Legally Kidnapped

Shattering Your Child Welfare Delusions Since 2007


Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Another "LDS Family Services" Kidnapping...Michael Hunter



Added: January 05, 2008
I would first like to thank my great friend Galatians(who fights tirelessly to expose the blatant and regular kidnappings of babies, through LDS Family Services, just like they kidnapped her brother's baby), for making this story known to me and the world on her blog.

http://exposingmormonism.blogspot.com ...

This video shows what happened and the video after this one, reports that Shawn McDonald tragically lost his court case to a jury vote of 10-2 and now cannot raise his child and has to fly to Idaho to see him...GODDAMN CULT!!

Here is the transcript of this video, as reported by CBS 11 of Dallas/Fort Worth:

North Texas Father Fights For His Parental Rights Jack Fink Reporting (CBS 11 News)

DALLAS -- Shawn McDonald says he only found out about his baby two days before the child was born. He says he was powerless to stop the mother from giving the baby up for adoption. This legal battle is now being fought here at the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center.

A jury must decide if the father will lose his parental rights for good. "I'd love to be a father to him," McDonald said. McDonald says he never got the chance to be a father to his son, Hunter. The boy is now 18 months old and since birth, has lived with his adoptive parents, Travis and Sabra Hess, in Idaho.

"[It] Really hurts emotionally... work time... every thought is nothing but this," McDonald said. Now a Dallas County jury will decide whether the Hess' can keep Hunter and terminate McDonald's parental rights.

Kathryn Lanigan-Wieser is McDonald's attorney. "This case involves a kidnapping," she said. "They stole Shawn's child." McDonald's attorney accuses the birth mother Samantha Myers and Eric Larson, of Latter Day Saints Family Services, of conspiring to keep the birth and adoption a secret.

McDonald says he had previously broken up with Myers, and that they share custody of a three and a half year old girl. McDonald says he only found out about Hunter on July 2, 2005, two days before he was born in Fort Worth.

"The baby was shipped off to Idaho before Shawn could do anything," Lanigan-Wieser said. "In fact, they hid the identity of the Hess'. Shawn didn't know where the baby was until the Hess' intervened in the lawsuit in September, 2006."

The Hess', LDS Family Services and the birth mother all declined comment. But in court papers, LDS Family Services and its social worker, Eric Larson say McDonald knew Myers was pregnant and abandoned the child.

But the adoptive parents said in court papers that LDS told them McDonald was "out of the picture" and "could not be located." The Hess' want to keep Hunter. They say that changing his home now could negatively impact the baby.

That's not something Shawn McDonald wants to consider. "I would have to think about that for the rest of my life," McDonald said. Among the options for the jury include terminating McDonald's parental rights and leaving the child with the adoptive parents, giving McDonald sole custody, or giving primary custody to one of the parties with the other getting visitation.

Visit Shawn's MySpace page and show your support:

http://www.myspace.com/babymichaelhunter

11 comments:

  1. This is ridiculous! And, might I add, VERY one sided. As a birth mother, who has placed a child through LDS Family Services, I want to say that I KNOW that case workers work tirelessly to get signatures from birthfathers. I have witnessed many times caseworkers going through many different things in order to assure that a birth father is located. It isn't their fault if an irresponsible male has sex with a female and leaves her to deal with the consequences. Taking Hunter away from his family would do nothing but emotionally hurt him for life. It is wrong what the courts decided and I just think this is extremely selfish on the birth fathers behalf. I know that this will probably get deleted, but I needed to say my opinion. Oh, and whoever feels it necessary to "expose" LDS Family Services needs to get a life. You are just wrong.

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  2. Dear Brower family, First off Shawn was registered with the state so Eric didn't try too hard to find him. Do you think he might have had another agenda. Second, you are saying if your kids were kidnaped and the kidnapers took good care of the kids and loved them and raised them as their own that the kids should not be returned to you? I see from your website that you really enjoy your kids, Shawn can't!

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  3. Anonymous5:04 PM

    Brower family,
    Hunter see's his dad and his bio sister. I hope what happened to shawn doesn't happen to your son when he get's older. The Hess family knew from the begining that the father wanted his so but they didn't care. They cost their church and the adoption a lot of money that could have been used for something good. I bet the nice people in the church wouldn't have wanted their money to go for lawyers and make the church settle out of court for stealing children. The Hess family have lied so much they don't even know the truth. Hunter is being brought up to think that you can steal and get away with it. The hess family are selfish. Thank God They wasn't around when mary had jesus they would have stole him to.

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  4. Have you read the current update on this story? Have you seen the current Appeals court decision? This is one of those situations where the father did everything right. The birth mother hid the pregnancy from the father on the advice of the adoption agency. In fact, the social worker in this case was put on 2 years probation because of his actions. The adoption agency was also reprimanded for violating Shawn's rights. They were forced to pay his legal fees during the trial court. The agency also allowed the Hess's to take a child out of Texas when the rights of the father were not terminated. In both the trial court and the appeals court, his parental rights were reaffirmed. The only difference between the two courts is that guardianship should have never been offered. Hunter's family is the McDonalds. It is not the Hess's. They are aptly called NON PARENTS because there was no adoption. The Hess's also intentionally kept Hunter from his father.

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  5. Anonymous1:24 AM

    give me a break! This is obviously extremely biased. Calling it a kidnapping is absolutely ridiculous. Do I agree that the social worker screwed up -yes! But it is not in the best interest of the little boy to have primary custody be given to his biological father. Nor is it a reflection on the LDS adoption services as a whole. If you researched any long standing adoption agency you would find the same sad, but far and few between cases. please do your research, and don't be so hateful. It is not helping your cause.

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  6. Absurd! Having chosen to be a birth parent, i know it's hard and it hurts and i feel for this guy AND ESPECIALLY the birthmom but the paramount concern should be the child's best interest. if he is willing to uproot this child from a better situation at 2 yrs old it is clear his motives are not what best serves the child. sounds like he's pursuing a vendetta toward his ex girlfriend. i PRAY he is not successful!
    And to target a particular religion in this way is despicable. Take it up with the law

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  7. Anonymous3:45 AM

    Oh give me a break you guys who are defending LDS social services. The social worker in this case CLEARLY violated the biological fathers CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS!! The LDS Church itself adheres to the laws of the land, so don't make up some excuse that the kid is better off with the adoptive parents. Get your persecution goggles off LDS members and realize your organization messed up in this case.

    I'm sure the LDS social services attorney's realize the big problem their facing now.

    I actually don't blame the adoptive parents in this case at all. They seem to have been just following the instructions of the LDS social services.

    So SHAME on YOU LDS Family Services, quit ripping apart families in your holy zeal to place gentile babies with Mormon parents.

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  8. LDSFS is a total racket and needs to be exposed for the child kidnapping ring it is. I was a victim in 1997 when they convinced my 18 year old girlfriend to give up the baby by making her feel guilty, using age old church references and self esteem destruction tactics. I opposed but found myself in jail as a result. They went after me fabricating evidence (the LDS church owns the police in Utah) that I was a drug user. The police raided my house without a warrant and naturally I and my father thought they were intruders and we assaulted a police officer. My father went to jail too. They then used this evidence against me that I was violent and a suspected drug user (I used Marijuanna once in my life in highschool). They got my baby. After having the baby my girlfriend figured everything out and we worked together to get the baby back but the papers were signed and sealed. It was like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from and to this day I can't get over it. Please let's expose this organization.

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  9. Anonymous3:30 PM

    Whaooo! We won! Hunter gets to stay with the family. AND the abusive father doesn't get any rights to him. Hunter stood up in court and told the judge that in a picture of West Yellowstone, "this is when he touched my privates." Thank God the justice system didn't make this boy go live with someone who abused him! Nobody deserves that!

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  10. Anonymous10:13 AM

    Ridiculous, let me tell you what's ridiculous. People that comment who are either clueless about LDS or work for LDS and get on here to post misinformation in order to cast doubt on the facts. I know first hand exactly how LDS operates, first hand. First of all they were well aware who I was for many months before, they also were aware of my intentions bring her home from the hospital and raise her myself, and that I would never sign adoption papers, so for those of you who are ignorant about how LDS handles fathers such as myself, it's a very simple matter of first keeping me in the dark about there intentions and involvement, as well as the actual date of birth, and the gender, and finally the Mother is told write down, "unknown", in the space marked for the fathers name, so that by the time I was able to establish paternity through the court the attorneys for LDS claimed that I had abandoned and neglected my child and was on that basis unfit as a parent, also they claim that removeing her or even allowing me to have a standard visitation would do some kind of horible damage to her emotional well being. This is the reality of the standard practice of LDS, to abduct children, hide them and then claim the child has been neglected and abandoned by the natural parent. Clearly the way LDS operates is absolutely repugnant and dispicable anyway you look at it, the real injustice is the fact that the church has such influence on the Judge and the court, that they can do whatever they want, no matter how absurd it may be, they are allowed to make a complete joke of the court and the legal system, which if you think about it makes sense in that the influence over the votes of it's congragation not to mention the contributions to the campaigns of those they deem sympathetic to them and there goals. I would encourage anyone who is intrested to comment on this post, however for those of you working for LDS that may attempt discredit me or argue that what I have said here is in any way untrue you should be prepaired to be confronted some very uncomfortable facts that may make you question your unwaveringly rightous belief in the churches overall morality. I am currently working on a website where I will put all the details, documents, pictures for everyone to see. What LDS did to me was as criminal as anything I could emagine and I will be telling my story to anyone who will listen until I die, and I am current working on plans to extend even that, you have not heard the last of me, not by a long shot. Aaron N.

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  11. Anonymous10:56 AM

    total bs shawn coming off as a loving and caring parent , do your child custody history search in hood county , he gave up his rights to his first kid , they failed a home study test , the daughter of the kid in this news is living with his parents who have been busted for IRS tax evasion and all the while the whole family were enjoying the good life while not paying their federal taxes , he has so many kids from so many different women ask why is that he cannot even take care of this sister / daughter of the kid , the 750,000.00 is totally gone they blew it living the high life , between shawns mother and her criminal record in texas the family were nothing more than trailer trsh trying to cash in on an organization who had more than they ever would of in many life times over shwans mother interfeered so much in their relationship she left him to live at an aunts place till shawn would come over for the roll in the sack , beyond all the irs fraud they profited from shawns sister misty mcdonald/misty canion and her plagarism to get her degree from tarelton state in stephenville through her younger sister doing her term papers , the whole family love nothing better than to cry wolf they have been wronged and laughing all the way to the bank till the next time they can cash in , do your actual research people they aint shining stars in the sky gawwwwd his parents are probably claiming the tax credits for the sister of the kid in question cause she doesnt live with shawn and his 2 other kids now from another woman , he is a breeder and not a keeper of the kids unless there is profit in it .

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