North Texas Father Fights For His Parental Rights

Jack Fink Reporting (CBS 11 News)

DALLAS -- Shawn McDonald says he only found out about his baby two days before the child was born. He says he was powerless to stop the mother from giving the baby up for adoption.

This legal battle is now being fought here at the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center. A jury must decide if the father will lose his parental rights for good. "I'd love to be a father to him," McDonald said. McDonald says he never got the chance to be a father to his son, Hunter. The boy is now 18 months old and since birth, has lived with his adoptive parents, Travis and Sabra Hess, in Idaho.

"[It] Really hurts emotionally... work time... every thought is nothing but this," McDonald said. Now a Dallas County jury will decide whether the Hess' can keep Hunter and terminate McDonald's parental rights.

Kathryn Lanigan-Wieser is McDonald's attorney. "This case involves a kidnapping," she said. "They stole Shawn's child." McDonald's attorney accuses the birth mother Samantha Myers and Eric Larson, of Latter Day Saints Family Services, of conspiring to keep the birth and adoption a secret.

McDonald says he had previously broken up with Myers, and that they share custody of a three and a half year old girl. McDonald says he only found out about Hunter on July 2, 2005, two days before he was born in Fort Worth.

"The baby was shipped off to Idaho before Shawn could do anything," Lanigan-Wieser said. "In fact, they hid the identity of the Hess'. Shawn didn't know where the baby was until the Hess' intervened in the lawsuit in September, 2006."

The Hess', LDS Family Services and the birth mother all declined comment. But in court papers, LDS Family Services and its social worker, Eric Larson say McDonald knew Myers was pregnant and abandoned the child.

But the adoptive parents said in court papers that LDS told them McDonald was "out of the picture" and "could not be located." The Hess' want to keep Hunter. They say that changing his home now could negatively impact the baby.

That's not something Shawn McDonald wants to consider. "I would have to think about that for the rest of my life," McDonald said. Among the options for the jury include terminating McDonald's parental rights and leaving the child with the adoptive parents, giving McDonald sole custody, or giving primary custody to one of the parties with the other getting visitation.