Adoption of C.M. CA4/2
J.M. (father) and M.F. (mother) broke up when their son C.M. (child) was 10 months old. The mother started dating another man, A.F. (stepfather), and eventually married him.
According to the mother, she encouraged the father to visit the child. Nevertheless, over a year and a half, there were only three visits – one in which the father merely said “Hi,” one at the insistence of the mother while she went to a grocery store, and one in which the father said that he “just couldn’t be a parent right now.” When the mother asked him, however, to consent to allow the stepfather to adopt the child, he became “irate” and “threatened to take her to court.” He followed through on this threat by filing a paternity petition.
The mother and the stepfather (parents) then filed the present proceeding to free the child from the father’s custody and control based on abandonment. The mother testified at trial; the father did not. The trial court ruled that, because the fathe
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