Infant returned to teen parents in custody dispute

Judge: Father coerced into signing adoption form

Sandra McIntosh

The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution

A tiny, dark-haired infant was returned to his teenage parents today despite an appeal of the case by the adoption agency that is trying to keep the boy.

Fulton Superior Court Judge Leah Sears-Collins ruled that the baby's father was coerced into signing an adoption consent form and that the adoption agency suspiciously prevented the parents from seeing their son until after their 10-day grace period to change their minds.

Jeffrey Allen has been at the heart of a dispute between his parents, David and Heather Vogel, and the Friends of Children adoption agency they surrendered him to a day after his birth Feb. 4.

Judge Sears-Collins said since Jeffrey had not been placed with an adoptive f amily, the battle was mainly between the Vogels and "an adoption agency seeking finality in order to make, what appears to be, a quick and handsome profit from the placement of a child in an adoptive home."

Testimony during the case showed that the agency receives at least $25,000 for each healthy white infant it places.

Judge Sears-Collins ordered the infant, who has remained in foster care, brought to the front of the courtroom and delivered to his parents. Mr. Vogel is 18, and Mrs. Vogel is 17.

But the agency's attorney, Mark Booz of Troutman, Sanders, Lockerman & Ashmore, objected, saying he was going to appeal the ruling.

"While an appeal is pending no change of custody should be made," Mr. Booz said. "That is the law in this state."

The judge refused, saying it "wasn't in the best interest of this child to remain between a rock and a hard place." She agreed, however, to order the Vogels not to take the child out of the state pending the outcome of the appeal.

"Y'all had a close one," Judge Sears-Collins admonished the couple as they got to hold Jeffrey for the first time since Feb. 18. "Don't treat your son like that anymore."

After the hearing, surrounded by tearful family members, Mrs. Vogel stroked her son's hair as he wiggled in his father's arms.

"He's bigger," she said, "but he's still mine."