A Father's Love (23 page)

“In the ongoing battle to return Sean to the United States, I want you to know, I have raised this repeatedly to Brazilian officials on several occasions,” she told me. “I wanted you to know personally, parent to parent, we will maintain our concern and commitment to this case.

“And I feel strongly that once we are successful, and Sean is back home, we can't forget about all the other children who are being wrongly held.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I am under great pressure here. I just learned the [Ribeiro] family plans to rally in front of my hotel.” The rally was scheduled to coincide with President Lula's visit with President Obama.

“That is deeply troubling,” the secretary said. “And very unfortunate. Obviously, that should have absolutely no impact or influence on a court decision. And I think the best approach is just to ignore it, and if you have a spokesperson who is trying to help you with this very stressful situation, that they don't escalate it, and just make it clear that this is in no way reflective of what the facts are and what the best interests of Sean are.”

“I don't have a spokesperson,” I told Secretary Clinton. “I'm just one guy. I have the help of our consulate, Karen, who is wonderful. I just want to be with my son and bring him home. We're trapped in this complex in Rio where they have psychologists watching us. It's completely diminishing to us being father and son. I'm very grateful for your concern and your help. I do hope President Obama brings it up with President Lula. It's too wrong to continue, and it's too wrong that it's gone on this long.”

Secretary Clinton's tone softened, and she sounded more like a mom than a powerful world leader. “We certainly agree with that, and I can only hope and pray that you will get a favorable decision soon.”

“I do, too,” I said. “That's what I've been praying for since the day I found out [Bruna] didn't want to come home. I thank you for your time; I'm sure you are very busy. I hope someday I can thank you in person, with my son by my side.”

“I do, too,” Secretary Clinton replied. “I would like that very much. Stay strong; I think the end is in sight.”

I could only hope that she was right.

 

 

ALTHOUGH I COULD not be in Washington for the Obama-Lula meeting because I was in Brazil, we didn't want to lose any chance to make an impact, so Mark DeAngelis and Bob D'Amico decided to organize a demonstration in Lafayette Square, outside the White House, on the day Obama and Lula were scheduled to meet. The Bring Sean Home group got out the word on our Web site and organized buses to transport supporters from New Jersey and other nearby locations. On Saturday afternoon, in a cold, drizzling rain, a few hundred supporters gathered for the rally in Lafayette Square. Though the weather was dismal, their spirits were high. Many held handmade signs and called out toward the White House, “Bring Sean home!” Most wore T-shirts with the same message. Other left-behind parents carried blown-up photos of their abducted sons or daughters, emphasizing our commitment not only to Sean but also to the larger cause. Mark, Bernie Aronson, and Congressman Smith spoke to the demonstrators. In a passionate voice, Congressman Smith read an open letter to President Lula: “Justice delayed is justice denied ... the time for action is now.” Bernie spoke about the outpouring of support and affection the crowd displayed. He said to my supporters, “You didn't have to get up early this morning, board a bus, and come to Washington to march in the rain in support of David and Sean. But you are here.” He closed with a moving quote from the Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin that he said captured the decency and power of the demonstrators: “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”

Bernie later told me he met a demonstrator who had first learned about the case from the
Dateline NBC
broadcast. The man was a family court judge from Ohio and he was outraged by the injustice of Sean's continued abduction. All by himself, at his own expense, he had flown in to D.C. from Ohio that morning. Arriving earlier than the buses, and all alone, the man paraded up and down in front of the White House shouting, “Bring Sean home now!” It struck Bernie and me as a metaphor for the fundamental decency and goodness of so many Americans who had rallied to our cause: an example of the power of “love” that Teilhard de Chardin described. I often wondered if President Obama and President Lula heard that Ohio man's passionate and determined voice as they met fifty yards away in the Oval Office.

Were our efforts effective? It was hard to tell immediately. But we later got word from Bernie's sources that in a private Oval Office meeting at which the two leaders were scheduled to discuss the economy, energy, and the environment, President Obama raised Sean's case with President Lula. Although the Brazilian president did not guarantee Sean's return, he recognized that this was an issue that was of great importance to the American president.

 

 

FOLLOWING HILLARY CLINTON'S public remarks and President Obama's private statements to President Lula, Alan Clendenning, bureau chief with the Associated Press in Brazil, picked up the story. Alan had been approached about covering Sean and me previously, and like many other journalists and media outlets in Brazil, he had shied away from the story, possibly influenced by the Lins e Silvas' efforts to suppress it. Now that Secretary of State Clinton had broached the subject of Sean's return, and it had made news in the United States, however, the media in Brazil could no longer ignore the story. In a real way, Hillary Clinton's brief mention of the case brought down the wall of secrecy that had imprisoned the story in that country for more than four and a half years.

I
DIDN'T HEAR SECRETARY CLINTON'S INITIAL PUBLIC COMMENTS on our case until later in the day on March 4 because I was on an airplane flying across the country to appear on CNN's
Larry King Live
, which was broadcast from Los Angeles. Shortly after I landed at LAX airport, one of the producers phoned to welcome me. “We're glad you're here,” he said, “and if there's anything you need, just let us know. Now, here's how the show is going to break down.” He then informed me that a relative of Bruna's would also be appearing on the show, to present “the other side.”

“Who?” I asked.

“A cousin from Seattle.”

“Cousin who?”

“His name is Helvecio Ribeiro. Oh, I'm sorry; I see here that he is Bruna Bianchi's uncle. He will be the U.S. spokesman for the Bianchi family and for Sean's Brazilian stepfather.”

Helvecio Ribeiro? I barely knew of him. He may have been Bruna's uncle, but he had certainly never been part of Bruna's life with me. And what was all this about the Bianchi family? Their name is Ribeiro. Regardless, I was uncomfortable with the relative being on the same interview with me because I knew that he could say anything he wanted and would not be held accountable, yet anything I said would be thrown back in my face by lawyers in Brazil. After I hung up with the producer, I called Tricia Apy and hastily explained the situation to her. “I'm turning around and going back home,” I said, “unless you are available to go on the air from New York.” As Tricia considered that possibility, I said, “And we need to get Congressman Smith on from Washington. Otherwise, I'm going home.”

CNN worked out the arrangements, and both Tricia and the congressman made themselves available. I was the only guest in the LA studio, while Tricia stood by in New York, Congressman Smith in CNN's Washington studio, and the Ribeiro relative in Seattle. It was a busy news day—rescuers were searching in the Gulf of Mexico for two NFL players and their friend, whose boat had capsized during a fishing trip over the weekend; and former first lady Barbara Bush was having heart surgery in Houston—so Larry was bouncing back and forth between stories, but he gave me plenty of time to explain how Sean and I came to be separated, and that Sean was still being retained in Brazil.

Following Larry's initial foray with me, and a video clip from Hillary Clinton's supportive statement to Andrea Mitchell, Larry introduced Helvecio Ribeiro. The relative badmouthed me from the beginning, suggesting that I had been engaged in a media campaign in the United States for six months, without a challenge from Bruna's family. Ribeiro acknowledged that Bruna had kept Sean in Brazil without my permission, and confirmed that Bruna's husband wanted to keep him there.

Larry asked, “Why do you think that David should not have his son?”

“I don't question the biological right,” Bruna's uncle said. “The fact of the matter is that in order to be a parent, you have to be more than just a DNA donor, Mr. King. Fatherhood is not about making home movies and taking pictures; it's about sacrifice. It's about providing support to your child. It's about being there even when you're not there. And Mr. Goldman, while Bruna was still alive, failed to do so. I'm not sure if you know that, but he hasn't paid a dime of child support so far. And he has been making allegations all over the place about us not allowing him to visit his child. They are completely untrue.” Ribeiro contended that his family had offered to pay my expenses to travel to Brazil in 2006 if I was willing to meet their terms.

I sat quietly across from Larry King, inwardly fuming at this man's outrageous and insulting statements. Was he serious, claiming that I had not paid child support—to people who had kidnapped my son? Larry picked up on the contradiction, and probed further. “Why should he pay child support if the child was taken away from him without his permission?”

“Well, because it's the law,” Ribeiro responded. “And also, it shows commitment. Even if it is a symbolic value, even if it is just a dime. I'm quite sure Bruna would have refused. But at least it would have [given] an indication that Mr. Goldman is really committed to making, you know, making sure that the people he claims to be the kidnappers of his son can actually provide for the child.”

What?
Was Ribeiro suggesting with a straight face that I pay the Lins e Silvas or the Ribeiros because they were harboring my son? The man had to be joking. But of course, he wasn't. In fact, he posited my lack of “child support” as part of the reason the Ribeiros had refused to let me see or speak to Sean.

“The law states in Brazil that a parent has to pay child support to have visitation rights. And he failed to do that. He never did that.”

Larry ran another portion of Secretary Clinton's remarks and then asked Ribeiro, “So what do you say, Helvecio, to the secretary of state?”

“She's probably basing her opinions on the fact that she knows one side of the story. Probably when she knows more about Mr. Goldman's real character, she will rethink if he is actually morally fit to be a parent.”

“You're saying a lot of salacious things about Mr. Goldman tonight,” Larry responded to Ribeiro. “Pretty tough things.” The interview with Bruna's uncle continued a few more minutes, then Larry brought in Tricia Apy and Congressman Smith. Though both of them came across as highly professional and completely under control, I could tell that they were like two mad bulldogs, just waiting to respond to Ribeiro's ridiculous and flagrantly misleading statements. My attorney responded first, when Larry asked her about the case. “Patricia, why isn't this open-and-shut?”

“It is open-and-shut,” she replied without hesitation. “When this child was originally abducted in 2004, I told my client in my office that the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of child abduction applies. This child would be immediately returned, that Brazil was a signatory. I had every confidence. We are now four and a half years later on the second round of the Hague Convention and Sean is still not returned.”

Larry pitched the question to Congressman Smith. “Congressman, this must be dumbfounding.”

Congressman Smith was locked and loaded. “It certainly is,” he replied, “and to hear one of the family members saying—first slandering David on national television, but also suggesting that he ought to pay child support to a kidnapper. The Hague Convention is all about wrongful removal and wrongful retention. Brazil signed the Hague Convention. We have a bilateral agreement that went into force in 2003. The Brazilian government has to step up to the plate. Thus far, they have not. And Sean has to be reunited with his father. This is an outrage.”

At long last, Larry turned back to me. “David, what do you say? What are you saying in response to what the uncle said?”

“I think it is disgusting,” I replied. “What can I say? He's attacking my moral fiber and my character, and questioning my love for my son.”

Both Tricia's and the congressman's comments scored direct hits, as Tricia further explained the $150,000 settlement the Ribeiros paid to me and the statements Raimundo Ribeiro made in court admitting that they would not let me speak with my son, that every time Raimundo heard my voice on the phone, he'd immediately hang up. In court, under oath, Raimundo provided the rationalization for the family's cruelty. “My attorney has advised me that I do not have to speak on the telephone with someone who is suing me.” These statements, Tricia reminded Larry and his viewers, were documented and part of the court records.

Later in the program, Larry King asked Congressman Smith why Brazil would resist fulfilling its obligations under the Hague Convention.

“Unfortunately, the federal government, only up until recently, has been very negligent, in my view. They have not done what they could have done to try to get Hague-literate judges to handle the case. And it's been handled at the state courts rather than the federal.