These are just a few of the pertinent details as reported by Doug.
End of August 2000. Potential wife to be and I concieve.
According to Carol Starr* the Father of the mom-to-be decides to ask their (soon to be) retiring Minister's wife, Carol Starr, to convince single mom-to-be to give up our forthcoming daughter for adoption.
Carol Starr "convinces" mom-to-be through coercion to give up our child and tells mom-to-be not to tell me who is involved in the process or where our child went.
Carol Starr and I had spoken on the phone previously and I flat out told her that I did not want to give up my daughter-to-be for adoption.
Cora May Strang is born on June 4th, 2001. I file a parental acknowledgement form at the hospital. Later, a memo from the PA Dept of Child Welfare purporting that no such record was ever filed is presented by attorney LeCates to the court. Later I would contact the office that issued that memo and guess what? The paternity acknowledgement form filled out by me at the hospital was indeed on file there.
I found out about my child "missing" the night before I had to leave for a two week Annual Training with the National Guard. During my NG two weeks I speak with a Chaplain who counsels me and tells me that they have to serve me the adoption paperwork and that there's really nothing I can do until that is filed and the whereabouts of my child is known. JAG refused to speak to me about the matter because I am a National Guard Soldier. On return from my two weeks with the NG I called various attorneys in the Harrisburg area who essentially told that there was nothing they could do for me without knowing where my child was.
I called Carol Starr to ask her if she might know who was involved with the adoption and Carol Starr told me on the phone (then later emailed it to me which was used in court as evidence AFTER she told the court she hadn't spoken to me-ooopsy) that she and her attorney had "withdrawn from the adoption process and were not involved in it" etc...
The attorney for the adoptive couple, Edward LeCates, waits until the legal time limit to file for the adoption and file to request my rights be terminated.
The attorney for the adoptive couple, Edward LeCates, fails to notify me as required by law of the filing for adoption and request of terminating my parental rights.
(did I mention that my daughter's whereabouts are kept hidden from me all this time?)
The court notifies me two weeks prior to the hearing, roughly 14 months after the snatching of my child by Carol Starr. I go to the hearing and am appointed an attoney by a skeptical judge. The hearing is rescheduled for October 2002 and it is decided in my favor based on the nature of the deception played out.
I file for a conciliation hearing to schedule visitations and begin the transfer of custody process.
The new attorney for the adoptive couple files to and successly blocks the conciliation process until their appeal runs it's course.
The appeal is decided against me and the appeals court rescinds the matter to the lower court with very specific and narrow instructions. The lower court found for continuing the adoption and terminating my rights. During the testimony of this hearing, 8 February 2005, my attorney and I discovered that the female of the adoptive couple's maiden name matched that of Carol Starr. My attorney asked her if she was related to Carol Starr and she said that yes she was related to Carol Starr from the ministers side of the family.
Another footnote: during the pregnancy Carol Starr called my mother to ask if I was caucasian or not because "on the phone he sounded black and I just needed to know".
Ministers wife sets up adoption for her niece by scaring and pressuring mom-to-be into it... and the court won't put it together but instead will allow unconvicted felons to raise my daughter...
There's more, such as mom-to-be not wanting to give up Cora at the hospital and Carol Starr brow-beating her with lies about how "she can't back out of the adoption at this point-we can't go tell the adoptive couple it's off now" etc, but what's the point? Each thing added only makes it dirtier and nastier...
*Text regarding Carol Starr and all persons mentioned above is either from the text of the court transcript or personal experience or testimony given firsthand to me.
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