GIRARD Kentucky justices send Asente custody case back to trial court

The birth parents say they were misinformed about the adoption.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
GIRARD -- The Kentucky Supreme Court sent a custody case over 6-year-old Justin Asente back to the trial court today to decide between his birth parents and the Girard couple he has been living with.
Birth parents Regina Moore and Jerry Dorning changed their minds about allowing Justin to be adopted.
Writing for a unanimous court, Justice James Keller said Moore and Dorning "waived their superior rights to Justin's custody" by placing him with the Asentes, signing an adoption consent, then waiting six months to go to court to get him back.
"We hold that the 'unfitness' standard is inapplicable in this case," Justice Keller wrote. "When the trial court determines whether Moore and Dorning or the Asentes will have custody of Justin, the trial court should make that determination on the basis of Justin's best interest."
The Supreme Court decision comes 16 months after the court heard arguments about whether Moore and Dorning knew what they were doing when they signed a consent form for Justin's adoption.
Confusion over consent
An attorney for Moore and Dorning said the form stated in one paragraph that consent was irrevocable but in another paragraph that it would become irrevocable upon termination of parental rights.
Moore and Dorning claimed they thought they were agreeing only to let Justin go temporarily to Ohio with the Asentes. The circuit court and Supreme Court agreed with Moore and Dorning that they were misinformed by the attorney hired to handle the adoption.
The Asentes argued that there was nothing misleading about the papers and that Moore and Dorning were hardly novices, having already given up Joey Asente through an adoption agency. In addition, Moore had given up a third child, a half-sibling to the boys.
But at a hearing, Judge Summe ruled that the consent was "not informed and not voluntary." That meant the Asentes, to retain custody, had to prove Moore and Dorning unfit to be parents.
At a second hearing on the fitness issue, Judge Summe ruled that the Asentes had no legal standing to pursue custody.
The Supreme Court said that, too, was an error because Justin was in the Asentes' "physical custody" at the time Moore and Dorning began their custody claim.