THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120445
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Catherine Johnson's life was fractured March 21 when her 19-year-old daughter Telisha was shot to death in the city's Washington Park housing project.
Telisha was the eldest of Johnson's four children. She also was the mother of a year-old daughter, Aalyah, and was pregnant when she was killed in her apartment on Green Street.
The day after her daughter's death, Johnson suffered another shock. Nathaniel Richardson Jr., her daughter's live-in boyfriend and the father of her daughter's child, was charged with killing her and then released on bail.
Weeks later, on May 1, Richardson was arrested in what police said was the city's largest crack cocaine seizure. Police said the drugs belonged to Richardson. They also said the 22-year-old was the leader of the big drug ring.
But this week, Johnson may have suffered her most painful blow. A Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge ordered that Johnson's granddaughter be taken out of her custody and given to the parents of the man accused of killing her daughter.
Judge Robert Babb ruled in favor of the paternal grandparents, Carolyn and Nathaniel Richardson Sr. The Richardsons have steady jobs, a long marriage and a house on Lincoln Street. Johnson is a single mother who works as a church custodian and lives in a small apartment.
This was a bitter pill for Johnson because of the brutal way that her daughter was killed, and because Johnson believes - as do the police - that Richardson killed her.
Johnson said she harbors hostile feelings toward the Richardson family. Now , she said, her granddaughter is being placed with the family of the person accused of killing Telisha.
``My daughter is gone,'' Johnson said this week after the hearing in juvenile court. ``Why should they have my granddaughter?''
Johnson, 40, has appealed the ruling and will return to court June 1 to fight for custody of her granddaughter.
George Talbot, a lawyer appointed by the court to represent Aalyah, said Babb ruled that it was in the child's best interest that she develop a relationship with both sets of grandparents. The bitterness that Johnson felt toward the Richardson family was interfering with Aalyah being able to see her paternal grandparents.
According to testimony at the custody hearing, Johnson prevented the Richardsons from seeing their granddaughter the majority of times they attempted to exercise their visitation rights.
``It is a tragic situation,'' Talbot admitted. ``I have sympathy for Mrs. Johnson in her situation. But I think the child also needs to be able to know both of the grandparents.''
Kimberly Shoemaker, a lawyer who represents the Richardsons, agreed that the visitation issue was the major factor in Babb's ruling. But Shoemaker said the judge also considered the Richardsons' solid marriage, steady jobs and secure home in the 800 block of Lincoln Street when making his ruling.
Johnson works as a custodian at Court Street Baptist Church. She has no criminal record; she is not married. She lives in a small apartment on Howard Street near I.C. Norcom High School.
Johnson said the Richardson household is a bad influence on her granddaughter because of Nathaniel Jr. At least once, she said, Richardson chased her daughter into his parents' house and beat her.
Richardson, who was again released on bail after his cocaine arrest, was forbidden by Babb from living with his parents. But there is nothing in the judge's order that prevents Richardson from visiting Aalyah.
``The court order does not say that Mr. Richardson cannot have any contact with his daughter,'' Shoemaker said. ``But I don't think he has any plans to do so.''
Richardson was scheduled to be in court today when the commonwealth's attorney will try to put him in jail by having his bond revoked.
But that won't solve Johnson's dilemma. She thinks that she is being discriminated against because of her income and status as a single parent.
``Who are they to judge me?'' Johnson asked. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Catherine Johnson, left, lost custody of her year-old granddaughter,
Aalyah, center, to the child's paternal grandparents, Carolyn, not
shown, and Nathaniel Richardson Sr., right. The child's grand-aunt,
Lessie Wilson, looks on in Portsmouth's Norcom Park Thursday.
by CNB