Motherhood Outlawed

July 22, 2009 permalink

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that Allison Quets has no parental rights to her twins because of a document she signed in the post-partum period. Not only has she lost parental rights, she has also been stripped of her visitation provided for in the adoption agreement. Earlier stores are at: December 29, 2006, and in 2007, January 4, April 14, September 15 and December 18.

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Published: Jul 21, 2009 01:40 PM, Modified: Jul 21, 2009 02:58 PM

Quets can't seek custody or visitation

By Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- Allison Quets has no legal right to seek custody or visitation rights for the twins she gave up for adoption and later kidnapped to Canada, according to the N.C. Court of Appeals.

Quets appealed the earlier ruling of a Wake County judge that tossed out her lawsuit seeking parental rights over the children. The appeals court, which ruled unanimously, did grant Quets one measure of relief. The three-judge panel overturned the lower court’s sanction ordering Quets to pay the adoptive family's legal fees.

Quets, who lives in Florida, asked the court to uphold visitation rights she thought were guaranteed when she gave up Holly and Tyler, now 4, to an Apex couple. The appeals court ruled that agreement is not enforceable in North Carolina.

Allison Quets at the N.C. Appeals Court. - STAFF FILE PHOTO BY TAKAAKI IWABU

A former engineer with Lockheed Martin, Quets got pregnant through in-vitro fertilization and gave birth to the children in Florida in 2005.

She later said she was under duress when she allowed Kevin and Denise Needham to adopt them. In court earlier this year, she described her severe sleep deprivation after giving birth. Hours after signing papers giving custody to the Needhams, she wanted the children back.

Quets has cast herself as an advocate for the rights of birth mothers and has sought support for her cause via the Internet. The case attracted national attention in 2006, when, during a visitation, she fled with the children to Canada. She spent eight months in jail awaiting trial on kidnapping charges before she was freed on probation.

After the twins' birth in 2005, Quets filed suit in Florida asking for custody of the twins, and a judge granted her the right to visit on weekends while the case was being appealed. After she took the twins to Canada, the judge revoked those rights. Quets and the Needhams had originally settled on an open-adoption agreement allowing six visits a year and frequent updates, according to court documents.

michael.biesecker@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4698

Source: Raleigh News & Observer