MAN BREAKS SILENCE IN CUSTODY STRUGGLE

PARENTS HAVE NO RIGHT TO RECLAIM CHILD, SAYS PLACER RESIDENT WHO'S CARED FOR HER

Ted Bell

SACRAMENTO BEE

A Placer County man who, with his wife, has been prevented from adopting a 2-year-old child they have cared for since she was 20 days old broke his silence Friday, saying the college student parents have no grounds to reclaim her.

John Hoffman spoke while waiting outside a Woodland courtroom late Friday afternoon for a call to testify in a suit filed by Matthew and Lea Darrah of Davis.

The Darrahs claim they were bullied and pressured into surrendering their child to an adoption agency less than three weeks after Lea Darrah delivered her daughter, Michelle, alone and unattended on the floor of her University of California, Davis, dormitory bathroom.

"This is a case of two people who made a decision based on their circumstances at the time and who changed their mind and are not willing to take the responsibility," Hoffman said.

"They're blaming everyone else," said Hoffman, who was not called to testify Friday but expects to be on Monday, the trial's 15th day.

Hoffman complained about the coverage of the trial. He and his wife, Christine, have avoided contact with the media. "I've been upset with the press coverage," he said. "It's been so one-sided."

Hoffman said photos of Michelle that he and his wife sent to the Darrahs have been shown on television. "I don't think they've thought about how all this publicity would affect Michelle," said Hoffman. "I've been upset about how they haven't respected our privacy rights."

The Hoffmans' efforts to adopt Michelle were halted in October when attorneys for the Darrahs obtained a restraining order to stop the proceedings.

Five months earlier, the then-unmarried couple had signed papers at the Davis Crisis Pregnancy Center relinquishing custody of Michelle to the Children's Home Society of California, a private adoption agency.

The Darrahs have cited psychological pressures placed on them by counselors from the center and the society.

Counselors from the two agencies, however, have testified that Lea Darrah, then Lea Tyler, told them she wanted a quick adoption without the knowledge of her parents.

The Darrahs said an example of the pressure occurred during a meeting with the Hoffmans before the relinquishment papers were signed. Their account of that meeting had John Hoffman on his knees sobbing for Matthew Darrah to allow him to be Michelle's father. "That never happened," Hoffman said. "The depositions of those meetings are so off-base."