Friday, November 29, 2013

The Miller-McKenna Child Custody Case

This is a really compelling post that must be paid attention!

"Custody battle raises issues on rights of women" by Erik Eckholm |  New York Times, November 28, 2013

Ah, the pre$tige of AmeriKa's best newspaper!

NEW YORK — When Bode Miller, the Olympic ski star known for daring Alpine racing, met Sara A. McKenna in San Diego last year through the high-end matchmaker Kelleher International, they were both professing interest in finding a marriage partner, she recalls.

The relationship did not last long, but she did become pregnant. And now the skier and McKenna, 27, a Marine veteran and firefighter who attends Columbia University with GI Bill support, are locked in a cross-country custody fight that has become not only tabloid fodder but also a closely watched legal battle over the rights of pregnant women to travel and make life choices. 

(Blog editor stops at this point and makes the connection between tabloid fodder and the New York Times. Really no difference now, is there? And the Globe gobbled it right up. The other thing is why do I give a damn about some drug-addicted disappointment and the rather loose young lady he impregnated with unprotected sex?)

In December, when she was seven months pregnant and already sparring with Miller about their future relations, McKenna moved to New York to start school. Miller accused her of fleeing to find a sympathetic court, and a New York judge agreed, castigating McKenna for virtually absconding with her fetus. This allowed a California court to subsequently grant custody of the baby, a boy, to Miller, 36, and also set off alarm bells among advocates for women’s rights.

On Nov. 14, a five-judge appeals court in New York said McKenna’s basic rights had been violated, adding, “Putative fathers have neither the right nor the ability to restrict a pregnant woman from her constitutionally protected liberty.”

The appeals court also ruled that jurisdiction belonged in New York. This week, a New York City Family Court started proceedings that could switch custody of the boy, now 9 months old, back to McKenna.

But a tug of war between courts remains possible, because the San Diego judge has not ceded jurisdiction.

Have you ever noticed every single article in my new$paper is framed in the context of war? Even the terminology they choose for the most innocuous items invariably involves some sort of war lingo.

It is an unusual celebrity custody case, not centered on extravagant financial demands or questions about paternity. Both sides say they hope for co-parenting, but relations have been poisoned by what McKenna says is a steamroller campaign by Miller to push her to the margins and by what Miller calls the mother’s uncooperative behavior based on revenge.

I didn't know Bode Miller owned a newspaper.

They cannot even agree on what to call the boy.

Old whatshisname.

**************

Miller is training for the Sochi Winter Olympics. In October 2012, he married Morgan Beck, a beach volleyball star and model he started dating around the time McKenna became pregnant. They often travel together.

Oh, so Miller is a MAN WHORE, huh? Is he already cheating on the model yet?

The marriage provided new grist for conflict. McKenna has accused Morgan Miller, who announced that she had a miscarriage in January, of seeking to replace her as mother.

The hand that rocks the cradle.

Miller, in a blog post on Nov. 16 that was soon taken down, contrasted their “loving and balanced family” with McKenna’s heavy reliance on child care.

Unfortunately, I leave all my stuff up for everyone to read.

McKenna met Miller in April 2012, McKenna said at her apartment. They dated for about a month and a half, cooking dinner on the yacht where Miller lived at the time....

And then it was right into the sack, huh?

--more--"

Too bad Bode, slutty Sara, and the little bastard couldn't live happily ever after.