Supreme Court claims jurisdiction over Canadian father

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By OSKAR GARCIA / The Associated Press

OMAHA — The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday said the state has jurisdiction over the Canadian father of a Nebraska girl, allowing him to face a lawsuit in the United States for a sexual assault that allegedly happened in Canada.

The sexual molestation allegations made in the cross-country child-custody case persuaded the Nebraska Legislature to take a rare step earlier this year and extend the reach of Nebraska’s courts.

The Nebraska Supreme Court said in its opinion that it’s in the interest of the 9-year-old girl that the case be handled in Nebraska rather than Canada. The judges said it was reasonable for the father to face civil action here.

The ruling overturned a Lancaster County District Court decision.

Richard Ducote, a New Orleans-based lawyer representing the girl and her mother in the case, said the ruling means the girl can file a civil lawsuit against her father in Nebraska.

A lawyer for the father did not return a phone call by The Associated Press seeking comment on Friday.

A psychiatrist reported to police in Nebraska that the Canadian-born girl may have been sexually abused by her father while visiting him in Canada under a court-mandated visitation. The psychiatrist reached that conclusion after meeting with the girl, whose residence is in Nebraska.

The father denied the allegations through his attorney, and an investigation by Canadian police did not lead to charges against him.

But a Nebraska judge believed there was enough evidence to issue an order to temporarily keep the girl, then 8, from having to return to her father for visits and request that Nebraska courts have jurisdiction over the case.

Gaining control of the case was impossible because of a decade-old law in 45 states that guides child-custody cases involving other states and countries.

The girl returned to Canada few times since then, and suffered more sexual abuse, according to her mother.

The law, called the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, gives foreign courts that make original child-custody decisions powers that are equal to those held by their U.S. counterparts, even when the children live in the United States. The shared law is designed to prevent parents from seeking and getting different custody decisions in other states or countries.

A Canadian court in 2000 made the original custody decision in the case of the 8-year-old Nebraska girl.

Alarmed by the story, the Nebraska Legislature quickly passed a bill earlier this year that does not nix the uniform child custody law it shares with other states, but allows Nebraska courts to trump their foreign counterparts in cases of alleged abuse involving children who live in the state.