Temporary custody decided for Rainn


By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Rainn Peterson will return to “the loving arms” of her great-grandparents when she’s ready to leave St. Joseph Warren Hospital, the Trumbull County Children Services executive director said after a custody hearing Tuesday.

Tim Schaffner said he believes it was in the best interests of the parties to release some information even though the hearing was not open to the public. The child was in children services custody from Sunday through Tuesday.

The child’s mother, father and great-grandparents agreed to Tuesday’s arrangement, Schaffner said from outside of Trumbull County Family Court, where the hearing took place.

Rainn, 26 months, disappeared from her great-grandparents’ house in North Bloomfield on Friday evening and was found two nights later in a nearby field, wet and dehydrated but otherwise OK. Sheriff Thomas Altiere said Monday there had been no evidence of foul play.

“Because of the extreme trauma, she needs to stay in the loving arms of her [great] grandparents,” Schaffner said of Richard and Dora Peterson of state Route 45.

The “shelter hearing” also established that one of Rainn’s older brothers, a 3-year-old, also is subject to the new temporary custody arrangement.

Her other brother, a 4-year-old, was not a part of the custody hearing.

Rainn’s mother had legal custody of Rainn and the 3-year-old until Sunday. Children services could have retained temporary custody, but being with family is best where possible, Schaffner said.

It is unclear if the mother also had legal custody of the 4-year-old.

Richard and Dora Peterson were cleared of any negligence with regard to Rainn’s disappearance, Schaffner said.

The child’s mother, Brandi Peterson, 24, and her husband, Nicholas Martin, 32, of Cleveland, will be allowed to have supervised visits with Rainn and her brother.

It is unclear if Martin is the father of any of the children.

Brandi Peterson has lived on and off with Richard and Dora Peterson, and her mother in Southington. She also has lived in the Cleveland area, where she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor attempted drug possession in August 2014, according to Cuyahoga County court records.

She and Martin have been named in several Trumbull County police reports in recent years relating to domestic violence between them.

Martin was convicted of aggravated menacing involving Brandi Peterson in 2013, and two other police reports contain allegations of Martin’s making threats to Brandi Peterson and others.

Deputies also were called to Quinn’s Market in North Bloomfield on June 23, 2015, by Brandi Peterson’s mother, Tammy Ogletree of Southington, who reported that Brandi had left Richard and Dora Peterson’s house on Route 45 and texted several people indicating she was going to harm herself.

When a deputy found Brandi on Norton Lane, she indicated she was upset about an argument with her grandmother.

The deputy drove her to Quinn’s to meet up with her mother, but she threw up and became delusional and slurred her words, a deputy said. She was taken to an area hospital for evaluation.

A throng of news media, many from Cleveland, waited outside the court for Tuesday’s 2 p.m. hearing to begin, crowding around Brandi Peterson when she arrived and again when Richard and Dora Peterson arrived.

When Dora Peterson was asked what she thought when she learned that Rainn had been found alive, she said, “Thank God. There is a God.” She added that Rainn is “doing fine” at the hospital.

Additional hearings will convene in the future to determine whether Rainn and her brother will remain in their grandparents’ custody, Schaffner said.

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