Want access to unlimited case records and advanced research tools? Create your free CasePortal account now. No credit card required to register.
Try CasePortal for FreeJ. Murphy finds the circuit court properly denied the stepfather's petition to adopt his 13-year-old stepdaughter. The stepfather sought adoption after the child's biological father petitioned to establish paternity and visitation. Though the healthy, academically achieving daughter considers her stepfather her father, having no interest in visitations with her biological father, the record demonstrates the mother hindered the biological father/daughter relationship by not telling him about her for the first two years of her life. The mother also told the daughter she was conceived by rape. The biological father has regularly paid child support, also carrying insurance on the daughter. Adoption is in derogation of the natural parent's rights and the biological father has contested the adoption. Affirmed.