Kenneth Ward, an advocate with Fathers for Equal Rights, has been involved in fifteen termination appeals in the past decade, none of which have been successful. "You'd think that surely one out of those fifteen was a good dad, but the system is construed against biological parents," he says. "There's this prevailing belief in the system that if you're young and had a child out of wedlock, you shouldn't have parental rights. The only happy solution here might be some kind of open adoption."
But because there is no open-adoption statute in Colorado, the adoptive parents have total control and don't have to honor requests from biological parents who still want to have a role in their child's life. "In this state, the biological parent has no rights in an open-adoption situation," Davis says.
Mark Manger
Big daddy: Albert Galvan wants to be a father to his
baby.
Mark Manger
Man on a mission: Attorney Jack Davis doesn't believe
social services ever planned to return Albert Galvan's
daughter.
Related Content
More About
Adoree Blair would like that to change. "If it's safe, all kids should have open adoptions, because otherwise they lose that important relationship with their birth parent," she says.
One of the foster mothers in Albert's case, Davis says, "said she believed in open adoption and intended to make sure that Victoria knew who her father was." However, Albert has only seen his daughter once since his parental rights were terminated. He met the foster mom and her partner at the Greeley Mall on December 30, where he played with Victoria. Albert acknowledges that it's partly his fault that he hasn't seen or heard from them since, because his car is in need of repair and he hasn't been able to arrange to meet with them. But Albert still wants to see Victoria, because, as he says, "I don't want to be like my dad."
When Albert was sixteen, his dad suddenly reappeared in his life. "The child support finally caught up with him. He was always running," Albert says, explaining that his dad thought his financial obligations would somehow disappear if he remarried his ex-wife. "When he came to our house, I was upstairs playing video games. My brother came up with him and said, 'It's Dad; tell him hi.' I didn't even recognize him; it was like seeing a total stranger."
The newly reunited family decided to drive to Texas to visit relatives, but Albert's parents fought the entire time. When they reached Oklahoma, their car broke down and they decided to halt the visit. Once they got back to Colorado, Albert's dad left again, only to come back when Albert was eighteen.
"He expected us to just go to him," Albert says of the visit two years later. "My mom asked us if we wanted to see him. I was the only one who said no."
Now a father himself, Albert has vowed to do right by his child. "I never thought of myself as a quitter," he says.
Davis isn't a quitter, either, but he feels he failed Albert. After running his own lawn business and remodeling houses for many years, he decided to switch careers and enroll in law school. Davis had only been handling D&N cases for a year when he was appointed to represent Albert. Had he been a more experienced lawyer, Davis says, he would have challenged the drug component of Albert's treatment plan. "That was in there for the hassle factor. They knew it was difficult for Albert to make those classes. He never threw a hot UA, and yet I've seen cases where mild use of marijuana has been tolerated. They were just complaining because he didn't have his drug classes done on time," he explains. "I think social services just thought they had the child in a good place, so why muck up a good deal for a maybe deal."
The appeal may be Davis's chance to make things right for his client. Even though the odds aren't in his favor, Davis thinks Albert's case could just be strong enough to win. "He might be that 1 percent," Davis says. "Throughout this time, I've watched Albert go from a boy to a man. He has a strong sense of what his promise is worth and a strong work ethic," he says. "Social services really missed on this one, and I'll be sure of that until the day I die."
