THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 14, 1996 TAG: 9610120030
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: ANN SJOERDSMA
LENGTH: 79 lines
In early 1987, Washington plastic surgeon Elizabeth Morgan went to jail rather than comply with a D.C. Superior Court order that awarded her ex-husband Eric Foretich unsupervised visitation with their 5-year-old daughter Hilary.
Morgan had accused Foretich, a McLean, Va., oral surgeon, of sexually molesting Hilary when she was 2 1/2. The charge was never proved, but Morgan hid her child, then spent 25 months in jail in contempt of court. She was freed by an act of Congress.
A few months later, Morgan fled U.S. jurisdiction, joining her parents and Hilary in New Zealand. Hilary Foretich became Ellen Morgan, a child without a father or a home. Also, a child with many books and a movie chronicling her young life.
Some cheered the notorious Morgan as a feminist mother-martyr who had ``escaped'' wrongheaded justice and viewed her case as a victory for child protection. Others, like myself, doubted Morgan's word and mental stability and wondered at the audacity of Congress in intervening to thwart the judicial process. The case was hardly clear-cut.
Funny thing. Congress has done it again. But this time it may have violated the U.S. Constitution and international law.
``The friends of Morgan,'' including Rep. Frank F. Wolf, R-Va., a Northern Virginian instrumental in gaining Morgan's release in 1989, seem unable to stop themselves from meddling with the courts in this case.
Wolf, chairman of the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, tacked onto the $12.6 billion transportation spending bill signed Sept. 30 by President Clinton an amendment that enables Morgan, now 48 and seriously ill with ulcerative colitis, to return to the United States without fear of arrest. The ``Morgan rider'' strips the D.C. courts of jurisdiction.
Also known as ``Ellen's bill,'' the measure effectively prohibits Foretich, a Newport News native, from seeing his 14-year-old daughter without her consent. Hard to believe, but Hilary/Ellen, who has lived under her mother's influence her entire life, has refused such contact.
This legislation, called ``a terrible bill'' by the American Civil Liberties Union, overturns years of rulings in the D.C. Superior Court. It is a flagrant abuse of process. An outrage. And a done deal, although Foretich has retaliated in court, and Morgan still needs the New Zealand court's permission to leave.
What's more, Wolf actually threatened to hold up action on the spending bill if the rider were not included. Said the congressman: ``It is unconscionable to me that an American girl is forced to live in exile.''
Well, it is unconscionable to me, Congressman, that you impute Morgan's stubborn resistance to the D.C. courts. She alone has ``exiled'' her daughter. Not the judicial system.
Yielding to Wolf's strong-arming, Congress appointed itself an ad hoc domestic relations court and disposed of any pending orders that might inconvenience Morgan, with nary a nod to Foretich's rights.
No excuse exists for this kind of congressional excess and bad public policy. And it only makes matters worse that Morgan's husband, Paul R. Michel, whom she married in the months before she skipped, is a U.S. appellate judge.
Do any members of Congress know the full story here?
Elizabeth Morgan first filed for custody of then 6-month-old Hilary in March 1983, after abruptly abandoning a ``shotgun'' marriage to Foretich hastened by a Haitian divorce from his second wife. She was never inclined to share her daughter with Foretich. Never.
Morgan alleged sexual abuse after her initial filing, and her accusations were never proved by physical (medical exams of Hilary were inconclusive) or testimonial evidence. Foretich has never been convicted.
Emotionally abused by her own angry father, Morgan hired and dismissed numerous expert witnesses and lawyers who disagreed with her claims. The bottom line? When D.C. Judge Herbert B. Dixon Jr. granted Foretich visitation, he had every reason to believe that his decision was in Hilary's best interests.
No question, Hilary/Ellen has suffered for her parents' antagonism. Neither adult has behaved admirably. But Morgan has aggravated her daughter's suffering by refusing to cooperate with the D.C. court - even now, years later, when no realistic threat to the girl exists.
Congress is spitting on the umpire here. And, so far, getting away with it. MEMO: Ms. Sjoerdsma is an editorial columnist and book editor for The
Virginian-Pilot. by CNB