ASENTE CASE Appeal will go to high court

The boy was placed with the Girard couple when he was almost a year old. He is now 4.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear an appeal by the biological parents of a Girard boy who is at the center of a custody battle.
Rich and Cheryl Asente of Girard adopted Justin, now 4, from Regina Moore, Justin's biological mother, and Jerry Dorning, who is believed to be the boy's biological father, both of Kentucky, in February 1998 when the boy was 11 months old.
The Kentucky couple changed their minds the following month, and courts in Ohio and Kentucky have been hearing arguments in the case.
Moore and Dorning asked the Kentucky Supreme Court in December to overturn a Kentucky Court of Appeals' September ruling allowing the boy to stay in Ohio.
The Kentucky Supreme Court has agreed to review the case, a court spokeswoman said. The Kentucky couple must file their brief with the court by June 17, after which the Girard couple will answer.
Looking at an extension: "It's probably going to extend the case about two years," Cheryl Asente said this morning. "It would have been nice if they decided not to hear it, but we're just going to keep plugging away."
The Kentucky Appeals Court said in September that the forms signed by Moore and Dorning clearly stated the couple were relinquishing their parental rights when they agreed to give the boy up for adoption. That decision overruled a Kentucky Circuit Court decision saying the birth parents didn't understand the adoption forms.
The Asentes previously had adopted Justin's older brother, Joey, in 1995 when Moore and Dorning gave him up for adoption. That adoption isn't being contested.
Cheryl Asente said several organizations, including the Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children, filed briefs supporting the Asentes when the case was in the lower courts, and the couple hopes that support continues on the higher court level.