On a refrigerator in Montgomery hangs a paper heart with 2-year-old Chase Reed's multicolored handprints on it, his legal guardians' prized piece of art.
In Fort Worth, Texas, the mother who gave him up told the Enquirer in her first-ever interview Tuesday her heart aches for his return -- for good.
In the balance hangs a little boy who was returned to his guardians, Ken and Nancy Goodwin, last Thanksgiving Day after a five-day interstate search that involved the FBI. Chase will turn 3 on May 23, 12 days after his mother, Vivian Rodgers, is sentenced May 11 for "stealing" him back.
Amid the legal complexities that span two Hamilton County courts, the story of the blond boy with the quick smile took another turn Friday when Ms. Rodgers pleaded no contest to interference with the custody of a child, a felony, avoiding a trial that was to begin today.
The custody question, however, remains unresolved. "I'm really scared," Ms. Rodgers said. "But I want to fight for my child." She has not yet filed paperwork to get him back, she said.
The outcome of the criminal case and her planned challenge to the custody arrangement leaves both sides fearing the worst -- losing Chase forever.
National and local experts say the case illustrates the potential pitfalls of "open" custody arrangements. Such mutual agreements -- in which the birth parent or parents have a role in the child's life -- are increasingly common. Judges often cite a natural bond between a parent and child, and that, ideally, open custody provides the best of both worlds. The biological parent has access to the child, who is raised in a more stable home environment than the birth parent can provide.
"The danger is, you have normal human emotions involved," said Patrick Purtill, director of government relations for the National Council for Adoption in Washington, D.C.
Chase has been in the custody of the Goodwins for nearly a year. "The Goodwins are very good people," Ms. Rodgers, 25, said. "I never meant to hurt them but I don't think I'm a criminal."
Ken Goodwin, 42, Chase's legal guardian, said Tuesday that he and his wife, Nancy, "never had any desire to see her go to jail. We just want Chase. It should be about his best interest."
The couple say they love Chase and feel he is theirs. Legally, they're right -- at least for now. They still hope to adopt Chase but haven't begun the legal process, hoping Ms. Rodgers will cooperate. Ms. Rodgers will be sentenced in Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas and faces six to 12 months in jail. "I know what I did was wrong," she said Tuesday.
The Goodwins, who had met Ms. Rodgers last spring, gained legal guardianship of Chase on May 12, 1997, in Hamilton County Probate Court, when Ms. Rodgers signed a waiver of notice and consent. It was just a month after she moved from Texas to Hyde Park to start a new life, meeting the Goodwins through church friends. When she let them have Chase for a weekend visit, then called that Monday and said "keep him," they were ecstatic.
He was malnourished, they said, and had never been to a dentist. He now is thriving in preschool. He calls them Mommy and Daddy.
The court-approved transfer, still in effect, was indefinite and requires a court order to reverse it. It is a suspension, but not a termination, of Ms. Rodgers' parental rights.
Mrs. Goodwin, 36, is in full remission from breast cancer, but the chemotherapy treatment left her unable to have children.
"In cancer you know what you're dealing with," she explained. "You can make up your mind what you're going to do. This is harder. It's a child. It's Chase."
The probate magistrate who handled the case, David Pfeiffer, said Ms. Rodgers still has a good chance of regaining custody, noting that she was deemed unable, not incapable, of caring for him, and that no abuse ever was alleged. But the felony conviction could be an issue.
Ms. Rodgers said Tuesday she was emerging from an emotionally and physically abusive relationshipand was financially unable to care for Chase. She now works for a Fort Worth advertising firm and has custody of her four other children, ages 12, 11, 9 and 7.
Robert Larson, the Cincinnati attorney who represented Ms. Rodgers in the criminal case, said if the case had gone to trial, the custody agreement would have been a key issue.
When the papers were signed, only the Goodwins had an attorney. While that was legally proper, Mr. Larson said, it wasn't right. "I didn't realize guardianship papers had been signed," Ms. Rodgers said.
The Goodwins said everything was explained to Ms. Rodgers.
The court documents Goodwins' signatures appear six times and application for appointment of guardian of a minor, fiduciary's acceptance of guardian, an affidavit, next-of-kin of proposed ward (where they listed Ms. Rodgers), authorization to release confidential information and an oath of guardianship. their attorney Carolyn Franke's signature appears four times in the 14-page file.
Ms. Rodgers signed one document once, a waiver of notice and consent. With that, she had signed away her son indefinitely.
On Friday, Ms. Rodgers returned to Cincinnati and visited Chase and the Goodwins at a Discovery Zone.
"It was . . .," she said, stopping in mid-sentence. "Words can't explain it."
No numbers to back case for open visitation
