Testimony differs on trauma girl faces
By Shirley Downing
Commercial Appeal
March 3, 2004

Psychologists disagreed Tuesday about the trauma that a 5-year-old Chinese girl suffered from losing her birth parents, and the loss she would experience if taken from her American foster parents. 

The testimony capped a grueling, nine-day trial to determine if Shaoqiang 'Jack' He and his wife, Qin Luo 'Casey' He, should lose parental rights to their first-born daughter. Closing arguments will be March 22, with the judge's ruling due within 30 days. 

The Hes voluntarily gave legal custody of newborn Anna Mae to Jerry and Louise Baker in 1999. Two years later, the Bakers filed to adopt. 

The Hes, who face deportation, accuse the Bakers of stealing their daughter with the help of attorneys and the courts. They want their daughter back so they can return to China. 

The Bakers contend the Hes - despite at least 80 visits in the child's first two years - abandoned the girl and failed to provide support. 

The case lingered for four years before it was assigned to Circuit Court Judge Robert 'Butch' Childers late last year. Childers has listened intently to testimony spread over 12 to 13 hours most days, his head bowed while typing notes into a computer. 

"This court is being called on to decide several issues in this case,'' Childers said Tuesday shortly after a routine objection from an attorney. 

"Among those issues is what is in the best interests of the ward of this court and any potential harm or damage that affects this child is evidence this court needs to consider." 

On Tuesday, Baker attorney Larry Parrish testified about a conversation with Chancellor D. J. Alissandratos, the presiding judge before the case was assigned to Childers. 

Parrish said a "no contact" order forbidding contact between the Hes and their daughter was ordered by Alissandratos at the end of a Feb. 7, 2002, hearing as other parties were leaving the courtroom. Parrish said Alissandratos told him to draft the order, and what to write. 

David Siegel, who represents the Hes, has questioned whether the order came from a private conversation between Parrish and Alissandratos. 

Earlier Tuesday, Dr. John Hutson, who testified for the Hes, criticized psychologist Dr. David Goldstein, who was chosen by Anna Mae's court-appointed guardian. 

Goldstein testified Anna Mae had bonded with the Bakers. "A child needs to have a secure adjustment to someone. If that adjustment is undermined, it will be particularly harmful to the child," he said. 

But Hutson said the greatest trauma in Anna Mae's life had been the loss of her birth parents. 

"Everybody in this city has an opinion on that - it is the removal from her birth parents and no contact with her (birth) parents. You don't have to evaluate a child to know that." 

Earlier, Goldstein offered a running commentary of a videotaped meeting between the Hes and Anna Mae last September in his office. 

The Hes brought their youngest child, a toddler, to the meeting as well as a bag of gifts and fruit. The Hes had been told to come alone. The toddler was a "distraction," Gold stein said. Hutson said he would have had both couples and their children present to see the interaction of all family members. 

- Shirley Downing: 529-2387