The Republic, and the Courier-Journal, have reported that the U.S. Supreme Court denied to hear a couple’s appeal in a child custody case that has been in the courts ever since the boy’s birth three years ago.
The southern Indiana couple, Jason and Christy Vaughn, adopted the child at birth only to surrender him to his biological father after every court hearing ruled in his favor.
The couple, of Sellersburg Indiana, legally adopted the child from its biological mother.
The child, named Grayson by the Vaughns, was handed over to his father, Benjamin Wyrembek in October 2010. The rulings took place in Ohio as that is where Grayson was born and where Wyrembek sought his paternity rights.
Wyrembek, not married to the child’s biological mother at the time the baby was conceived, was not consulted when the mother chose the Vaughn’s to raise their child.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was “the last hope” for the family, per Jason Vaughn’s father Ed.
Ed Vaughn said, “At some point, you have to recognize you've lost.” Ed Vaughn stated that the fight over Grayson has been a monetary burden for the family.
He told reporters that getting the case prepared and filed for the U.S. Supreme Court set the family back approximately $30,000.
Besides the financial burden, the three-year’s worth of trials have taken an emotional toll on the family as well.
The Vaughn’s attorney, Mike Voorhees, of Ohio, in admitting that the case was at its end, alluded to other legal options open to the family even without the Supreme Court’s help. But he refused to say what other avenues were open to them.
He said that first he had to discuss his ideas with his clients.
Alan Lehenbauer, Wyrembek’s attorney, failed to return a call from reporters before press time.
Christy Vaughn was the first person to hold Grayson after he was born as she was present for the birth. The child was adopted via a private agency in 2007.
Nine days after Grayson was born, the Vaughns brought him to their Sellersburg home.
Christy Vaughn would give birth to another child five months later.
After Grayson’s birth Wyrembek signed up on a Ohio State paternity registry, claiming that he believed that he was the boy’s biological father. Later, in Lucas County, Ohio, he won his
paternity in probate court.
Then Wyrembek continued to win a series of court decisions over the course of the last three years.
In their attempts to keep Grayson, the Vaughn’s sued in both Ohio and in Indiana’s Floyd County Circuit Court. But last year the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that Indiana courts didn’t have the jurisdiction in the case.
On October 31 Christy Vaughn, in response to a court order, surrendered Grayson to Wyrembek at his apartment in Swanton, Ohio.
Since then, Wyrembek has not allowed the Vaughns see Grayson again.
Facing problems in an adoption? Contact a family law attorney to help you with your rights
and, to avoid heartbreak.