SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News) – It could be months before Baby Emma learns where she is supposed to live.
The Utah Supreme Court heard arguments over a legal battle that pits Baby Emma’s biological father and her adoptive parents.
John Wyatt of Virginia is in Utah hoping his attorney will convince the high court to overturn a Utah judge’s decision to allow the adoption.
“They shouldn’t even be hearing this, they don’t have jurisdiction,” said Wyatt outside the court room.
Wyatt claims he filed for paternity in a Virginia court days before Utah’s adoption proceedings were to start.
But a Utah judge overlooked the paternity filing and awarded the adoption.
The justices peppered both sides with an array of questions.
“Where does Virginia get the power to tell the courts of Utah that the courts in Utah can't enter an adoption decree?” asked Justice Thomas Lee.
Wyatt's attorney Josh Peterman said a federal kidnapping law gives Virginia the upper hand.
And he said Utah is becoming notorious for these kinds of adoption cases.
“We're at risk of becoming a magnet for those seeking to cutoff opportunities of biological fathers,” Peterman said. “It's becoming a reality.”
But an attorney for the adoptive parents said what they did was not kidnapping because they complied with Utah's adoption laws and that Wyatt knew all along.
“It was not disputed that he (Wyatt) knew that the birth mom was going to place the baby for adoption according to Utah law.
But the chief justice claimed it was hearsay, not fact.
“She (birth mom) alleged she told him,” said Chief Justice Christine Durham. “We clearly don’t have a finding on that.”
Afterwards emotions ran high especially from biological parent's who blame Larry Jenkins who also represents the adoption agency “A Act of Love” for losing custody of their own children.
“It's déjà vu and when is it going to stop how many more kids need to be taken away,” said Tany O’Dea whose husband lost custody of a child last year. “He (Jenkins) has no sympathy. He can't even look at me in the eye."
The Utah Supreme Court took the matter under advisement.
If the ruling goes against him, Wyatt said he will appeal.
“I’ll take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if I have to,” he said. “I’m not going to go away.”
