kimberly and their attacks on Robert Mays have "created a chasm between Kimberly Mays and the Twiggs that may never be bridged," he wrote.
John Blakely, the Twiggs' attorney, has vowed to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said he was not surprised by the ruling, adding the Twiggs believe that if their appeal is successful and Kimberly visits them again, she will feel differently about them.
"Adolescents change their mind every month or every week, and all she's been hearing for the last two years is bad things from the Mayses," he said. "It's asking a lot to have this girl rationalize this, but she should."
Kimberly was vacationing at an undisclosed location with Mays and his wife, Darlene. The girl's lead lawyer, George Russ, said Kimberly was "ecstatic" and "bouncing off the walls" when Arthur Ginsburg, another lawyer, told her the news in a telephone call Wednesday morning.
The baby switch came to light five years ago when the Twiggs' child - actually the biological daughter of Robert and Barbara Mays - died of a heart defect. Genetic tests showed that child wasn't related to the Twiggs and that Kimberly was their biological daughter.
Since then the Twiggs have sought custody of, or at least visitation with, Kimberly.
A series of visitations ended after relations became strained between Kimberly and Regina Twigg, who made public statements indicating that the Mays family may have been responsible for the switch.
"For whatever reason the relationship between Kimberly and the Twiggs went from deterioration to complete disintegration," Dakan wrote in his 15-page decision. "The evidence supports that it would be detrimental for Kimberly to have any forced visitation" with the Twiggs.
"The judge did precisely what we had asked him to do," said Russ, Kimberly's attorney. "He did a wonderful and correct analysis of the facts and applied them properly to the law."
The Washington Post provided Some information in this story.
by CNB