NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A judge has blocked an attempt by Middle Tennessee foster parents to get back physical custody of the child they raised for eight years.
In court on Friday, Dickson County Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Jackson said 9-year-old Sonya McCaul will remain with her father in Omaha, Nebraska, for now.
The child’s court-appointed guardian, Hilary Duke, said Sonya is doing well. Duke blamed foster parents David and Kimberly Hodgin (HAH’-jihn) for blocking the state’s earlier attempts to place Sonya with relatives.
Duke also claimed the Hodgins have endangered Sonya by making the custody case public. And she said that even if Sonya were to come back to Tennessee, she would not be placed back in the Hodgins’ home.
“That would be detrimental,” Duke said.
Technically, Sonya is still in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. Department spokesman Rob Johnson said Sonya’s placement with John McCaul is the equivalent of a trial home visit.
Duke said the Hodgins might be allowed visitation with Sonya if they would cooperate with the process.
After the hearing, David Hodgin, standing with his wife, denied that they have been uncooperative.
“They don’t tell a lot of truth in anything they say,” Hodgin said.
He called the judge’s ruling devastating for Sonya, saying, “She doesn’t deserve the pain.”
And he said they would continue to fight for custody in the courts.
“We’ll never stop. Never stop. Never ever. Until we get our daughter back.”
Sonya was first brought to Tennessee in 2005 by a baby sitter, when she was still an infant. The Department of Children’s Services soon took custody of her, and she was placed in the Hodgin home. That same month, John McCaul was taken into federal custody, where he served seven-and-a-half years for unlawful transport of firearms.
The Hodgins petitioned the courts to terminate the parental rights of the biological parents and allow them to adopt Sonya. But at the same time the Hodgins were trying to adopt, DCS was trying to place Sonya with relatives in Nebraska.
After McCaul was released from prison, the Hodgins agreed to slowly reintroduce him into Sonya’s life, but after several months, that process broke down. In January, the judge approved a plan to place Sonya with McCaul. Sonya was transferred to McCaul, whom she had not seen since she was an infant, that same day.
McCaul’s attorney, Anita Lynn Vinson Coffinberry, declined to speak with reporters after the hearing.
During the hearing, she told the judge, “The child is doing well, your honor. The child is doing great.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.