The famed Rutherford Institute has asked for information about the case in which the State Dept. of Children & Family Services (DCF) took away the two young children of Nick and Carrie Nowatney here last September— but, after six months, have yet to make a case for child abuse or neglect, or return the children.
This is the powerhouse civil liberties group that successfully represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton.
"The Rutherford people may have seen our website," said Nick Nowatney. "They seemed particularly interested in the reports that came out of the Army and Navy investigations."
Nick is a medic with an Army Special Forces group assigned to the Key West Naval Air Station.
After both of the Nowatney children, Nathan, 1, and Natalie, 3, suffered broken arms within a year, DCF officials said child abuse was a strong enough possibility that they wanted to take the children. And they got Judge Sandra Taylor to agree.
But after both the Army and the Navy conducted independent investigations, both teams of investigators concluded: No abuse or neglect found. But the DCF still refused to return the children, opting instead to continue to try to make a case. A trial is scheduled to begin on March 27.
During September, October, November, December and half of January, the DCF shuttled the kids between three different foster homes up and down the Keys. Finally, last month, the Nowatneys were able to arrange for the children to be placed with Carrie's sister in her hometown of Emden, Ill. Carrie is staying with her parents in Emden until the trial.
"At least I'm able to be with my children during the day," she said.
"By now, I suspect that the State Attorney knows that he doesn't have a case," Nick said, "so they're pushing hard to get us to plead guilty. If we plead guilty, they say they'll give us our kids back. But part of that deal is that we would have to agree to allow the DCF to intrude into our lives on a virtually unlimited basis.
"We won't do that," he said, "because we're not guilty."
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights. Headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Institute has a full-time staff of 50 and a network of more than 1000 volunteer attorneys across the U.S.
"We have always been deeply committed to protecting parents rights," said Institute President John Whitehead.
Whitehead gained national attention in his role as Paula Jones' co-counsel.
The Rutherford Institute also represents Wally and Debby Hines, who fled Minnesota in April of last year after social services and local police tried to take their baby, Wyatt, from them. Despite the fact that leading medical experts have attributed Wyatt's recurring instances of broken bones to a rare bone disorder known as brittle bone disease, social workers and the county attorney continue to treat the parents as child abusers.
The plight of the Hines family has been featured on ABC's 20/20 news program.
NOTE: For more info about the Rutherford Institute, go to www.rutherford.org.
The Nowatney children have been tested for brittle bone disease, but those results are not yet in.
"We haven't made a decision as to what our involvement might be in the Nowatney case," a Rutherford spokesperson told Key West The Newspaper Wednesday. "But we are reviewing the case."
"Of course, we have no assurance that the Rutherford Institute will decide to help us," said Nick Nowatney, "but we hope they will. What is happening here is wrong, terribly wrong. And the involvement of the Rutherford Institute could not only help to make it right, but they could draw national attention to this travesty."
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Nowatneys' fight to defend themselves against abuse charges and to bring their children back home continues. But while State Attorney Kirk Zuelch has access to unlimited taxpayer dollars to try to make a case, the Nowatneys are being financially exhausted.
To help, Key West The Newspaper has set up a legal defense fund. We call it the "Mama, Am I Still In Foster Care?" fund— because that's what little Natalie asked her mother every time she saw her during the five months she was forced to live with strangers.
Checks should be made payable to the fund and mailed % Key West The Newspaper, PO Box 567, Key West FL 33041.
Questions? Call Dennis Reeves Cooper, 292-2108.