HAITIAN KIDS' MOTHER GETS LEGAL CUSTODY

News-Sentinel, The (Fort Wayne, IN)

Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dateline: SHELBYVILLE

A judge has revoked an order granting custody of 17 Haitian children to their father, saying Dan Blackburn can't properly care for the children.

Blackburn was granted custody of the children last July following an acrimonious divorce from his former wife, Kathy.

On Friday, Judge Jack Tandy revoked Blackburn's custody of the 17 children remaining at home, entrusting them to their mother. The Blackburns adopted 28 children, many of whom were very ill, while spending more than a decade as missionaries in Haiti.

While Dan Blackburn had custody of the children, welfare authorities alleged he failed to provide a clean, safe home for the children. And at the end of February, Shelby Circuit Judge Charles O'Connor ordered Blackburn to go on welfare so he could better support the children.

At Friday's hearing, officials said the children should be sent to a children's home. But Tandy was swayed by testimony from some of the children, Kathy Blackburn's lawyer, Michael Loveall, said.