Adoption favors foster family
A judge rules that it would not be in Bethany Scudder's best interest if her aunt cared for her.
JUDY EMERSON
Rockford Register Star
ROCKFORD -- A Winnebago County Circuit Court judge has ruled that 7-year-old Bethany Scudder may be adopted by foster parents instead of by her dead mother's sister, who also wanted permanent custody of the child.
Bethany was adopted from a Chinese orphanage in 1998 by Loves Park postal worker Sandra Scudder. The child entered foster care two years ago when Scudder was charged with murder in the death of her other Chinese daughter, 22-month-old Esther.
An autopsy determined that Esther died of brain hemorrhaging due to blunt trauma to the head.
Scudder had not gone to trial when she died of ovarian cancer in October. The custody battle began shortly after that.
In her will, Scudder stated that she wanted her sister, Dian Little of Inverness, Fla., to raise Bethany. Little, a divorced office manager with a teenage daughter, wished to do so and filed a petition to adopt in Winnebago County.
The foster parents, who by that time had cared for the child for well over a year, filed a competing adoption petition.
Judge J. Todd Kennedy heard arguments from the two sides at a closed hearing in June and again Sept. 9, when he granted the foster parents' petition.
Because the proceedings were closed, attorneys will not comment. Attorney Tom Nash represented the foster family, whose identities are not part of the public record. Debra Schafer represented Little. Schafer also had been Scudder's attorney in the criminal case.
Bethany's grandmother, 81-year-old Dorothy Turney of Loves Park, said she was heartbroken by the judge's decision. Turney is Scudder's and Little's mother.
"I am just getting my feet back on the ground so that I can talk about it," Turney said this week. "It is like another death in the family."
Turney said the judge made no provisions for visitation, and she does not know whether she will be allowed to see Bethany.
The Rockford Register Star detailed the circumstances leading up to the custody battle in the June 6 Insight section.
Family-law experts said the guiding principle in such cases is the "best interest of the child." Judges may consider the wishes of parents as expressed in their wills, but children cannot be given to one person or another in the way property or jewelry is distributed.
Experts said the judge might be influenced by the length of time Bethany had been with the foster family and the possible harmful effect of another disruption.
The newspaper story told about the girls' adoption from China and chronicled what is known about events leading up to Esther's death on June 14, 2002, and the investigation that followed. Scudder, who had been charged with first-degree murder, had pleaded not guilty. Her friends and family believe she was wrongly charged.