
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 10, 1994                   TAG: 9403100182
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SARASOTA, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

KIMBERLY MAY MOVES IN WITH `REAL' PARENTS

For five years, Kimberly Mays resisted pleas from her biological parents to leave the man who raised her when she was swapped at birth. Now, she's living with them, after running away.

Just seven months ago, a judge ruled that Robert Mays was the 15-year-old girl's legal father and said that Ernest and Regina Twigg had no right even to visit her. Kimberly, who had gone to court to ``divorce'' her biological parents, was overjoyed.

Now, she has moved in with the Twiggs ``in light of her special needs together with current parent-teen conflict with Bob and Darlena Mays,'' said David L. Denkin, attorney for Kimberly's guardian, Leslie Gift.

Last month, Kimberly ran away from home to a YMCA youth shelter, and Mays approached the Twiggs about Kimberly's living with them as a ``temporary and informal'' placement, Denkin said.

The Twiggs and the Mays met Tuesday with attorneys and the guardian, and then talked with Kimberly before deciding she would live with the Twiggs in Sebring, about 70 miles east of Sarasota.

Mays and his wife will maintain parental control and communicate with the Twiggs and the guardian, Denkin said at a news conference. Denkin took no questions, but nodded when asked if Kimberly was all right.

Kimberly was expected to enroll at Sebring High School, sources close to the Twiggs told The Tampa Tribune. But school officials said Wednesday they had no knowledge of the plans.

Mays was not immediately available for comment, but his father said his son was ``all torn up after the last five years of fighting to keep her.''

``I know we're all disappointed,'' Robert Mays Sr. said. ``I don't know for sure what's going on, and that's why I can't say too much.''

The baby swap at the rural hospital where Kimberly was born came to light in 1988 when blood tests on the girl the Twiggs had raised as their own, Arlena, showed she wasn't their daughter.

After Arlena died, the Twiggs tracked down Kimberly, and determined she was their biological daughter. They spent the next five years battling for custody and visitation rights.

Last July, Gift recommended that Circuit Judge Stephen Dakan sever Kimberly's ties to the Twiggs, saying they had shown ``a total lack of concern'' for the girl.

``I do not feel it would be in Kimberly's best interest to be forced into visitation with people for whom she no longer has any feelings or respect,'' Gift wrote in her report. In contrast to her harsh assessment of the Twiggs, she said the Mays had shown great concern for Kimberly's welfare.

Kimberly ran away to the shelter because she was experiencing teen-age difficulties that had nothing to do with the court case, said one of her attorneys, George Russ. The director of the youth shelter confirmed there had been no allegations of abuse in the voluntary admission.

The youth shelter refused to release any information Wednesday, and messages left with Russ; the Mays' attorney, Art Ginsburg; and the Twiggs' attorney, John Blakely, were not returned.

by CNB