02x73 - Kindness or Kidnapping?

[bunniefuu]

This is your sister?

They kidnapped my son.

-No.
-No, ma'am.

My kid was kidnapped.
You took my kid from me.

You kidnapped my son.
No matter what...

Just take a breath for a moment.

I want my son to come home.

[announcer]
This is Judy Justice.

[theme music playing]

[announcer] Mary Farve and Jason Stockton
are suing Mary's brother,

Michael Manry, for medical bills
and personal belongings.

[bailiff]
Court, come to order. All rise.

Have a seat, please.

Hello, Judge. Case 2117,
Farve/Stockton versus Manry.

-Thank you, Kevin.
-You're welcome.

Mr. Manry, this is your sister?

Correct.

[Judy]
And that is her...?

Fiancé.

And you have a son who is 19?

Yes, Your Honor.

[Judy]
How many other children do you have?

-I have three altogether.
-How old?

One is almost 30, the other one is 18,

and then I got the 19-year-old
which ain't here.

Okay. And your son who is now 19
is the subject of this case.

Who had custody of the children?

I got custody of Dakota now.

When did you get custody of the children?

[Michael]
When he was 18 years old.

[Judy]
Do you have those papers, sir?

Yes, I do.

[Judy]
May I see them, please?

Okay. So this grants you, sir,
legal and physical custody

of Dakota Manry
until further order of the court.

So what this case is about now,
and I assume from what I've read

that Dakota has certain special needs.

Yes, ma'am.

And because of his special needs,
he is unemployed.

Did he finish any sort
of a high school? Any...

He graduated.

-[Judy] He graduated from high school?
-Yes. Yes.

[Judy]
Did he go to a special school?

He went to a regular school,
but he was in special education.

And when he graduated,

did he graduate when
he was living with you?

Yes.

[Judy]
Okay. So this is what your case is about.

At some point, according to you,
you have a niece,

and your niece wanted to have Dakota
come and stay with her

for a couple of days.

You were at the time,
according to your answer,

sort of in between residences.

You were evicted from one place
and going someplace else?

I was in the process of moving.

I got my niece to go with me to,
you know...

I asked her if she'll bring me to go
get Dakota at my cousin's house.

And she said, "Sure."

Okay. Dakota went to live for a few days
at least at your niece's house?

No, not live there.
No, not live there. No, ma'am.

Well, he was there overnight.

He was over there overnight.

[Judy]
How many nights was he there overnight?

I think about maybe a week.

-[Judy] Okay.
-Or three days.

-[Judy] So he was there...
-Yeah.

[Judy] During that time,
you, who are his aunt...

Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] ...went to your niece's house
and you saw Dakota there?

Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] And according to you,
became concerned because,

according to you, it looked like
he hadn't showered in a week.

He was in dirty clothes.
He just looked awful.

[Judy] So you decided to take him
to live with you.

I asked him, I said, "Do you want to come
to the house to stay,

you know, a little while?"

You know, where he can eat,

because he looked
like he hadn't ate either.

Okay. Well, this is what
your case is about.

You decided to take him,
didn't discuss it with his father.

During the time he was with you,
he had some expenses.

You want his father
to be responsible for those expenses,

and you want his father to return
certain of his personal property.

That's what the case is about.

-Yes, ma'am.
-[Judy] Okay.

First, let me deal with all things legal.

I have an order here
dated January 21st, 2021,

which grants physical
and legal custody of Dakota to his father.

Do you have any subsequent order
granting you custody or guardianship?

is my question.

I have power of attorney.

That is not the same thing.
Can I see what they have?

[Michael]
How can she have power of attorney

when I didn't give her permission?

Shh. Shh.

Okay.

Okay. This was signed by Dakota.

So he's giving you legal power
to act on his behalf?

Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] Now, Dakota,
by signing this power of attorney,

he's saying that "I am a whole person,
and I give you the right

to make medical decisions for me,"
if he can't do them.

It's a general power of attorney
in case he becomes unable

to make decisions on his own.

This is an order of custody.
You have power of attorney.

Power of attorney suggests to me

that Dakota wants to
emancipate himself from his father,

wants someone else
to act on his behalf.

It becomes a complex question
because if Dakota has special needs

and if he can't act on his own

and a court has already ruled that
his father should have custody of him,

either you have a power of attorney
and he's emancipated,

in which case his father's not responsible
for any of his medical bills,

or this is invalid because
he can't sign a power of attorney

because he doesn't have
the mental capacity to understand

all of the implications
of this power of attorney.

Now, your nephew was in special classes.

Yes, ma'am.

And do you know what
the nature of his disabilities are?

Fetal alcohol syndrome.

Is that his diagnosis, sir?

Yes, Your Honor.

[Judy] He had, according to you,
after you took him from your niece's house

and you do acknowledge you took him
without his father's permission?

-Yes, ma'am.
-Yes, ma'am.

We was not talking, me and him.

Well, it doesn't make any difference
if you were talking or not.

I didn't have his number
and I asked Dakota,

I said, "Text your daddy to let him
know you're coming with me."

Dakota said, and he showed me
where he texted Michael.

Now, I don't know if
it was on a different Facebook page.

No. It's your responsibility to notify
his guardian who has custody

that you have taken
physical custody of him.

Right.

[Judy] And when did you take
physical custody of him?

Give me the month, day, and year.

May 20th of this year, 2022.

[Judy] Now, while you had
physical custody of Dakota,

you indicate that he had surgery.

Yes, ma'am.

And part of what you want Mr. Manry
to pay for is the ambulance bill.

What kind of surgery did he have?

A brain surgery.

And he had a feeding tube put in him.

[Judy]
Just a second.

What caused you to take him
to a hospital or to a doctor?

[Mary] His...

Your Honor,
when he arrived at the house on the 20th,

he had very bad slurred speech

and his balance was completely off.

He was falling over.

Your Honor, it was like it was...
he was a drunken man.

[Judy]
Let me go back to you for a second, sir.

While Dakota was with you
in the months just prior to May,

did you notice Dakota
having difficulty in his gait?

Not like he explained.
Now, that's going overboard.

-[Judy] No. Did you...
-But his balance was off. Okay.

Did you inquire?
Did you take him to the doctor?

Yes, I did.
I took him actually right after I got him.

[Judy] So you saw
that balance was off a while ago?

When I noticed that he had headaches,
all right?

'Cause his dream, thanks to me,
was wrestling.

-He loves wrestling.
-Wrestling.

[Michael]
I put him in wrestling.

I talked to the promoters
and I did that for him.

But when I seen they was telling me
he got body slammed,

you know, and this and that,
I had to take him out of it.

I got concerned
'cause he was complaining of headaches.

So I made him an appointment
and I waited for a referral.

Well, when the referral came in,
my kid was kidnapped.

[Judy] So he never actually saw
the second doctor?

-No.
-[Judy] Okay. Do you have any records?

Well, I couldn't get the records.
I tried to get them.

What if something went wrong
and my kid died during surgery?

I couldn't even be there for him?
You know, anything could've happened.

[Judy] Just a second,
I'm following you, sir.

Now, when did him take him
for this brain surgery?

[Mary]
I took him the first week of June.

I took him to do a CAT scan
and as soon as she did that,

we went to the hospital.

We didn't leave the hospital.

They put him in the ER and from the ER
we went to to Florence, Alabama,

and then the surgeons there couldn't do it
because it was so big.

What was so big?

-The brain.
-Your Honor, they found a mass

the size of a grapefruit.

The first week
Dakota came to stay with us

after we noticed the balance issues
and the slurred speech,

she took him to Doctor...

who diagnosed him
being severely malnutritioned.

Your Honor, when he came to my house...

-He's a liar.
-No, no, no, no, no.

Okay, I'm sorry.
Your Honor, I'm sorry, my apologies.

His leg was no bigger round than my wrist.

I got it. Mr. Manry,
everything has to be put in perspective.

You had a lot of things going on
and if Mr. Stockton's reporting to me

is accurate, even though there might be
some bad feeling of the way your sister

and her fiancé took
physical custody of Dakota,

you really have to be in a position
to say thank you to them.

Because you, for whatever reason,
not for lack of trying,

nobody is suggesting for lack of trying,
you did try to take him to a doctor,

you did see that there were
things wrong with him.

I understand that it's not always
that easy to get the right specialist

to get involved in this kind of surgery.

But you really have to take a breath.

And I assume it's accurate because
I cannot assume that anybody

would perform brain surgery on a child
that was not necessary.

-That they...
-Your Honor, why she couldn't call me

-instead of calling her mother when...
-[Judy] Just a second. Just a second.

Your sister should have called you
and told you that Dakota

was going into the hospital
to have surgery.

That would have been
the nice thing to do.

-[Jason] Your Honor, she did.
-Did you do that?

-She did.
-No, she did not.

-She called their mother.
-I called my mama.

Well, calling your mother...

His phone was disconnected.

I did not have the new number

until he called me
or texted me with a bunch of drama.

That's when I got his number.

Drama? You took my kid from me.
You kidnapped my son. No matter what...

[Judy]
Mr. Manry. Mr. Manry.

What I want you to do
is just take a breath for a moment.

Yes, ma'am.

[theme music playing]

Dakota kept texting me, you know.

He kept on, like,
video chatting me and everything.

And then all of a sudden,
like a light switch,

he changed and everything.

The boy's mind has been poisoned
by Mary and Jason.

-No.
-So far, Mr. Manry,

you're not losing this case.

So I don't know what
you're agitated about.

[theme music playing]

[announcer] Mary Farve and Jason Stockton
claim Mary's brother,

Michael Manry, owes for medical bills
and personal belongings.

Michael is countersuing,
saying they illegally took his son

from his custody.

Mr. Manry, Dakota was only at
your niece's house for a short while.

You already told me that when
he came to you, his gait was off.

So right before he went to stay
for a couple of days

at your niece's house,
was his speech slurring?

No. He always had a speech impairment
because of the disability,

but his speech was not slurred at all.

That is a lie.

Him having the skinny arms and all that,
that's all lies.

[Judy]
Okay. I'm not talking about skinny arms.

I'm talking about his slurred speech.

What I was saying to, Mr. Manry,
is that I don't think

there are any bad guys here.

I don't think that you're a bad guy.

And I don't think that your sister
and her fiancé meant any harm

when they saw a situation
that they thought was dangerous.

And as it turned out,
they were able to get him

seriously needed medical care.

That doesn't mean it was all done right.

But what you're asking for is

to be compensated by the defendant

for the cost of the ambulance bill
that you incurred.

Now, this power of attorney
was signed by Dakota,

if, in fact, he had capacity
to sign this power of attorney.

It was done two weeks
after his first surgery.

So up until that time, even if I could
construe this as a valid document,

his father had legal
and physical custody of Dakota.

And I assume that's because
he has special needs

and is unable to live on his own.

Is your son able to live on his own?

No. He never will.

Okay. So that's what I assume
as a result of this order.

If you want this order changed,

you have to go back
to the court in Mississippi.

You have to be declared his guardian.

Your Honor, we did not want
to be declared his guardian.

The reason the POA came about to start
with during the entire surgical...

Your Honor, can I say something?

The father was aware of it.
So was the mother.

The mother was actually present
at most all of the appointments.

[Judy] It doesn't matter. The mother
doesn't have custody, legal or physical.

But we were under the impression
and were told she did,

that he only had a temporary custody.

So she showed up to say
she had to sign all the documents,

she was gonna do this, she was gonna
do this, she was gonna do this.

[Judy]
Did she sign the documents?

She signed some, then under
social services' directions,

Mary was informed she should go after
a power of attorney.

It was discussed with both Dakota and her.
She could make the...

It may be. It may be. That's not a lawyer.
That's bad advice.

Now, just before I get to the issue
of clothing, property,

whatever he has that's at your house
and where it should go from here,

your first stop is to go back to the court
in Mississippi that issued this order.

[Mary]
Yes, ma'am.

And say to them,
"I need Dakota's law guardian."

He'll be appointed a guardian for himself,
independent of you,

and they will interview him
and they will do certain evaluations

of him and determine
where it is that he wants to live.

But you have to do that in court.

You can't do that ad hoc because you
relied on his mother's statements

that she had the authority
to sign off on these things.

She did not until this is changed.

And if you wanna change it,
you are free to go in and try

and then Dakota will be interviewed

and seen by a psychologist
or a psychiatrist

and he'll have a medical evaluation
and determine

whether or not he is a person
who actually requires guardianship.

And if he requires guardianship, you can
petition for that and you'll have a trial.

This is not that trial.

Yes, ma'am.

Did Dakota have Medicare?

-[Mary] Medicaid.
-[Jason] Medicaid.

He had Medicaid.

That would pay for the ambulance ride.

[Judy] Yeah, I just wanna know
if he had Medicaid. He did.

I did give them the Medicaid number
and they keep sending me a bill

and I called them and they said
because it's a different state,

it's not covered.

It doesn't matter. Tell them to send
their bills to his father.

Tell them that you do not have custody
or guardianship of this child.

His father has custody guardianship
and this bill is not yours.

[Jason]
The bill is going to Dakota.

They're going after Dakota for it
'cause Medicaid didn't pay for it.

They may be going after Dakota for it.

They will be very smart seeking payment
from people who can pay them,

which is his parents.

Right now you're not legally responsible
to pay for his ambulance bill.

The only person who might be legally
responsible for it is his father.

And that will be up
to the ambulance company to do.

That's not your responsibility at all.

So discount the ambulance bill.

Next are Dakota's things.

You want property
that he has at his father's house.

So let me go back to you with regard
to my statement to you four minutes ago.

You have to have
this custody order modified.

You have to go back to the same court

that issued a legal and physical custody
order of Dakota to his father

and say,
"We would like guardianship of him.

He wants to stay with us.
He's 19 years old."

He will be interviewed.
He'll be analyzed.

And if at the end of the day
you get guardianship of Dakota,

then his father may or may not turn over
whatever property he has.

Dakota's never worked,
so whatever property he has

was either purchased or given to him
by either his mother or his father

or other relatives.

A lot of it was his mom
that paid for the stuff.

[Judy]
I don't know that.

Well, the bottom line is,
the bottom line is,

what all this boils down to,
Your Honor...

So far, Mr. Manry,
you're not losing this case.

So I don't know what
you're agitated about.

You're not losing.
You're not losing.

What I'm telling the plaintiffs
is that if they think

that they can provide a more pleasant,
stable environment for Dakota,

they have the right to petition
for guardianship of him.

Now, it would be in Dakota's best interest
long-term if he were to have contact

-with both his mother and his father.
-[Jason] He does.

Contact. I'm not saying live with.

Mother, father, and his aunt
and his soon-to-be uncle.

Soon as you make up your mind
and give her a ring.

[laughs]

[Judy]
It's in his best interest.

He needs the largest community
that he can.

I agree.

Okay, we're gonna stop throwing barbs
because that only serves to inflame

already raw emotions.

[theme music playing]

I want you to say, "I am angry that

I wasn't consulted in this massive surgery
that your son had,

but I'm grateful that it was done

because if it wasn't done,
in all probability,

he wouldn't be here."

You just have to think about that.

[theme music playing]

[announcer] Mary Farve and Jason Stockton
have accused Mary's brother,

Michael Manry,
of owing for an ambulance bill.

Michael claims Mary and Jason took his son
without his permission.

What I'm telling you
is a very simple procedural thing

where you have to go.

You can't sue him
for the return of Dakota's things

unless you have guardianship of Dakota.

Understood.

Because he already is the subject
of a recent order of custody from a court.

That's what you have to have.

You can take that bill
from the ambulance service,

put it in an envelope,
we'll get you the address

and that's where that goes.

That's his father, who is his legal parent
under this order.

So send that bill to them

so you don't have to worry
about that bill.

As far as his property is concerned,

that has to go along
with an order of custody or guardianship,

and that's something that you should do.

But, Mr. Manry, I am not making a decision
with regard to his custody or not.

What I'm asking you is,
until a court reviews

whatever orders they're going to make with
regard to custody and guardianship first,

I know you may be angry,
but they probably saved his life

by getting him
to the doctor that they did.

And if they removed
a massive tumor from his brain,

you should say,
"Thank you for doing that."

'Cause it was a month
after he was living with you.

Someone else took your son
and saved his life.

And for that at least
you have to be grateful.

You can be angry.

You can be angry
that you didn't get it done before.

You can be angry that somebody else
did it without consulting you.

You can be angry at all of those things.

But at the same time,

you have to feel grateful
that it was done.

There wasn't no reason for them
kidnapping my son.

[Judy] Okay, Mr. Manry, you keep
going back to the same song.

-Your Honor, may I address that?
-[Michael] And I was worried about him.

You keep going back to the same song.

And what I'm saying to you is,

their next stop
if Dakota wants to live with them,

and he's right now over 19 years old,

is to the court who issued the order
to modify that order.

All I'm saying to you is,
I want you to say,

"I am angry that I wasn't consulted

or didn't participate in
this massive surgery that your son had,

but I'm grateful that it was done

because if it wasn't done,
in all probability,

he wouldn't be here."

You just have to think about that.

What I'm telling you is,
you have to love your child

more than you at this moment
dislike your sister and her fiancé

because they were able
to take control of a situation

and get your child fixed.

So is Dakota, just for my own,

is Dakota angry with his father?

He's angry that his father
won't return any of his wrestling...

He is correct.
He is a huge wrestling fanatic.

Okay. What particularly does he want?

He wants his wrestling?

He wants his wrestling belts.

They have replica belts that were made.

He wanted his PlayStation 4
and the wrestling game.

Okay, well, PlayStation 4,
I'm not interested in that.

He wants his wrestling belts?

Yes, ma'am.

Your Honor, can I show you
something right quick on my phone?

Dakota kept texting me, you know.

He kept on, like,
video chatting me and everything.

And then all of a sudden,
like a light switch,

he changed and everything.

The boy's mind has been poisoned
by Mary and Jason.

No.

What I'm telling you, Mr. Manry,

that's for enough court and another day
when Dakota has a lawyer,

you may have a lawyer,
to modify this custody order.

Right now he would like
his wrestling belts.

I want my son to come home to me.

Okay, then I strongly urge you
to go to court,

file a petition against them
for custodial interference,

or you go to court and file
an application for guardianship of Dakota,

which is
a much more positive thing to do,

and let a court that
has the social work services,

the psychiatric services,

evaluate Dakota and figure out

in whose best interests
are we supposed to place faith.

And I think if he is
a thinking young man,

and you told me that he is
because he wants these things

that are important to him,

he should be able to have a say
with whom he lives.

Now, you have my ruling.

Your next stop, folks,
is to modify the order

of the court in Mississippi
that gave his father custody,

physical and legal custody of him.

You have to petition for guardianship.
That's your next step.

So, in that regard,
your case is dismissed.

Send the ambulance bill
to his father.

[Michael]
Hey, I got a countersuit, Your Honor.

We're done.

-[bailiff] This court is adjourned.
-I'm not hearing it, sir.

Okay.

[theme music playing]

I did everything I can for my kids and...

My brother, he said nothing but lies.

When somebody takes your kid
without your permission...

But, you know, that's him.
I mean, that's what he does.

You don't know where they're at
and you're going crazy

because you don't know
where your kid's at.

That's kidnapping.

I should get a thank-you out of it,
but he's not gonna do that.

I want my son to come home to his daddy
'cause I love him very much.

That's my son.

It's about him. It's not about her.
It's not about her and her brother.

It's not about me and her brother.

My son, I love him.
I'd do anything in the world for him.

It's about Dakota.

So you didn't listen to
the defendant's counterclaim back there

for emotional distress,
for I believe it was $3500.

I would've given that to him.

I don't think anyone
was acting maliciously in this case.

Like you said to the father,

he should be grateful that his son
is alive and his sister took action

when he might have been
stumbling a little bit.

But that's what
that cause of action is for,

when someone takes an action
that was legally incorrect,

and here the plaintiffs
had no legal right

to take him to get that surgery.

I agree that he should have had it
and it all came from a good place.

However, when you take an action
that causes somebody else

such severe emotional distress,

and I would consider
taking someone else's child

in for the riskiest surgery
that probably exists

qualifies as causing
some severe emotional distress.

So I probably would've
awarded him that if I was ruling.

Well, so let me give you the reason
that I didn't even bother to hear it.

Mm-hmm.

I think the aunt and her fiancé
had nothing but pure motives

in taking this 19-year-old who they say
appeared to be malnourished.

Mm-hmm.

And they say was diagnosed
as being malnourished,

which is possible,
and it's possible that it was all related

to this brain tumor that he clearly had...

-Mm-hmm. Of course.
-...that was impairing his stability,

and he was with
his father for a year...

-Yeah.
- ...while this tumor was growing.

I don't think that
they had malicious intent.

Neither do I.

And I think that
but for their actions,

this 19-year-old boy
probably would be dead.

If they took out the tumor
that was the size of a grapefruit,

I would say, six months later
or eight months later,

there's a strong probability
that it would affect the optic nerve.

It would affect the carotid artery
and gone.

So although I could understand
his annoyance,

from the time he went to live with him
until his surgery was a month,

and I actually don't believe
that this father didn't know

where he was for a month because
they evidently have a living mother

who they're both in touch with.

He was moving around,
phone disconnected.

At the hospital, the mother showed up.

She said, "I can sign the documents."

Well, you know, you're involved
in major surgery for a child.

Your focus is not on your brother who
did not take care of business for a year.

So I'm gonna leave that up
to a family court judge

to determine who should have custody.

And I probably guarantee you
that custody will remain with his aunt

because that's what Dakota wants.

Father may be angry,
but that's what's gonna happen.

I have no doubt
that the father loves him.

He did not take good care of him
for the year.

Sure.

And so I wasn't going to reward that
by giving him any money

against these people who had nothing
but the child's best interest,

when for a year he really didn't take care
of business with his son.

And that's why I didn't hear his case
for emotional distress.

Understood. Thank you.

[announcer]
Are you having a family dispute?



[theme music playing]