Custody Case Reaches from Georgia to Fairfield County

David Goodman was on a mission.

As an elected sheriff working in Bridgeport, he deals with evictions and serving papers, among other things. But a recent case of his connected Connecticut to Marietta, Ga., and involved State Police and the governments of both states.

Goodman was trying to enforce a custody order placing John Devone, Jr., 2, with his mother, Brittany N. Finley, of Marietta. The youth's father, John-Michael Devone, 28, of Bridgeport, was arrested Monday night by Connecticut State Police.

The boy "was found [Monday] night at 1:30 a.m.," and Devone was arrested, Goodman said. "The mother was united with her child [Monday] night at 3 a.m."

The father is charged with second-degree custodial interference. The boy was located at his "maternal grandmother's" home in Bridgeport, state police said.

But Goodman said he had to turn to state police to help him when trying to retrieve the boy, and Marietta prosecutors had to send a governor's warrant to Connecticut, according to the sheriff.

Meanwhile, Finley has filed two Internal Affairs complaints against Bridgeport police officers, one of them the boy's grandfather, involved in an attempt to retrieve the child.

Bridgeport Police spokesman Bill Kaempffer said Tuesday those complaints will be investigated.

Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudette told the Connecticut Post the department assisted Goodman as best it could.