Miller-Jenkins Custody Case Appealed to Vermont Supreme Court

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders

June 8, 2005

Miller-Jenkins Custody Case Appealed to Vermont Supreme Court

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) has filed a brief in the Vermont Supreme Court today in the ongoing dispute between Janet Miller-Jenkins (of Vermont) and Lisa Miller-Jenkins (now of Virginia) over custody and visitation regarding their daughter. GLAD, with local counsel Theodore A. Parisi, Jr., represents Janet in her effort to maintain a relationship with her child.

While the litigation continues in both Vermont and Virginia, Janet has not seen her daughter, now three years old, since June 2004.

In the current appeal, Lisa has asked the Vermont Supreme Court to reverse three Vermont Family Court rulings:

A September 2004 contempt ruling, issued because Lisa failed to comply with the court's order that Janet be allowed to have visitation and telephone calls with her child.
The court's November 2004 declaration recognizing Janet to be the child's legal parent, as the child was born while Janet and Lisa were legally joined in a Vermont civil union
The court's December 2004 refusal to enforce a Virginia court judgment declaring Lisa to be the sole legal parent and excluding any continued relationship between Janet and her child. In an effort to avoid the Vermont court's June 2004 visitation order, Lisa started a new legal action in Virginia in July 2004 seeking to take advantage of Virginia's so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which excludes any recognition of the civil union Lisa and Janet had together entered into.

"The Vermont Family Court properly heard this case as filed by Lisa and determined that Janet is a parent of this child and entitled to ongoing, regular contact with her daughter", said Gary Buseck, GLAD’s legal director. "Lisa has chosen to intentionally disobey the orders of the Vermont court, hiding behind a contrary order from a Virginia court that was barred under federal, Vermont, and even Virginia law from involving itself in this matter."

While still living in Virginia, Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins entered into a civil union in Vermont in December 2000. Concerned about Virginia's lack of respect for their family, they began planning to move to Vermont, a state they saw as more hospitable to their relationship and the child they intended to have. After their child was born in April 2002, Lisa and Janet moved to Vermont in early August. Lisa is the child's biological mother, but both women shared all parenting duties.

After the couple separated in September 2003, Lisa filed for dissolution of their civil union in Vermont Family Court two months later. In June 2004, the Family Court issued temporary orders awarding Lisa physical custody and granting Janet visitation.

Unhappy with this ruling, Lisa, living in Virginia, filed a competing action in that state on July 1, 2004, seeking to declare herself the child's sole legal parent and to have any visitation by Janet revoked. The Virginia court complied (a ruling now on appeal in Virginia); the Vermont Family Court held Lisa in contempt, and rejected the Virginia court's assertion of jurisdiction.

Lambda Legal, Equality Virginia and the ACLU of Virginia represent Janet in the Virginia action; she is represented in the Vermont appeal by GLAD.

Miller-Jenkins Custody Case Appealed to Vermont Supreme Court

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