Mother and Child Trapped by Brazilian Government in International Custody Case

gitana1

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Shauna Hadden and her daughter Ava are stuck in Brazil after the passports were confiscated by the Brazilian government. She has sole custody of her daughter in a U.S. court order that the father agreed to. He was deported from Brazil because he was in the U.S. illegally.

After several years, the mom agreed to bring Ava down to Brazil to get to know her father, her family and her Brazilian heritaqe. But then things went wrong. She claimed that once there, a friend warned her that the father was going to try to take custody and so she refused to go to the father's home and visited friends in another city. It was then that the father went to the Brazilian courts and tried to get custody and had their passports seized. They have been trapped there for some time:
According to Hadden, Shauna and Donizete Machado have been divorced since 2009. "She has full custody of Ava. He lives in Brazil. Shauna planned a trip on May 21 where she would take Ava to visit her father and extended family in Brazil. We thought it was a great opportunity for Ava to learn about her heritage."
But when they got to Brazil, "Shauna got a call from a man who lived in Machado's town telling her not to come," Hadden said. "Her ex-husband was planning to take Ava from her."
So instead of traveling to see Machado, Shauna Hadden chose to go north and stay with friends.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/mass-mothe...y-dispute-home/story?id=19579851#.Udhzhm124f4

What do you all think? My thoughts will be in another post below, but I want to hear what everyone else has to say.
 
Hard to make a judgement on this, only hearing one side of the story - and then, not even one full side, since this is coming through the Grandma.
 
Had a feeling there was more to it.

Btw some of the comments under that nbcnews article are infuriating. :furious:
 
Mom might have gone to Brazil to meet an on-line boyfriend.

"Hadden's family called that claim ridiculous, but in an exchange of Facebook messages from April 16 — five weeks before her trip — Hadden voices an intention to visit the man named in the passport seizure request, a resident of the town where she's now staying."

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...ter-6-stuck-in-brazil-in-child-custody-battle

I checked out her facebook page. I do think this lady took the opportunity of free tickets to Brazil to visit another man for at least part of the trip. This enraged the father who began making threats. According to her initial accounts on facebook, no "friend" first warned her that the dad was trying to take custody. Instead, she claims she began to feel odd as she was traveling to Brazil, because the dad expressed a sense of urgency about her getting there on time so he could see Ava, so she suddenly decided to go first to visit a "friend" in another city, who was "concerned",( read boyfriend).

The dad became very upset over the next few days, after having paid for the trip and not being able to see his daughter, so, according to her, he began threatening her that he would try to take custody and he went to court and got the passports taken. I think he was horrified, thinking he had been scammed. I don't blame him.

What Brazil has done in confiscating the passports of the mother and child and involving the family courts there, when there is already a valid family court order out of the U.S, is wrong, IMO. However, I would see nothing wrong with confiscating the mother's passport until she reimbursed the father for the trip.
 
This is really ashame. Adults behaving badly with their children caught in the middle. I watched the story about the dad who tried for 5 years to get his son back awhile ago. That case was heart wrenching. I hope this case does not come to that. JMV
 
I checked out her facebook page. I do think this lady took the opportunity of free tickets to Brazil to visit another man for at least part of the trip. This enraged the father who began making threats. According to her initial accounts on facebook, no "friend" first warned her that the dad was trying to take custody. Instead, she claims she began to feel odd as she was traveling to Brazil, because the dad expressed a sense of urgency about her getting there on time so he could see Ava, so she suddenly decided to go first to visit a "friend" in another city, who was "concerned",( read boyfriend).



The dad became very upset over the next few days, after having paid for the trip and not being able to see his daughter, so, according to her, he began threatening her that he would try to take custody and he went to court and got the passports taken. I think he was horrified, thinking he had been scammed. I don't blame him.



What Brazil has done in confiscating the passports of the mother and child and involving the family courts there, when there is already a valid family court order out of the U.S, is wrong, IMO. However, I would see nothing wrong with confiscating the mother's passport until she reimbursed the father for the trip.

I think you should be a judge. Your solution seems reasonable and fair. Thanks for all the info.
 
Will the dad ever be allowed back in the US to see his daughter? I know the present administration has deported a lot of people not here legally. Wouldn't they make an exception if one has a child born here?
 
Will the dad ever be allowed back in the US to see his daughter? I know the present administration has deported a lot of people not here legally. Wouldn't they make an exception if one has a child born here?

There are some exceptions made at times - special visas - but I don;t think he could get one in this case. I don;t think he will ever see his daughter again, after this. Unless of course it's when she's 18.
 
Interesting case. If/when the mother makes it back to the US, would the father have any standing to sue her for the ticket money from Brazil? Or would he have to keep her in Brazil to try to get back the money in Brazilian courts?
 
Interesting case. If/when the mother makes it back to the US, would the father have any standing to sue her for the ticket money from Brazil? Or would he have to keep her in Brazil to try to get back the money in Brazilian courts?

I'm not sure. Jurisdiction would be based on where the fraud occurred. It could probably be in either country.
 

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