S.C. Supreme Court to Weigh on Custody Case

A James Island couple, who could not conceive children on their own, adopted a baby girl, Veronica, two years ago from her birth mother, but in January the girl's bilogical father used a decades old law to take custody of her.

The incident has rallied support around the local couple, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, and now the South Carolina Supreme Court has agreed to hear the custody case.

The law in question, the Indian Child Welfare Act, was passed in 1978 to "protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families." 

However in this case supporters of the Capobiancos argue that the girl's father had signed away his custody rights and did not support Veronica's biological mother during her pregnancy. However, the father, a member of the Cherokee Tribe named Dusten Brown, maintains that Veronica's birth mother concealed her plan to put Veronica up for adoption and that he was under the assumption he was only signing his parental rights away to her.

The Capobiancos have to file their first briefs in the case with the S.C. Supreme Court by Thursday.