Custody conflict

The Utah Supreme Court has ruled against a Virginia father who is seeking to overturn the adoption of his daughter by a Utah couple. The ruling, handed down on Tuesday, stated that John M. Wyatt had not asserted his parental rights in time to stop the adoption.

The case is part of an ongoing legal battle waged by Wyatt, 22, who is trying to get his daughter back after she was put up for adoption by her biological mother two years ago.

After losing his case in a Utah district court, Wyatt appealed to the Utah Supreme Court in September 2010, arguing that under the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, the state of Virginia has rightful custody of the child.

The Utah Supreme Court disagreed, noting that Wyatt failed to present this argument in the lower court and that the PKPA does not strip Utah courts of jurisdiction over the adoption.

"Mr. Wyatt failed to timely assert his parental rights in either Utah or Virginia prior to the birth mother's relinquishment of her parental rights in baby E.Z and thus waived all rights to contest the adoption," the court opinion states.

"Baby Emma" was born in Virginia in February 2009 to a mother who had already decided to give her up for adoption. Just days after her birth, Emma's mother, Colleen Fahland, surrendered her parental rights.

Wyatt said that he made it clear to his girlfriend that he wanted to raise their daughter and that he wanted to be in the delivery room for her birth.

According to Wyatt, the baby was born several days early without his knowledge, and by the time he took steps to gain custody of the child, a couple in Utah had adopted Emma and taken her to Utah. Wyatt quickly hired attorneys in Virginia and Utah to fight the adoption.

When Wyatt appealed to a Utah court, he was denied his claim to intervene in the adoption; the court stated that he had been too slow in registering with the Putative Father Registry in Virginia.

Under Virginia law that took effect in 2007, a biological father must be sent a notice of any adoption plan and register with the Putative Father Registry within 10 days if he is to dispute the adoption. Wyatt missed the deadline, but claimed that the state failed to send him a notice.

In August 2009, a Virginia court awarded Wyatt temporary custody of his daughter, and four months later, he was granted permanent custody. The Virginia court also ordered that Emma be returned to her birth state and given to her biological father.

But Utah has not complied, and state courts have backed it up.

Larry Jenkins, a representative from the Utah-based adoption agency A Act of Love, told the Deseret News that the girl's adoptive parents, Thomas and Chandra Zarembinski, could not comment on the ruling because of a pending lawsuit that Wyatt has filed against them.

"They are very grateful for the ruling, very happy with it," Jenkins said. "We felt the ruling was good."

Jeri Wyatt, the grandmother of Baby Emma, said that the ruling gives Utah the ability to take newborn babies away from any unmarried biological father.

"This is about the money-generating adoption mill that exists in the state of Utah," she said. "Every parent has a God-given right to raise their own child."

While he is disappointed, Wyatt has pledged to continue the battle even if that means taking the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I know the truth, and eventually she will know the truth, and I wasn't expecting much out of Utah," he told ABC News. "They have never done the right thing so why would they do the right thing now?"

Wyatt's case is one of almost a dozen cases brought by unmarried biological fathers against the state of Utah, calling the constitutionality of the state's adoption laws into question.

Utah laws require unmarried biological fathers to meet a strict deadline when objecting to an adoption, regardless of where they live or where the child is born. According to the Utah Supreme Court's decision, Wyatt did not file any documents within the state of Utah until April 28, missing the required deadlines.

"She will never be adopted," Wyatt wrote on his website. "I am her natural father and am her recognized legal father on her birth certificate. I have been a part of my daughter's life since the moment of conception and have continued to be her father in the fight to get her back home with me where she belongs."

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