Violations of Civil and Religious Rights in a Child Custody Case

Tempest F. is a young 22-year-old black woman living in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the mother of a 2-year-old little girl and she herself is going to school to become a medical assistant. She lives at home with her parents as she goes through the trials of obtaining a divorce from her estranged husband.

Her daughter, born with a cleft lip and palette and with a bone deformity in her thigh, has been operated on numerous times over the past two years. Tempest has been the sole caretaker and provider for her daughter after her husband left her over 16 months ago. She has been responsible for taking care of all the medical procedures her daughter had undergone since her birth. She has always had her daughter's health first and foremost and has taken care of her daughter's medical needs as needed.

On October 14, 2008, Tempest was awarded sole custody of her daughter with visitation being given to the father.

On December 16, 2008, the father, who has been convicted multiple times for drug use, theft, burglary, and assault, was given full custody of his daughter, even after telling the presiding judge, Family Master William Dunn, that he suffers from drug induced depression. Three weeks prior to this decision, the father was living in a halfway house due to his drug abuse of heroin and is currently on methadone. The same father who, three days after buying an infant car seat, sold the seat in order to get enough money to pay for his "drug fix".

Why did this happen?

Judge Dunn, of 111 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, Maryland, decided that the father, who came to court with his mother and an unknown man who claimed to be a pastor, was better able to make decisions regarding the child's medical, school, and religious issues. Why did the judge make this decision? Tempest is a member of a religion known as the Jehovah's Witnesses and because of this, Judge Dunn arbitrarily decided that on that basis alone, Tempest would and could not make the proper medical decisions necessary and in the best interests of her child.

Judge Dunn then ordered Tempest to take anger management classes when she vigorously objected to his decision and to the presence of the unknown pastor, someone she had never before seen.

Judge Dunn apparently is under a mistaken belief that the child is suffering from undue pain and agony, in spite of the assertions of her physical therapist and surgeon that she is not. Although the child will need an operation to correct the bone deformity, her doctor decided she was too young at this time to undergo the surgery and wanted to wait until the child was older. The child may possibly need a blood transfusion and will be a participant in what is known as "autotransfusion", where her own blood will be collected to use in that event. Autotransfusion is accepted by the members of the Jehovah's Witnesses as a legal and viable alternative to their dissention against using whole blood from another, unrelated person.

This is a major and grievous violation of civil and religious rights. If a judge is allowed to set a definition of "unfitness" due to one party's religious affiliation, then what stops him or even another judge from doing the same with any other denomination, be it Protestant, Methodist, or Catholic? When does the legal system have the right to impose an arbitrary medical decision on any person when there is not an immediate danger present? Why was there not an investigation into the true and legal facts of this case and the participants?

Perhaps the community should ask Master William Dunn himself. He may be contacted at: Master William Dunn, Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Courthouse East 111 North Calvert Street, Room 103, Baltimore, MD 21202, Telephone: (410) 396-3304, Fax: (410) 545-6135.