A Father's Love (25 page)

Of course, as soon as the decision was rendered, Sergio Tostes, the smarmy, caustic attorney for the Lins e Silvas and the Ribeiros, immediately announced to the
O Globo
news conglomerate that they would be appealing the ruling. Surprise, surprise.

Congressman Smith was on a plane almost as quickly, heading to Rio to help facilitate and observe the handover and to ensure that everything went smoothly, but got delayed in Florida and had to return to Washington. I still had no real plan for how Sean and I would make the trip home, or even how the transfer from the Ribeiros to me would be made, but Ricardo was working on it, and so was the U.S. embassy in Brasília. I talked with Congressman Smith by phone several times once I arrived in Rio, and, as always, I told him that I was hopeful. He passed that word along to reporters, with a sober warning: “The bottom line,” he said, “is that child abduction is a serious crime. To allow it to continue, if Sean stays in Rio, that perpetuates the crime.”

Secretary Clinton was in El Salvador for the inauguration of Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes at the time the ruling was announced. At a news conference, she brought up the favorable decision. “It's taken a long time for this day to come,” she said, “but we will work with the Goldman family and the Brazilian government with the goal of ensuring this young boy's return.”

Almost before the ink on the return order had dried, less than a full day later, at around 10:30 PM on June 2, Judge Marco Aurelio de Mello, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice in São Paulo, suspended the return order that had been issued the day before.

By this time, I expected the opposition to pull almost anything—influencing a Supreme Court justice was not out of the realm of possibility for Sean's well-connected abductors—but misusing the Brazilian law, by having a political party present a lawsuit to ensure that they could quickly perfect a stay of my order was a new level of manipulation. The political party sought the immediate suspension of Brazil's obligations under the Hague Abduction Convention, urging that this was inconsistent with the Brazilian constitution. Technically, the political party had filed a lawsuit in which I was not even a named party, but merely one of the left-behind parents. Further, the U.S. State Department was reluctant to even file a response, which needed to be done within twenty-four hours. However, my attorneys and the U.S. consul general, Marie Damour, were adamant that the United States had to get involved on behalf of Sean and other American children. Ms. Damour and Tricia wrote a response to the political party's lawsuit to be submitted in the Brazilian Supreme Court. Once again I had an angel on my shoulder, this time in the person of Marie Damour.

The upside was that because Judge Pinto's decision was so sound, there were no merits to any expected appeal that would be filed. Nevertheless, the announcement scuttled the planned handover. Sean would remain with João Paulo Lins e Silva, the second kidnapper.

The Supreme Court justice had issued his decision to review the return order in response to the Progressive political party's questioning the validity of Brazil's signing the Hague Convention in the first place. Since the ruling to return Sean was based on the Hague, Sean should stay in Brazil. It was asinine, but as a result of Justice Marco Aurelio de Mello's decision, the matter now had to be reviewed by the full membership of Brazil's Supreme Court, and it could possibly take months before hearings were scheduled.

I felt as though I had been stabbed in the heart. We had been so close, and now it seemed as though I were a million miles away from Sean again.

Congressman Smith was furious. The following day, June 4, 2009, he introduced HR 2702, a bill in the House of Representatives to suspend Brazil's portion of the Generalized System of Preferences, U.S. trade preferences with Brazil worth more than $2.7 billion, until Brazil complied with the Hague Convention and facilitated Sean's return. Brazil, of course, maintained that the case was being handled by the judicial system, not the government.

Although I didn't hear from her at the time, I could imagine that Secretary Clinton was equally embarrassed at the court's rebuff. She had invested her political clout in this case, had gone on record publicly applauding the return order when it looked as though Brazil was finally going to do the right thing. Then to have one Brazilian Supreme Court justice quash the whole deal was like having the rug pulled out from under her. No one appreciates that feeling, whether you are a secretary of state or a fishing boat captain from New Jersey.

The day after Justice Aurelio de Mello suspended the return order, I was allowed to spend a bit of time with Sean at the pool area of the Ribeiros' condominium complex. I showed up at the appointed time, only to be turned away. Sean was not feeling well, I was informed by the Ribeiros' messenger. He was upset and had to spend all morning with a therapist, with whom I'd had no contact. I agreed to return later that afternoon, which I did.

When Sean and I met at the compound after lunch, although he was happy to see me, he seemed listless and lethargic. Not helping matters, another of the Ribeiro spies lingered nearby. While Sean and I built Lego figures and played games at the table, a woman came and sat down, pulling her chair so close that it was touching Sean's. She glared at me as she placed a tape recorder on the table and aimed it in our direction.

I asked her to give us some space. She smugly refused and then poked Sean in the ribs and instructed him to speak. Sean was perspiring profusely and his face flushed with color. He began stuttering and stammering and finally said, “I . . . I . . . I . . . li . . . li . . . like . . . Br . . . Brazil.” He looked toward the woman, who prodded him to keep going, but he shook his head no.

I came really close to losing control. I wanted so badly to destroy that monster and save my son! How the abductors could do any of the horrific things they had done and gotten away with it for so long was infuriating, but to torture my son right in front of me was more than I could bear.

I took a deep breath, gently brushed the hair out of Sean's eyes, and looked directly into them. “I know you do, buddy,” I said. “It's okay.”

I excused myself and walked over to another table, where Karen Gustafson de Andrade was sitting. I explained to her what had just happened at our table, then returned to the table where Sean and “the friend” were sitting. Sean and I began building a bionic robot model.

Karen came over and politely asked the woman to please give Sean and me some space.

Again the “friend” adamantly refused, adding that she was following instructions from the Ribeiros and no one else.

Karen didn't argue with her. She simply walked back to her table, where she sat and began making phone calls.

The woman glowered at me and said, “I'm moving to the other end of this table, and not because you or she asked me to, but because I want to listen to what she is saying.”

Karen finished her call, picked up my Flip mini video camera, and pointed it toward the despicable woman, who was attempting to interfere with Sean's and my visit by intimidating my son. She filmed the entire spectacle, including the woman's shameless recording of our conversations.

Sean and I did our best to ignore the woman as we finished the model, but I could tell that he wasn't doing well at all. He was holding his stomach and breathing heavily.

“Sean, why don't we wrap it up early today,” I said, “so you can go upstairs, get a cool glass of water, and settle down.” I got up, kissed his forehead, told him I loved him, and then left. I would not be a party to the torture of my own child. That was to be our last “visit.”

 

 

I RETURNED HOME to New Jersey at the end of that week, only to have Ricardo call and inform me that the Supreme Court had decided to consider the case on June 10, a few days later. I literally came home, packed some fresh clothes, and caught another red-eye flight back to Brazil. I felt almost like a puppet on a string, being manipulated by the Brazilian judges, and as I closed my eyes and tried to rest while the Continental Airlines plane rose out over the Atlantic Ocean and headed south, it did not seem too far-fetched to imagine a master puppeteer who looked a lot like Lins e Silva pulling the strings behind the court.

The hearing before Brazil's Supreme Court brought both good news and bad news. The good news was that the Supreme Court unanimously denied the bid by the Progressive Party to halt Sean's return based on their objection to Brazil's participation in the Hague Convention. The court also decided that the federal court in Rio should decide whether Sean should be returned to me. That, too, was good news, considering that the federal court had already said that Sean should be with me. The bad news? The manipulation had given the Ribeiros and Lins e Silvas what they needed—time. The abductors now had an opportunity to present an official appeal of the return order on the merits. It was unlikely that Sean would be returning home with me anytime soon.

To my surprise, on Thursday, June 18, the week of Father's Day, Judge Pinto modified his order and ruled that until the appeals could be settled, I should have full custody of Sean for six days each week—but only in Brazil.

Judge Pinto's intentions were noble; he was trying to help me. He had presented a clear and complete eighty-two-page return order. He knew the stay order was ridiculous, and he saw the urgency for Sean to get out of the environment in which he was living as soon as possible. So, by granting six-day-a-week custody to me in Brazil, he was opening the door for Sean to escape the torturous tyranny of his Brazilian family's home and was attempting to bring Sean and me together more frequently.

Unfortunately, it's a long commute from Tinton Falls to Rio. I knew no one with whom I could live in Rio, a potentially dangerous place for me, and I certainly couldn't afford to move there and leave my work. Moreover, I was concerned that after having Sean with me for five or six days a week, he'd return to the Ribeiros and Lins e Silvas and be even more emotionally tortured. Nevertheless, Ricardo, as well as some officials from the U.S. embassy, encouraged me to do it. But the idea of moving to Rio soon became a moot point. Since Judge Pinto had added these stipulations to his decision postjudgment, the ruling could not be enforced.

 

 

ON JUNE 17, in Red Bank and in Washington, crowds of people conducted candlelight vigils to note the fifth anniversary of Sean's abduction. One of the speakers at the Red Bank event was Matthew Langdon, one of Sean's friends, who urged, “Bring Sean home.” In the crowd that day, with tears in his eyes, was Sean's grandfather, my dad, Barry Goldman.

That same week, Bernie Aronson wrote an op-ed article in the
Wall Street Journal
reminding readers that Sean was not yet home, and, in a not-so-subtle way, telling Brazil that if it continued to ignore its Hague Convention responsibilities, it could easily jeopardize its position as a potential host of the 2016 Olympics, a potential position on an enlarged UN Security Council, and, in general, the privileges of international leadership. The headline editor put the tag on the piece: “Brazil Helps Kidnap American Children.” “They went a little overboard on the headline,” Bernie said, but he and I agreed that Brazil would not like seeing one of the most influential newspapers in the world running an op-ed piece lambasting them for flagrantly violating international law. The
Washington Post
also ran a strong piece calling for Sean's return. Bernie's reminder to the Brazilian ambassador— that as long as Sean was not returned, their reputation would suffer—was becoming a reality.

 

ON JUNE 23, 2009, with the return order still under appeal, CBS TV's
The Early Show
, in a blatant attempt to get a scoop, brought João Paulo Lins e Silva, along with Silvana Ribeiro and her attorney, Sergio Tostes, to New York for in-studio interviews, to air what they asserted was their side of the story. I was invited to appear as well, but I declined.

Had we sought criminal prosecution earlier, the abductors would have been arrested the moment they entered the United States. They had flagrantly harbored and provided assistance to a kidnapper, ignoring U.S. court orders to return Sean within two days, unlawfully retaining him in Brazil, violating visitation privileges, and incurring a number of other charges that could have been pressed. But while they were here, Sean was still in Brazil, and any criminal prosecution could have been used to defeat the Hague Petition.

The Ribeiros and Lins e Silvas possessed videos of Sean being questioned by their own psychologist. On the basis of those interviews, Silvana Ribeiro and João Lins e Silva told host Harry Smith that Sean wanted to remain in Brazil. “Sean wants to stay in Brazil with the family,” Silvana told Smith. “It's very hard for him to separate from his sister.”

We later learned that the abductors had videotaped Sean being interrogated behind a two-way mirror as to where he preferred to live. The statements made by my nine-year-old son were so obviously coached that when Congressman Smith saw them, he was aghast.

“It looks akin to a hostage video,” he observed, “where captors scheme to coerce and extract statements from someone illegally held.” Indeed, in a very real way, Sean's existence in Brazil was very much like being held hostage—for both of us.

The network did not request my permission to air the interviews, even though Sean was a minor and I was Sean's father, his sole legal guardian in the United States. Once we learned these tapes existed, Tricia contacted the CBS attorney and explained that I was the sole legal custodian of Sean under both U.S. and customary international law, and that this tape with Sean's comments and image were solicited without my consent, and could not be used without my permission. CBS's counsel immediately understood. Although CBS didn't air the full video during the interview segment with Silvana, Tostes, and Lins e Silva, they ran a teaser the night before. In it, a woman was asking Sean where he wanted to live. I was appalled and angry. I called Tricia, and she reminded CBS that Sean had been abducted and the use of such a video would support these abductors and encourage such abusive behavior by the abducting parents. Stating that it was an executive decision, CBS pulled the videos.