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The New Jersey dad who has waged a five-year battle to regain custody of his only son from a family in Brazil erupted in anger at a video the family made showing the 9-year-old boy saying he wants to stay in Brazil.
“It’s disgusting,” David Goldman told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira in New York Thursday.
Two days earlier, the Brazilian family that has been raising Sean Goldman for nearly five years in defiance of international law and a New Jersey court order had appeared on American television to say that the boy wants to stay in Brazil. They also said that the reason David Goldman’s late wife, Bruna, abandoned him and took Sean to Brazil in 2004 was because their marriage had broken down and she was unhappy.
‘Child abuse’
“The levels that this is so wrong are insurmountable,” said Goldman, barely able to contain his rage at this latest twist in the battle of public opinion between him and the Brazilian family. “First of all, in depositions in New Jersey a year and a half after my wife, deceased now, took Sean and held him illegally in Brazil, [they said] there was nothing wrong with the marriage — under oath in depositions. And now they say because they can take a child — my child — and keep him in their possession, that he’s theirs? And this guy’s got no relation at all to my son.”
Video: Judge: Goldman can be with son — in Brazil What’s more, Goldman’s attorney, Patricia Apy, told Vieira, the existence of videos in which Sean is asked where he wants to live violates court orders demanding that the boy be kept away from the media.
“This child is not to be even exposed to the media,” Apy said. “This family has walked right through those orders, subjecting this child to [being] asked a question that the court has said he should not even be asked — let alone asked in front of a camera.”
Goldman accused the Brazilian family of holding his son prisoner and subjecting him to psychological abuse.
“This is just such an egregious case of child abuse, of human rights abuse. I can’t understand why this is still going on,” Goldman said.
Glimmers of hope
Bruna Goldman divorced Goldman in Brazil and married an attorney from an influential family, Joao Paulo Lins e Silva. A judge in New Jersey ordered the boy returned to his father pending custody hearings. International law under the Hague Treaty upholds Goldman’s rights, but Lins e Silva rebuffed Goldman’s efforts.
It was not until this year, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then President Obama weighed in on Goldman’s behalf, that Goldman began to see hope. The case was transferred from local courts in Brazil, where it had languished, to the federal courts, which ruled in favor of Goldman’s rights. Most recently, a judge ruled that Goldman is entitled to custody of Sean six days a week — but in Brazil.
Goldman has not yet accepted that offer. He said he doesn’t want to go to Brazil to claim primary local custody and then be stymied by yet another legal appeal. “I’ll jump on a plane, go there, and they’ll appeal that, and I’ll get kicked in the teeth again,” the New Jersey dad said bitterly.
‘Unhealthy environment’
Apy said that she is trying to cut through the legal hurdles so Goldman can have custody in Brazil while the case continues to work its way through the courts.
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“We’re trying to make arrangements so that David will have the opportunity to go down there in an environment where Sean can be secure, where we can be sure that both David and Sean have the opportunity to bond as father and son. We’re also wanting to be sure that we can do that without there being any more legal battles,” Apy told Vieira.
The attorney said that an upcoming break from school would be the ideal time for Sean to spend extended time with his father for the first time since he was taken to Brazil.
In the meantime, Goldman fears that further psychological damage is being inflicted on the boy — a claim he said is supported by the report of three Brazilian court-appointed mental health professionals.
“Loud and clear they evaluated that he is being violently psychologically damaged, and is in a very unhealthy environment,” Goldman said.
“God knows what they do to him.”
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