Sep 11, 2007 8:06 pm US/Eastern
Child Custody Case: Dad Breaks Down On The Stand
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The man who wants to take his girl back to Cuba from Miami in a custody case broke down before Judge Jeri Cohen as she grilled him on his testimony Tuesday.
"Sir I have to tell you that I found a lot of your testimony evasive and dishonest," said Cohen.
That is when Rafael Izquierdo broke down, sobbing, as he told her that he loved his daughter. Cohen asked him why he took so long to get a visa to claim his daughter, but he blamed the different laws between the two countries and the paperwork that made it difficult.
"I love my daughter, and if I didn't love her I wouldn't haven't come to the U.S. to claim her," said Izquierdo.
Opposing Izquierdo is the Florida Department of Children & Families and the Guardian-ad-Litem Program in Miami. Attorneys for the agencies say Izquierdo is unfit to raise the 5-year-old girl because, among other things, he allowed her to emigrate to the United States with a mother he knew was emotionally unstable.
Attorneys for DCF and the guardian program are asking a Miami judge to order that the 5-year-old remain permanently in the home of Joe and Maria Cubas, the Coral Gables couple who have cared for her the past 18 months. The little girl celebrated her fifth birthday this weekend at the Cubas' home.
According to
CBS4 news partners
The Miami Herald, during questioning by Shelby Tsai, an attorney with the law firm Hogan & Hartson who is representing the guardian program, Izquierdo was asked questions about the women with whom he married or had been intimate with in Cuba.
Izquierdo said he considered himself married to both Elena Perez, the 5-year-old's mother, and Yanara Alvarez, the mother of his 7-year-old daughter, with whom he now lives. He said he also had a marriage-like relationship with another woman.
The morning began with Tsai questioning Izquierdo about efforts he made to keep in touch with the little girl after she left Cuba for Miami in March 2006. Attorneys for the state say Izquierdo cared so little about his daughter that he failed to send birthday cards, letters or presents.
Both DCF and the guardian program have sought repeatedly, the judge said, to limit Izquierdo's court-approved visits with his daughter. Several of the visits have generated controversy in court.
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CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this repo)
