Visitation rights struggle continues between
parents, grandparents

By Mike James
Of The Daily Independent

ASHLAND — This Easter, many parents and grandparents watched together and smiled as children scurried after hidden Easter eggs or knelt in church wearing their holiday finery.

But two area sets of parents remain locked in conflict with grandparents over visitation rights with their children.

All four of the parents already have gone to jail rather than allow their children to spend time with their grandparents.

David and Melanie Brown of Worthington continue to spend a night in jail every month rather than allow court-ordered visitations between their 9-year-old adopted daughter and her biological grandmother.

For Charles and Amanda Johnson of Flatwoods, the threat of a jail term is all that keeps them from defying a judge's order to permit visits between their two toddlers and Charles Johnson's parents.

The families are among a growing number embroiled in such interfamily disputes in which judges make visitation decisions using largely the same criteria as in divorce cases.

The grandparents in question have said they love their grandchildren and went to court only as a last resort.

The parents argue that they're intact families and shouldn't be held accountable under standards developed for broken families.

And the judges have said they're bound by Kentucky law, which provides for granting of visitation rights for grandparents.

The Browns are scheduled to go back to jail for the fifth time Saturday and their case is at a standstill right now, Melanie Brown said.

They were sentenced in December by Greenup Circuit Judge Lewis D. Nicholls for contempt of court when they refused to submit to his visitation order, which provides for monthly overnight visits and one week per year with Shirley Kitts of Franklin Furnace, Ohio, the biological paternal grandmother of their daughter, Odessa.

The Browns, who were her foster parents, adopted Odessa, whose father is dead and whose mother surrendered her parental rights in the early 1990s.

Melanie Brown has lost her job at the Our Lady of Bellefonte Flatwoods clinic and the family has lost its medical insurance, she said.

They have other income and extended family to help them and are ``far from being homeless," she said.

At some point this summer, they'll have to spend a week behind bars as part of Nicholls' sentence, which stipulates they must go to jail during times Odessa would be visiting her grandmother under the order. She's not sure when that will be, but figures it will cause difficulty because of the difficulty in finding child care for Odessa and their other children.

Their appeal of the visitation order is still pending. She says they won't back down. ``No matter how bad it gets, my kids come first," she said.

Kitts said she won't back down, either. ``It was their choice. It wasn't my choice. I didn't send them to jail."

She still hasn't seen Odessa since the dispute began. ``I think it's wrong. She's my only grandchild and I think this is wrong what they're doing.

``Of course I miss her. Me and Mrs. Brown had an agreement that I'd always be able to see Odessa."

The Johnsons have submitted to one visitation so far under the order, Amanda Johnson said. That was in March at the Town Center Mall and didn't go well because the children, ages 3 and 16 months, got restless.

The following week, the grandparents, Bennie and Brenda Johnson, asked Circuit Judge C. David Hagerman to allow them to take the children away from the mall for the visitations. Hagerman granted the request and ordered the parents to leave the area after dropping the children off or face a further contempt charge.

The children have been sick and so haven't yet had another visitation, Amanda Johnson said.

Brenda Johnson said Monday that she and her husband hadn't changed their minds about pursuing the suit. She refused further comment. ``We're not discussing it with anyone but our attorney," she said.

Bennie Johnson earlier had said his son and daughter-in-law made the choice to go to jail.

The younger Johnsons had said one reason they didn't want their children to visit their grandparents was that the home of the elder Johnsons was slovenly and full of animal waste.

When a reporter recently approached the Johnson home, the Johnsons were absent but there were six dogs visible in the fenced front and back yards. There was no visible sign of filth in the yard or on the porch. The reporter did not see inside the house.

The younger Johnsons have filed a notice that they'll appeal Hagerman's order and they've asked Hagerman for a stay of his order. Hagerman could rule on that motion Friday.

A bill to amend the state law on grandparent visitation died in the state senate when the 2001 legislative session ended. But that bill wouldn't have changed the law enough for parental rights advocates, said a Lexington woman who is active in the Coalition for the Restoration of Parental Rights. The woman asked that her name be withheld because she is involved in a case of her own.

Parental rights advocates want the statute repealed entirely or declared unconstitutional she said. ``HB71 wouldn't have changed anything," she said.

The coalition has some allies in the legislature, she said, and will seek to draft pro-parent legislation to be introduced in the next legislative session.

She's hoping if a case reaches the appellate or supreme court level the statute will be overturned.

Parental rights advocates cite a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Troxel V. Granville, that overturned a Washington state visitation statute.

Hagerman has said the decision doesn't invalidate the Kentucky statute.

MIKE JAMES can be reached by phone at (606) 326-2652 or by e-mail at mjames@dailyindependent.com

http://www.dailyindependent.com/archives/april_01/16/local2.html