Oct 15, 2007 10:20 am US/Eastern
Custody Hearing For Cuban Girl Moves Into Phase 2
jm
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A custody case involving a Cuban girl in Miami moves into its second phase Monday.
At issue is whether the 5-year-old girl at the heart of the case would be endangered by taking her from her foster family and half brother to live with her biological father, stepmother and half sister in Cuba.
After ruling that the girl's father, Rafael Izquierdo, was a fit parent who did not abandon his daughter when her mother brought her to the U.S. in 2005, Judge Jeri B. Cohen said that the girl should stay with her father during the weekend and only be returned to her foster parents on the weekend.
The Miami circuit court judge said, "Letting the child ease into it. Otherwise you're talking about an abrupt breaking off and I don't want to an abrupt break off."
The girl was placed in foster care after her mother attempted suicide days before Christmas, 2005. During the custody trial, the Florida Department of Children & Families has fought to have the child stay with her foster parents Joe and Maria Cubas, a wealthy Cuban-American couple. The Cubas family has already adopted the girl's half brother and have cared for the girl for more than 18 months.
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