By Susan Vela
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BETHEL - For now, Amber Perry is sighing with relief and hoping anew to tell others about Lariam, the controversial anti-malarial drug connected to her father's 1999 suicide and now under investigation by the U.S. Army.

Her ex-lover, Jay Huelsman of Greene County, near Dayton, Ohio, has dropped the lawsuit he's been pursuing against Ms. Perry, seeking full custody of their daughter, Paley, 4.

He filed a motion to drop the case Monday - the same day the custody trial was to begin in Hamilton County Juvenile Court.

It was a relief for Ms. Perry, 31. For months, she worried that Mr. Huelsman was so determined to prove her unstable that he would mention the suicide of her father, Chuck Perry, a successful hospital administrator before his death.

Mr. Huelsman's attorney, Tim Hickey, had done so in past proceedings, which Ms. Perry thought unfair because the drug's maker, Hoffman LaRoche, already had settled a federal lawsuit with Mr. Perry's widow, Linda, for an undisclosed amount of money.

"It was 100 percent likely that my father's suicide would have been brought into this," said Ms. Perry, a safety engineer who underwent psychological testing to work at Bechtel-Jacobs in Piketon, Ohio, which manages the U.S. Department of Energy's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Now, "we'll help other people as much as we possibly can, knowing what (Lariam) can do to families," she said. "The drug is strong and on different people, it can have a severe effect. I don't think you could ... not have it impact you forever."

Mr. Huelsman could not be reached and his attorney, Mr. Hickey, declined to comment.

At an Oct. 16 hearing, Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Thomas Lipps suspended Mr. Huelsman's visitation rights and said weekly phone calls would be the sole contact allowed.

Ms. Perry had demanded the hearing because of the father's behavior in past visits. Mrs. Perry also feels relieved. Paley became her main reason for living after her husband's death.

She is anxious to move on from this horrible chapter but said she will always make sure to tell people about Lariam and its dangers.

"We've won. The baby's safe. (But) we have that moral obligation," Mrs. Perry said.

Lariam's warning label indicates side effects of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

Mrs. Perry and her husband took the drug before a visit to Africa for their 30th wedding anniversary.

Mr. Perry's side effects were severe: He had been living on disability and was rarely lucid when he fatally shot himself in the neck in January 1999.

Last summer, four Fort Bragg, N.C., servicemen, including Army Master Sgt. William Wright, a 1984 Mason High School graduate, killed their wives.

Three, including Sgt. Wright, reportedly took Lariam before the deaths occurred. The incidents are now being reviewed by the Army.

E-mail svela@enquirer.com