International Custody Fight

Dana Hopkins is spending this Mother’s Day at home near Kettle Falls, Wash., still missing her two sons she hasn’t seen in more than two years.

They are in Germany, living with her ex-husband’s new wife.

Hopkins’ ex-husband, Cole C. Cummings, is in the Spokane County Jail for contempt of state court. He also faces federal charges of international parental kidnapping.

Cummings and his German wife refuse to return the two boys, Ryan 9, and Kyle, 7, to Hopkins, who is designated as the “custodial parent” under her divorce decree.

Cummings was found in contempt in early February for violating a Washington state court order that ended his marriage with Hopkins in 1995. He was ordered held in jail indefinitely by Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine, who will review the contempt case at a hearing on Monday.

“I still miss them so much, and I’m hoping they will be returned to the United States,” Hopkins said last week.

Cummings’ attorney, Maryann Moreno, said her client doesn’t want to return his two sons to what he contends is an “abusive environment.”

Moreno argues that the international child custody battle should be waged under the Hague Convention.

But Hopkins’ attorney, Priscilla Vaagen, said Washington state courts already have awarded Hopkins custody of the two boys, and Cummings should be ordered to abide by that court order.

Vaagen said Hopkins lacks funds to hire an attorney in Europe to wage a costly child-custody battle with Cummings under terms of the Hague Convention.

Cummings was named in an expanded federal indictment, filed last month, accusing him of two counts of illegally removing a child from the United States and two counts of illegally retaining a child outside of the United States.

He is scheduled to stand trial on those charges July 17 in U.S. District Court in Spokane.