THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070088
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 27 lines
The former husband of Elizabeth Morgan, the woman who fled to New Zealand with her daughter nine years ago during a bitter custody battle, is planning a lawsuit to fight a special act of Congress allowing her to return to the U.S. without fear of arrest.
``The tragedy of this whole affair is that friends of Morgan have assaulted the Constitution, violated a treaty, broken legislative rules and guaranteed a heated constitutional lawsuit,'' Jonathan Turley, attorney for oral surgeon Erich Foretich of McLean, Va., said.
Turley said Congress is prevented by the Constitution from passing measures that penalize an individual. The bill also violates the Hague Convention's provisions on child custody, he maintained.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., included the measure in a transportation spending bill passed by Congress last month. Clinton signed it Monday.
It would let the seriously ill Morgan, 48, and her 14-year-old daughter, Ellen Morgan, return from Auckland, New Zealand. Under the bill, Foretich could visit his daughter only with the girl's consent. The mother says Foretich sexually abused the girl at age 2. He was never charged with abuse and denies ever molesting her. by CNB