THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250237
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 37 lines
A judge Monday continued the case of a Virginia Beach grandmother who is fighting for the return of her 10-year-old granddaughter, now in the custody of the city's Department of Social Services.
Judge Leslie L. Mason's decision came after Assistant City Attorney Nianza E. Wallace argued that the city had not been notified that Alice O'Grady's petition for custody, filed with the court May 15, had been scheduled for a hearing.
O'Grady had raised the girl from infancy but had lost custody April 10 when social workers charged that she had neglected her granddaughter because she could not control her or provide structure. Though the department later determined the allegation of neglect to be unfounded, it has recommended that the girl remain in a foster home.
O'Grady pleaded with Mason to return the child because she is ``asking to come home. She belongs with me.''
The girl, who waited outside the courtroom during the proceedings, cried and begged to go with her grandmother.
According to paperwork that social workers provided Monday to O'Grady, they now also contend that O'Grady is ``borderline mentally retarded.'' O'Grady, who until February had worked for 23 years as head housekeeper at an Oceanfront motel, was appalled at the new allegation.
In February, O'Grady gave up her job in order to deal with her granddaughter's escalating behavior problems. She collected $157 in Aid to Families with Dependent Children payments and it is this, she said, that led Social Services to remove the child from her care. The girl's $470 monthly disability payments now go toward her foster care.
One of the threats the department contends that O'Grady used against her granddaughter and that it considered abusive was that she would be put in a foster home if she did not behave. by CNB