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Clifford Sobel, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, called Goldman last week to tell him just that. It was a brief conversation, in part because Goldman was on his boat working, taking customers out fishing. "He wanted to reassure me that they were working on it and that we have the full support of the United States," said Goldman, who lives in Tinton Falls in the same house he once shared with his wife, Bruna, and their son, Sean. "The ambassador said the United States is looking at this case as a clear-cut child abduction under the terms of The Hague treaty," Goldman said. "He understands every week is an eternity after four years, but he wanted me to know that it is a priority for the embassy to have this remedied." The press attache in Brazil confirmed that Sobel called Goldman, and that the comments Goldman paraphrased sounded "like an accurate reflection of the reason for the ambassador's call." On June 16, 2004, Goldman drove his wife, his son and his wife's parents to Newark Liberty International Airport. As far as he knew, they were going to Brazil for a two-week vacation. The next day she called from Rio de Janeiro and told him she wasn't coming home. If he ever wanted to see Sean again, she added, he would have to go down to Brazil and sign some documents her lawyer had prepared. Goldman said he did not see this coming at all. Neither did any of the people who had been close to both David and Bruna. To their friends, David and Bruna appeared to have an enviable relationship. Over the next four years, Goldman made five trips to Brazil. He never got to see his son. As the years passed, he was rarely allowed to talk to Sean. In 2007, Bruna married Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, a lawyer from a prominent family in Rio. On Aug. 22, they had a baby girl. Bruna died in the hospital, eight hours after giving birth. Now, through various legal maneuvers, Lins e Silva continues to prevent Goldman from seeing his son. Last month Goldman said Lins e Silva defied a Brazilian federal court order that granted Goldman visitation rights. "So once again, I'm in Brazil without any contact with my son, while his kidnappers go about their daily lives unscathed," he said at the time. During his most recent trip to Rio, Goldman met with several Brazilian journalists. Most of them were fearful that anything they reported about the case would be held against them in a court of law, he said. Lins e Silva had obtained a court order forbidding Brazilian media from discussing the case. On Nov. 3, Consultor Juridicio, a legal publication, ran a 3,500-word story on the case, explaining in detail how the custody battle had evolved. Following a 2004 decision from a New Jersey judge that ordered Sean's return to the United States, Goldman sued in the Brazilian courts to enforce the terms of the Hague Convention, according to the story. The Hague treaty, signed by both Brazil and the United States, requires that a custody dispute be settled in the country where the child is a citizen, the publication pointed out. There was one caveat: Article 12 of the treaty states that after one year, a court "shall also order the return of a child to his country unless it is demonstrated that the child is now settled in (his) new environment." The Brazilian court denied Goldman's request on the "thesis that the child's welfare should come first . . . as the child had been living in Brazil for over a year, he should stay in Brazil." But Bruna had refused to return Sean to the United States during the first year they were in Brazil. Had she complied with the law, obviously a year would not have passed with the boy remaining in Brazil. Another examination of the case was published in the November issue of Revista Piaui, a Brazilian magazine. In "A Father in a Foreign Land," a 5,000-word story written by Dorrit Harazim, Goldman says "I don't have anything left to lose," and proceeds to tell the writer about his ordeal. Harazim concluded: "By retaining a minor in Brazil without her husband's permission, Bruna violated an international treaty to which Brazil, the United States, and 79 other countries are signatories." Brazil is a member of the "The Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction," she wrote further, and under the terms of that convention Sean should have been returned immediately to New Jersey. This has been David Goldman's contention all along. While several U.S. media outlets have covered the story, up until now the Brazilian media have mostly been silent because of the court order. The next step in the Goldman case is uncertain. On Friday, Goldman learned from his attorney that the federal court in Rio wants him to return to Brazil to undergo psychological evaluations beginning Dec. 1. The court wants Goldman's parents and his sister to travel to Brazil as well, according to the lawyer. Lins e Silva, Sean and Bruna's parents are also scheduled to be subjected to the psychological evaluations. Goldman objects to this latest development, insisting among other things that there is nothing in the Hague Convention about psychological evaluations. "If this is such an important thing, the psychologist should come here and see for himself what my life is like, what my house is like, instead of having my whole family trek down there," he said. "This is just awful."
Copyright © 2008 Asbury Park Press - Reprinted with permission |
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hile David Goldman is no closer today than he was a month ago to bringing his 8-year-old son home from Brazil, at least he now feels confident that his government is on the case and on his side.| · Home | · David's Story | · Media & Documents | · Donations | · Blog | · Forums | · How To Help | · Contact Us | · Support |
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