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3 Yr Old Taken from Grandmother; Given to Sex Offender Father
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/18/miranda-wilkerson-sex-offender-custody_n_901526.html?1311004528&icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C219230
The bitter custody fight for Florida preschooler Miranda Wilkerson ended last week when a Jacksonville judge shifted guardianship from the 3-year-old's grandmother to her father, a registered sex offender, ABC News affiliate WJXX-TV reported.
Miranda's mother, Trista Crews, was still married to her estranged husband, Donald Coleman, in 2007, when she died in a car wreck, Jacksonville's First Coast News reported.
Coleman was 38 in 1997, when he impregnated a 14-year-old Crews for the first time. He was later convicted for sex with an underage woman. The couple nonetheless married.
Coleman filed for divorce from Crews about a month before her death, stating he believed Miranda was another man's child. The girl was raised by her grandmother, Rita Manning, whose bid to formally adopt the girl sparked the custody battle.
According to court documents obtained by First Coast News, the grandmother was keeping him from seeing Miranda.
"Once you're serving the father, then it triggers ego and pride and fathers don't just disappear. They always show up to fight," adoption attorney Michael Shorstein told ABC News.
Both Coleman and Manning have criminal histories. Manning was charged with child neglect around the time her daughter first became pregnant by Coleman, ABC reports. She was also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 1995, though those charges were later dropped.
Florida State Rep. Janet Adkins weighed in on the case, telling ABC she was "appalled" by the decision, which sent the tot across state lines to Georgia, where Coleman now lives, on Wednesday.
The bitter custody fight for Florida preschooler Miranda Wilkerson ended last week when a Jacksonville judge shifted guardianship from the 3-year-old's grandmother to her father, a registered sex offender, ABC News affiliate WJXX-TV reported.
Miranda's mother, Trista Crews, was still married to her estranged husband, Donald Coleman, in 2007, when she died in a car wreck, Jacksonville's First Coast News reported.
Coleman was 38 in 1997, when he impregnated a 14-year-old Crews for the first time. He was later convicted for sex with an underage woman. The couple nonetheless married.
Coleman filed for divorce from Crews about a month before her death, stating he believed Miranda was another man's child. The girl was raised by her grandmother, Rita Manning, whose bid to formally adopt the girl sparked the custody battle.
According to court documents obtained by First Coast News, the grandmother was keeping him from seeing Miranda.
"Once you're serving the father, then it triggers ego and pride and fathers don't just disappear. They always show up to fight," adoption attorney Michael Shorstein told ABC News.
Both Coleman and Manning have criminal histories. Manning was charged with child neglect around the time her daughter first became pregnant by Coleman, ABC reports. She was also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 1995, though those charges were later dropped.
Florida State Rep. Janet Adkins weighed in on the case, telling ABC she was "appalled" by the decision, which sent the tot across state lines to Georgia, where Coleman now lives, on Wednesday.
Boy oh boy.... its this level of dysfunction that breeds (pardon the pun) other dysfunction. I'd rest assured when saying that this poor baby has very little chance in life. Putting the baby in the care of a sex offender is just wrong..... leaving the baby with the grandmother is certainly questionable but certainly a better option.
A 38 year old man having sex with a 14 year old girl is a *********, plain and simple. I mean, isn't that the definition? That being said, if the mother was alive, it sounds like they would be living with him. What a messed up situation this is.
My goodness....IMO she should be with the grandmother though. I mean why would you place a child with a registered sex offender? (I don't care if he's her father!!!) They just gave him the green light to do whatever he wants to that little girl...Our system is WACKED OUT!!!!!!
All I can say is, that poor baby. She has got one messed up family--a father who hopefully will never find her sexually attractive when she reaches puberty, a grandmother who probably would have set her on the same path as her mother went by 14 years old if she wasn't given to the father (who denied he was her father until served for adoption), and her mother is dead. Sheesh.
My heart goes out to this little girl. I hope her future never gets wrecked.
My heart goes out to this little girl. I hope her future never gets wrecked.
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