Oregon governor reviews foster case

PORTLAND – Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski ordered a review Tuesday of a decision to send a 2-year-old boy to Mexico to a grandmother the boy has never seen rather than keep him with the foster parents who have raised him from infancy.

“What I’m interested in is how do you get both of these families in a win situation,” Kulongoski told reporters.

Gabriel Allred, 2, has lived with Steve and Angela Brandt in Toledo, a blue-collar town near the central Oregon coast, since he was 4 months old.

The boy’s Mexican birth father has been convicted of sex abuse and drug charges, and his American birth mother faces drug charges. Both have been stripped of custody.

Earlier this month, two Department of Human Services adoption panels said the boy should go to his biological grandmother on the grounds that the goal of the agency is to reunite families.

The Mexican grandmother has said she would welcome the boy in her home.

It is the first time a foster family in Oregon and a biological family member from another country have both sought to adopt a child who has dual citizenship, Kulongoski said.

“There are three important things to remember as this matter moves forward,” said Kulongoski.

“First, the child is safe and cared for. Second, he will not be sent anywhere until this matter is resolved here in Oregon. And third, any decision made will be in Gabriel’s best interest.”

Last week, Kulongoski formally asked the state attorney general whether Kulongoski could reverse the panels’ decisions. On Tuesday, Kulongoski said that is “not resolved.”

He said Tuesday that some form of mediation is likely and that the Mexican Consulate in Portland has indicated it wants to be involved.

The Mexican Consulate has not returned phone calls or e-mails asking about the case.

“It is a complex case with a lot of social, jurisdictional, legal and citizenship issues, which, quite frankly, has been unprecedented for us here in Oregon,” Bruce Goldberg, who heads Oregon’s Department of Human Services, said in an interview.

“The governor and I have been reviewing the case and the issues raised by it and are looking at working with the attorney general on it. We believe we can create a good situation for Gabriel within the next two weeks,” he said.

The Brandts are trying to adopt the boy and on Tuesday welcomed Kulongoski’s announcement that he had asked for a review of the decision to send the boy to Mexico.

“All that will be satisfactory in our minds is for Gabriel to stay where he is,” said Steve Brandt, a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy. “We have never lost hope. This is a positive rather than a negative.”

The boy’s maternal grandmother, Cecilia Martinez, 51, a widow who lives in the small town of San Jose Miahuatlan in the Mexican state of Puebla, has said she would keep him away from his birth father. Her other children include a doctor and a nursing student. She told the Oregonian newspaper she makes the peso equivalent of about $600 a month, well above average in rural Mexico, selling clothes and farming a small plot.

Gabriel was born Sept. 15, 2005, in Lincoln City. His mother, Lindsey Allred, 21, visited the boy at times but the visits tapered off after she failed to show up for a court hearing on felony drug charges. She was a methamphetamine addict during her pregnancy.

The Brandts have filed in Lincoln County Circuit Court for an order allowing them to keep the boy as the psychological equivalents of his birth parents. A hearing is set for Dec. 14, and Kulongoski said he hopes the issue can be resolved before then.

Bryan Johnston, who took over as interim head of the Children’s, Adults and Families Division on Monday, has two weeks to review the case and work with the families, Kulongoski said.

Johnston said Tuesday he thought consular involvement would be helpful “and make the parties more comfortable.”