Family Dispute Complicates Finding New Home For Girl Death Of 7-Year-Old’s Mother Sets Off Battle For Custody

The state of Oregon is trying to find a new family for 7-year-old Diana Valdez, who lost the only stability in her life when her mother was killed in September.

Corrine Tabert was walking Diana to school when a delivery van veered off a street in Portland and struck them on the sidewalk. Tabert landed in a driveway and died.

The van pinned Diana against a concrete retaining wall. Seven weeks later, she is recovering from a coma and an amputated foot.

The accident touched off a custody dispute between Diana’s relatives, all of whom have concerns that make the State Office for Services to Children and Families face a daunting task in deciding who can best restore stability to the girl’s life.

In the absence of immediate family, state social workers typically look first for relatives, then to eligible foster parents.

But Diana’s case is complicated by the prospect of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Pony Express, the courier company that operated the van that injured the girl and killed her mother.

A handful of relatives, some who haven’t seen Diana since she was a toddler, have hired lawyers and are fighting for custody. Allen J. Tabert, Diana’s stepfather, has filed a $25 million wrongful death suit on behalf of the girl and her mother.

All of Diana’s relatives say they are acting in her best interests.

“This has nothing to do with the money,” Cherri Boltz, Tabert’s younger sister, said. “If Allen could give away all the money to keep Diana, he would.”

State officials and relatives will try to resolve the custody dispute at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

While family members fight one another, The Sunday Oregonian reported that state officials have serious questions about all of them:

Allen Tabert was arrested on a fugitive warrant in October outside a custody hearing. Tabert never completed his probation for drug charges and burglary. Tabert was living in Canada when Corrine Tabert was killed, and her friends say she moved to Portland last summer to put distance between them.

Diana’s biological father, Jason Clair Smith, hadn’t seen his daughter in almost five years. His two other children are in the custody of Washington state child protective services. His wife, Kimberly Smith, sought a restraining order against Smith, claiming he hit her and the children, among other allegations.

Smith’s father, Harold D. Smith, wants custody of Diana if social workers deem his son unfit to care for her. State officials said Harold Smith, 50, has a criminal record. He filed for bankruptcy two years ago and lives with a woman who once tried to run him over with her Camaro, according to a restraining order he sought.

“Is it a simple case of placing a girl in a loving family? No, I wouldn’t say it’s simple,” said Bob Heiney, a supervisor in the State Office for Services to Children and Families.

If Diana’s relatives are unfit, social workers might look to the David and Doris Cushman, close friends who took in Corrine Tabert and Diana this summer.

They haven’t made a formal request for custody of the girl, but say that if the state thinks Diana would thrive with them, they would take her in with their three youngest children.

“Hopefully the judges will look at the best interest of Diana,” David Cushman said, “not simply the bloodline’s right to have her.”

Caseworkers say a criminal record doesn’t necessarily disqualify a person from adopting a child. Heiney says caseworkers will look at whether Diana would be at risk with any of the people who want her, and how well they are able to raise a girl with significant physical and emotional injuries.

“There’s a lot of things that need to be attended to with her,” Hainey said. “Her emotional rehabilitation, as well as her physical rehabilitation, lends her to having some very specific needs.”