Adoption pits Utah couple against CdA man
A Utah couple are refusing to return their adopted baby to its biological father in Coeur d’Alene, despite a judge’s order earlier this month.
Matt Tenneson, 20, is upset and said he may ask authorities to charge Jed and Callie Nielson, of American Fork, Utah, with a crime for refusing to return his son.
“We’re working with the police in Idaho and Utah,” Tenneson said Thursday. “They are in direct violation of the court order.”
Earlier this month, Magistrate Barry Watson ruled that Tenneson, 20, be given temporary primary custody of his 5 1/2 -month-old son, and ordered the Nielsons to relinquish custody.
The Nielsons told a Salt Lake City newspaper they intend to wage a legal battle to keep the baby.
“We plan to celebrate Christmas with Harvey and be grateful for every day we have him,” Callie Nielson said Wednesday.
No one answered the telephone at the Nielson home on Friday afternoon. Larry Jenkins, attorney for the Neilsons, did not immediately return a telephone message.
The birth mother, Cammie Knight, gave up custody of the child last summer, shortly after he was born.
But Tenneson never waived his parental rights and has won several court rulings in Idaho against the adoption agency, LDS Family Services.
The custody battle is testing state jurisdiction. Representatives from the attorneys general in Idaho and Utah both maintain the private adoption is a civil matter and they don’t want to get involved.
But Idaho State Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said he is trying to help the Tenneson family and has asked the Idaho attorney general’s office to analyze the situation.
“It’s a test case, but we’ve got a tragedy on our hands,” Jorgenson said. “Idaho is not getting any cooperation from Utah.”
Jorgenson blamed LDS Family Services for not getting Tenneson’s consent.
“LDS Family Services needs to be held accountable,” Jorgenson said. “If this adoption had gone through the state, it never would have happened.”
A message left at the office of LDS Family Services in Salt Lake City on Friday was not immediately returned.
Tenneson said the baby was born two weeks early and he had no idea the mother had prearranged the adoption. He said he and Knight were not communicating at the time.
The child was placed for adoption through LDS Family Services, an agency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The adoption agency is appealing an earlier ruling that nullified the adoption.
Court records show that Tenneson suggested Knight get an abortion, but Knight refused and they talked about adoption or keeping the baby.