Chinese Parents Appeal Custody Decision
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 19, 2004
Filed at 11:10 p.m. ET

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- A Chinese couple who lost a lengthy custody fight for their young daughter filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, possibly extending the court battle another two years.

A judge last week terminated Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He's parental rights, saying they abandoned 5-year-old Anna Mae He and are unfit to care for her. He ruled in favor of Jerry and Louise Baker, an American couple who offered to help the then-out-of-work parents by taking in Anna Mae when she was three weeks old.

The Hes asked for the child back about a year after the Bakers took her in, but they refused to give her up. The child remains with the Bakers, who are trying to adopt her.

``We don't think the record supports a finding of abandonment by clear and convincing evidence, or any evidence at all,'' said David Siegel, a lawyer for the Hes.

Larry Parrish, the Bakers' lawyer, said ending the two-year custody fight would be in Anna Mae's best interest.

``By filing this appeal, it just prolongs the cruelty,'' Parrish said.

An appeal likely will take two years to get through the Court of Appeals and then the state Supreme Court, he said. Both lawyers said they will ask that the case go directly to the high court, but such requests are rarely granted.

The Hes are in the United States illegally, but the federal courts have delayed deportation because of the custody fight. They say they put Anna Mae in what they thought was temporary foster care because they were out of work and had no money.

Shaoqiang He, who had been working on a Ph.D. in business at the University of Memphis, lost his scholarship because of a sexual assault accusation by another student. The charge was eventually dismissed at trial, but by then the Hes had already signed over custody of Anna Mae to the Bakers.