Daughter missing?

Shundy Hicks can’t believe it.

He can’t believe he doesn’t know where his daughter is.

He can’t believe he hasn’t seen her in almost three months.

He can’t believe a court would allow a man who was eventually released into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to adopt her.

And he can’t believe local law enforcement didn’t seem to care about any of this, at least as far as he is concerned.

Hicks, who says he is the biological father of Anjalayiah Kalyssa Hicks, 5, said she was adopted by Rigoberto Reyes-Rios in Whitfield County Superior Court on June 7 of last year. He said he presented evidence that had the adoption vacated, but now fears his daughter is in Mexico.

Hicks said he broke up with the girl’s mother, at that time known as Brandy Michelle Moreland — the couple were not married — and now she is married to Rigoberto Reyes-Rios, who was detained by ICE last year and may have been deported to Mexico.

Hicks fears Brandy Reyes-Rios, as she is now identified in court documents, has gone to Mexico to be with Rigoberto Reyes-Rios. The adoption was “stayed” by the court on July 7.

“I honestly believe in my heart she has taken my child far away to meet her husband, who was deported or who has gone to Mexico,” Hicks said. “The last I heard from my daughter was on Oct. 15. I’d seen her three times since August, but didn’t have the money or resources to fight Brandy in court to go through the (parental) legitimization process.”

Hicks filed missing person reports with the Dalton Police Department on Oct. 16, and with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 21, according to incident reports.

In Georgia, being the biological parent and legitimate parent is not the same thing, said Hicks’ attorney, Nancy Burnett.

“The mother lied to the court, and the judge (Robert Adams) found that she committed fraud upon the court and referred it to the district attorney,” said Burnett. “She lied, saying she didn’t know where Shundy was. So the judge gave her permission to serve the notice of the adoption by publication. She never served the notice by publication (in newspaper legal advertising) ... she also lied and said he paid no child support for the child ... (and) lied about paternity. There was a court order finding him to be the father and to pay child support.”

District Attorney Kermit McManus said his office has yet to talk to Adams about the alleged fraudulent statements, since a decision granting Hicks custody did not occur until the end of the year.

Hicks believes Rigoberto Reyes-Rios should not have been able to adopt his daughter, especially since Hicks has been paying child support for years.

“No way that adoption should have happened — I’ve been paying child support, and they gave her away to a guy who was deported,” said Hicks. “Are you serious?”

The Whitfield County jail reported Rigoberto Reyes-Rios was released into ICE custody on July 20 of last year. Temple Black, spokesman for the regional ICE office in New Orleans, said on Friday the agency is not allowed to say whether an individual has been deported.

“A lot of this stuff is covered by privacy acts and we don’t have any option,” he explained.

Burnett said after Hicks hired her she immediately made a motion in court to vacate the adoption.

“At first there was an emergency vacating so she could tell her side of the story, then in August she and her attorney came in and signed a document vacating the order, and she agreed to dismiss the adoption process,” Burnett said. “We then went forward with a legitimization case. A lot of states treat paternity — is somebody the father of a child? — as one issue. When you are the biological father you are the legal father. Georgia is a little bit different. It says the biological father is paternity, and that can be established by agreement of the parents on the birth certificate or in court ... but even if you’re the biological father, you’re not necessarily the legal father until you legitimate the child.”

Georgia on legitimacy

Burnett said under Georgia law, the father who sires a child out of wedlock has no parental authority; the mother “has all parental authority” in matters such as child care, schooling and physicians’ visits, for example.

“Until the father legitimates the child — even if she agrees he’s the father, even if he’s on the birth certificate and even if he’s paying child support — he has no parental authority in Georgia,” she said. “I think it’s pretty harsh. Most states take the position ... that once you’re the father, you’re the father, both legally and biologically.”

“Legitimating” the child means a parent has to go through a legal process in the court system.

Hicks said after Anjalayiah was born he signed the birth certificate, but he and Brandy Reyes-Rios “split up” when the child was 12 to 18 months old.

“I got the order and started paying child support,” Hicks said. “But (Brandy) would not allow me to see my daughter, she would move away — even threaten me she would report me for something — but there was no restraining order saying I could not see my daughter.”

Hicks said on Nov. 22 he talked with a sheriff’s office investigator after his daughter had been missing one month. He said he was told the sheriff’s office would not look for his daughter since she was not missing but was with her mother.

“I feel like it’s been taken as a joke by law enforcement,” he said.

Burnett said Brandy Reyes-Rios tipped her hand to her whereabouts when she filed for her new husband, Rigoberto Reyes-Rios, to adopt Anjalayiah.

“We filed a petition to legitimate the child to seek visitation rights,” she said. “(Hicks) wanted to just see his kid. (Brandy Reyes-Rios) opposed legitimization, we had a hearing and the judge said, no, it’s in the best interest of this child to legitimize her. So he granted a temporary order of visitation, and (Brandy Reyes-Rios) followed that for a handful of visits in August and September and first part of October, then we heard rumors she was leaving to take the child to Mexico. So we filed an emergency petition asking the court to give him temporary custody rather than letting her flee with the child.”

Adams denied that request, Burnett said, but gave Hicks custody of the child on Dec. 28.

In Mexico?

Brandy Reyes-Rios’ aunt testified on Dec. 9 in court that her niece had called and informed her that her car would be at a rest stop on I-75 with the key in it and the aunt could pick it up. The car was found at the rest stop, and Brandy Reyes-Rios and Anjalayiah have not been seen since, Hicks said.

Burnett said she checked to see if Rigoberto Reyes-Rios has been deported.

“There was an order of removal in late September, according to the federal court in Lumpkin, which basically means he’s been deported,” she said. “So (Reyes-Rios) has gone to Mexico, or he’s snuck back in (to the U.S.) and they’re hiding under the radar.”

Adams ordered that Brandy Reyes-Rios be placed on the Federal Parent Locator Service on Dec. 7, but Burnett believes she may simply change her name. She added the situation places Hicks at a “disadvantage.”

The locator service is a section of the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement that “supports various programs and initiatives that support the location of participants in child support cases, collection of child support payments, enforcement of child support orders, communication between states, and online profile information regarding how counties, states, regions, tribes and international offices operate,” according to its website.

“It’s not a top priority for law enforcement,” Burnett said. “The judge had to make it clear what they had to do ... (we) had to get a corrected order for them to start trying to find her. It’s what lawyers in this field run into all the time. I think it’s time as a community to decide how are we going to respond to parental kidnappings. When I talked to the sheriff’s (office), they said, ‘We’ve never had a case like this’ ... I’m not trying to speak for them, I’m just saying there seemed to be a real lack of understanding or plan about ‘what are we going to do when something like this happens.’ No one wants to get involved in what they feel is a dispute between a couple, but this is a very serious case. I take it very seriously.”

Capt. Rick Swiney with the sheriff’s office said officials there are “all familiar with Shundy Hicks and his case.”

“The child is with her biological mother who had custody of the child,” he said. “The child is 5 years old, and only this year did Mr. Hicks file a petition for legitimization and an order restraining the use of a passport against Ms. Reyes in reference to the daughter after he received information that Ms. Reyes might be moving to Mexico.”

Swiney said Hicks was “advised this was a civil matter since the biological mother had full custody and had the right to take her child anywhere she wanted to.”

“Mr. Hicks obtained an attorney and the attorney filed a petition with the court,” he noted. “Judge Adams signed an order for the child to be entered into NCIC (the National Crime Information Center) as a missing person. We have complied with the judge’s order.”

Adams said on Wednesday he “cannot discuss any case that involves adoption.”

“I generally do not discuss any case, but particularly those involving custody, and most certainly those involving adoption,” he stated.

McManus said Hicks came by his office to request action against Brandy Reyes-Rios for interfering with his newly-granted custody.

“The efforts he had made to, first, legitimate the child — because she was born out of wedlock, as I understand it — and subsequently, for him to be granted custody of the child, was done without Brandy being in court,” McManus said. “There’s no way to show she’d ever been ‘noticed’ officially about the change in custody. So if that’s the case, there’s no interference with custody because (she) would have to do that with criminal intent.”

Hicks still cannot believe the court initially gave custody of his daughter to a man who was eventually placed on ICE detainer.

“I have to show more ID to take something back to Walmart than this guy did to adopt my daughter,” he said.

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