Gregory Ralph Kingsley (born July 28, 1980) was the first American child, who, at the age of 12, broke legal relations with his mother by law. He changed his name to Shawn Russ after juvenile court judge Thomas S. Kirk "ended custody of his biological mother and allowed her adoptive parents to adopt her".
Video Gregory Kingsley
Family life and foster
The eldest of three children, Kingsley was born in Denver, Colorado, to Rachel Kingsley and Ralph Kingsley, Sr., who were estranged from his family, giving custody of Rachel Kingsley. Two younger brothers Gregory, Jeremiah and Zachary, lived with their mother, but Gregory went to live with his alcoholic father, who forbade him to contact them. Finally, Gregory reunited with his mother and two siblings; However, her mother's drug use prevented her from becoming a parent, and thus she voluntarily placed her two eldest sons into foster care in 1990. Gregory is placed in a boys' shelter, where he meets and befriends George H. Russ, the first times came into shelter as members of a government commission that explored the "needs of the children". He is a father and a lawyer, and he empathizes with Gregory, has an unhappy childhood. In October 1991, he and his wife Lizabeth agreed to adopt Gregory, bringing him to live with eight of their biological sons.
Maps Gregory Kingsley
Legal action
In 1992, with the support of Russ's family, Gregory took steps to legally divorce his parents when he wanted to stay with his adoptive family. The lawsuit became widely publicized, and the media referred to it as "GregoryÃ, K". George Russ said he had convinced Gregory to take "an unusual step in seeking the right to sue because he feared that the state might bring Gregory out of Russ's house" if he himself had sued. On June 9, 1992, Judge Thomas S. Kirk allowed Gregory to petition for divorce, deciding that he had the same rights as an adult to fight for his own interests.
Juvenile Court
Rachel Kingsley, her mother, a "30-year-old unemployed waitress," is characterized by a neighbor as "like to go out partying," and often has a different man spending the night with her. When he took the witness, he "rejected allegations of drug abuse, homosexuality, promiscuity, and child abuse" made by lawyer Gregory Kingsley, who included foster parents George H. Russ. At the time of the trial, Gregory Kingsley had lived with his mother only seven months from the last eight years. Gregory's biological father was not opposed to adoption.
On September 25, 1992, after a televised two-day trial Judge Kirk ruled that "with clear and convincing evidence, almost without a doubt, the child has been abandoned and ignored by his mother and that it will happen in him, realizing his best interests" to terminate the rights of mother's parents. Full custody is given to Russes. After winning the case, he was given a shirt named "Shawn Russ" printed on it and also number 9 to show that he was Russe's ninth child.
Appeal
Lawyers Rachel Kingsley, however, filed an appeal to Florida District Fifth District Court in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was decided that the court decided to give a child to divorce his parents. They argue that:
- Although the child does not have the legal capacity to institutionalize a process to terminate his custody to free himself for adoption by his adoptive parent, the lower court ruled that it was a harmless error, because his adoptive parents, > ad-litem and the State has also filed a petition of dismissal on its behalf;
- Trial trials are mistaken in attempting to terminate and adopt simultaneously but the error is not erroneous; and
- The immediate appeal of the mother to an order ending her custody revokes a lower court of authority to enter an adoption order and, thus, restores a lower court adoption order.
Legacy
After the trial, Gregory Kingsley himself said that he "hopes his case will encourage other young people to take action to get their happiness". Indeed, this case inspired Kimberly Mays, a 14-year-old girl who was born at birth in 1978 at the hospital where she was born. She decides to take similar legal steps to separate herself from her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, who are trying to demand custody when she wants to stay with Robert Mays, the man who raised her as his daughter.
In popular culture
The case of Gregory K has been described in two films made for television: Switching Parents (1993) with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Gregory and A Place to Be Loved (1993). ) with Tom Guiry as Gregory.
Note
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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