Tribe, family argue over gaining custody of 5-year-old boy

Legal advocates trying to stop a 5-year-old boy from being taken from his Ohio foster family and placed with a Native American tribe in Arizona won a step in the custody case this week when an appeals court reversed earlier juvenile court rulings.

The appeals court in Franklin County ruled Tuesday that the county juvenile court had given jurisdiction and custody to the Gila River Indian Community without first conducting “a full evidentiary hearing taking into account the best interests” of the Franklin County boy, who has lived with foster parents in Coshocton County since he was 2.

The boy’s courtappointed guardian, Columbus attorney Brian Furniss, and the boy’s biological mother had urged the juvenile court to allow the child to remain in Ohio instead of sending him 2,000 miles away to live with people he didn’t know.

The boy’s mother died last March, while the case was underway. His father, a member of the Gila River tribe, remains unable to care for him, according to court documents.

Adi Dynar, an attorney with the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, said the court agreed that the federal Indian Child Welfare Act — a 1978 law that limits the removal and adoption of American Indian children by non-Indians — doesn’t override the need for determining the best scenario for the child.

“We don’t try to race-match children in the foster-care system. That’s a big no-no in any other case,” said Dynar, who represents Furniss. “That’s the fundamental significance of this.”

Both the foster family for the boy — who is referred to as “C.J., Jr.” in court documents — and his guardian declined to comment on the decision or the case, which heads back to juvenile court.

Thomas L. Murphy, deputy general counsel for the Gila River Indian Community, said the tribe “intends to advocate for the best interests of the child. The community’s going to continue to pursue participation in the case.”

Had Ohio childwelfare agencies properly notified the tribe after the boy came into foster care in 2015, Murphy said, “We wouldn’t be where we are today. By disregarding the law, basically, the child was not placed with relatives when he should have been.”

Murphy said the boy’s father grew up on the reservation. He also said that the boy met his tribal-placement family, tribe members and social workers in Ohio.

Custody cases that invoke the Indian Child Welfare Act are less common in Ohio than in the western United States, but central Ohio was the setting for a bitterly fought adoption two decades ago that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court before being sent back to the lower court.

Jim and Colette Rost eventually prevailed in 1998 in their five-year effort to adopt twin girls whose adoption had been blocked by their biological parents and by the Pomo Indians of California.

“The decision that we now have in Ohio is very much consistent with what other appellate courts have reached,” Dynar said. “In that sense, it’s not a big ripple, but it’s one more state that has said the same thing.”