After five months of shuttling Nick and Carrie Nowatney's two young children from foster home to foster home, the State of Florida finally released the kids to Carrie's sister on Feb. 12, pending the outcome of a trial now scheduled for March 27. At the end of that trial, Judge Mark Jones will decide if he thinks the Nowatneys are guilty of abusing or neglecting their children.
But Nick Nowatney thinks that it is the state that is guilty of, at least, neglecting his son, Nathan, 1, while he was in foster care all those months.
"When Nathan was turned over to Carrie's family earlier this month, he came with a serious diaper rash," Nowatney said. "It was so serious that he was being treated with a prescription medicine.
"Diaper rash is caused by neglect, pure and simple. Diaper rash happens when a baby is allowed to lay in his own urine and feces for long periods of time."
Daughter Natalie, 3, is also showing signs of separation anxiety.
"When I visit my sister's house," Carrie said, "all Natalie wants to do is cling to me."
State Attorney Kirk Zuelch is taking the Nowatneys to court because neither will admit guilt.
"That's what's so crazy about this," Nick said. "If we would just admit that we did something to hurt those kids, they would return them to us. But we won't admit guilt because we're not guilty."
Officials of the State Dept. of Children & Family Services (DCF) came to the Nowatney home last Sept. 3 and took both children away. Nathan was still breast feeding. No matter. They took him anyway.
The previous day, Nick had taken Nathan to the hospital after he fell off a sofa and broke his arm. Nick was home alone with Nathan when the accident occurred. Carrie was at yoga class.
While attending to Nathan, doctors also found an older "greenstick" fracture. They treated the baby and sent him home with his father.
But the unexplained and unreported earlir fracture apparently set off some alarm bells and someone at the hospital called the child abuse hotline— although Nathan's doctors said they saw no evidence of any abuse.
Additional alarms went off when officials learned that the little girl, home with her mother in 1998, had also broken an arm. Nick was on duty in Kuwait.
He is a medic in an elite Special Forces unit assigned to the Key West Naval Air Station.
The forced seizure of their children shellshocked the Nowatneys. But, by law, the state was required to schedule a hearing to give them an opportunity to get their kids back. Almost six months later, that has yet to happen.
"At first, we were willing to agree to almost anything just to get our kids back," Nick said. "They wanted us to go to parenting classes. We went.
"They wanted us to undergo psychological evaluations. We did that.
"They wanted us to agree to allow them to come into our home anytime to check on the kids. We were desperate," Nick said. "We would have probably agreed to that, too— but they still wouldn't return our children!
"It seemed like the more we were willing to agree to, the more hoops they came up with to make us jump through," he said. "For example, they wanted us to put our kids into day care, But Carrie is a stay-at-home mom. That's the way we want to raise our children. To put them in day care when Carrie is available to take care of them at home seemed ridiculous!
"But what they really want us to do is admit that we somehow abused or neglected our children," Nick said. "We can't say that for them— because it's not true."
At least two dozen people who know the Nowatneys and their children— fellow soldiers, neighbors, people in their church, and even the doctors who set the children's broken arms— are expected to testify that the Nowatneys are not child abusers.
In addition, both sides are expected to present stables of out-of-town experts. The State Attorney's experts are expected to testify that the broken bones "could" have been caused by abuse. Defense witness are expected to testify to the contrary.
Other evidence includes:
• Both the Army and the Navy conducted separate investigations. Both of those investigations have been closed: No evidence of abuse or neglect found.
• Both Nick and Carrie voluntarily sat for polygraph examinations. No deception shown; innocence indicated.
• Full body x-rays of both children reveal not evidence of child abuse.
The big difference between the two sides is that the State Attorney has access to unlimited taxpayer dollars to try to build a case— while the Nowatneys are near bankruptcy.
Last November, the Nowatneys asked the local DCF office to process the paperwork to approve Carrie's sister as a foster parent, to enable the children to live with relatives, rather than strangers. The sister lives in Carrie's hometown of Emden, Ill.
Two months later, the DCF here finally sent the paperwork to Illinois, where it was quickly processed after the U.S, Congressman who represents the Emden area intervened.
Carrie's brother-in-law flew down to take custody of the kids on Feb. 12. Carrie will stay in Emden until the trial.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Although the Nowatney children are now with relatives, they are not home with their parents where they belong. That fight continues. But it is a fight that has been financially exhausting for the Nowatneys.
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 over the past five months. Checks should be made payable to the fund and mailed % KWTN, Post Office Box 567, Key West FL 33041.
Questions? Call Dennis Reeves Cooper, 292-2108.