Sep 4, 2007 9:53 pm US/Eastern
Cuban Custody Case: Mom Lashes Out At Attorneys
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Elena Perez, the mother of a 4-year-old girl at the center of an international custody dispute, took the witness stand on Tuesday and lashed out at the father and his legal team, calling them liars.
"I regret to have lied to favor you, because the only thing they've wanted is to confuse me to make it seem as if I'm not well," said Elena Perez.
Rafael Izquierdo is Perez's one-time lover and the father of the 4-year-old girl. Attorneys for the Florida Department of Children & Families say Izquierdo is unfit to raise the girl because, among other things, he took little interest in the girl's welfare, but his lawyers say he kept a keen interest in the girl's health and well-being, and had given Perez fish, milk and other supplies when Perez lived in Cuba. Izquierdo, they contend, was involved in the girl's life until she left Cuba with her mother and older brother.
Perez won a lottery allowing her to immigrate to America, and arrived in March 2005. But by the following December, the children had been sheltered by DCF after Perez called 911 reportedly in a major depression.
While living in Miami in 2006, after leaving Houston where she once stayed, she called homeless shelters she had read about in Houston, hoping to find a place to stay in for a while getting back on her feet, Perez testified.
''I had nowhere to go,'' Perez testified. ``I had no money.''
One of the defense attorneys asked, ''Did you tell people in Cabaiguan what was happening in your life then?''
Perez said people in her town, Cabaiguan, had long believed that life was always good in Miami, and that people who lived there suffered no hardships. ''If you had no money and no home, and were living in bad shape,'' she said, ``nobody would believe you.''
Perez admitted to quitting her job recently working at La Carreta restaurant at Miami International Airport because of frictions that developed between her and coworkers over the custody case.
CBS4's Ileana Varela said that as the trial ended its second weeks, Perez who originally maintained that her daughter belongs with her biological father has turned against him and his lawyer.
"You know that I have favored you many things, the amount of lies that I have had to say," Perez also said.
Last week Izquierdo's legal team, headed by attorney Ira Kurzban, objected to what Perez said, contending it was a lie.
"I have nothing to win or to lose," said Elena Perez.
The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.
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