Dallas woman’s attorneys say case may set Texas precedent
The last time Kristie Vowels saw her daughter was on April 25, 2007. And whether she ever will have the legal right to see the nearly-4-year-old child again depends on the 5th District Court of Appeals’ decision in what Vowels’ attorneys said could be a precedent-setting case.
Vowels filed the lawsuit seeking joint custody, and later, the right to adopt the girl — whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy — on May 23, 2007, less than a month after the child’s biological mother and Vowels’ former partner, Tracy Scourfield, cut off Vowels’ contact with the girl.
Judge Tena Callahan in Dallas’ 302nd District Court dismissed the suit, for lack of standing, on April 4 this year, and on April 29 Vowels’ attorneys, Michelle May O’Neil and Susan Vrana, filed papers appealing that ruling.
But, O’Neill said, the appeals court isn’t likely to take any action for at least six months.For Vowels, that six months seems, she said, like an eternity.“I think I am still in disbelief that I am having to fight to see my child,” Vowels said. “My daughter deserves equal rights and equal protection. She deserves to have two parents raise her.”
Scourfield did not return a call seeking comment. Her attorney, Paul Brumley, declined comment through an e-mail.
According to information provided by Vowels and her attorneys, Vowels and Scourfield moved in together in December 1998. After several years of discussion and several sessions with a therapist, the two women decided to have a child through artificial insemination, with Scourfield as the biological mother and sperm from an anonymous donor.
The child was born May 21, 2004. She was given Vowels’ first name as her middle name, and her last name was a hyphenated combination of her mothers’ last names.
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