Justin

        An Ohio couple wanting to adopt a child born to Northern Kentucky parents isn't taking any chances, even though the Kentucky court system is starting to rule in their favor.

        Attorneys for Rich and Cheryl Asente of Girard, Ohio, are talking about taking the case to federal court, and have even considered going as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.

        The discussion is taking place despite the Kentucky Court of Appeals' September ruling that Justin, who has spent most of his life at the center of a custody battle, should remain in Ohio until the matter is decided.

        Justin Lee Moore will be 4 years old in February. He began living with the Asentes in February 1998, about two weeks before his first birthday.

        “I'm appealing to the highest court in which it can be pursued,”
said Mike Rossi, a Warren, Ohio, attorney representing the Asentes. “If we don't do everything we possibly can as long as (the case) is in doubt ... and things go south on us, we'll always regret not turning over every single rock in doing what we can.”

        Mr. Rossi decided not to pursue the Supreme Court option after talking to the Asentes' other attorney, Susan Garner Eisenman of Columbus. He said he still may try to enter the case into a lower federal court.

        First, “we'll have to see what happens in Kentucky,” Mr. Rossi said.

        Justin's biological parents, Regina Moore and Jerry Dorning of Burlington, haven't lost hope. They plan to appeal the appellate court's September ruling to the Kentucky Supreme Court in the next two weeks.

        Glenda Harrison of the Northern Kentucky Legal Aid Society, who is representing Ms. Moore, said she was surprised that the Asentes' attorneys are talking about taking the case to the federal courts.

        “This thing just won't stop, will it?” she said. “I think a speedy resolution is in everybody's interest. They're the ones whose lives are all tangled up in this. Certainly the status quo favors the Asentes right now.”

        Ms. Moore and Mr. Dorning, who are unmarried, have declined to comment about the case.

        Mrs. Asente, watching him and his biological brother, Joey, 4, at a tumbling class last week, said she thinks it will take another year before the case is settled.

        “Things continue to be stressful for the family,” Ms. Eisenman said. “The family has been very taxed by how long this litigation has gone on.”

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