Baby stays in state custody

An infant taken from a Salt Lake City couple recently arrested for alleged drug possession will stay in state custody for a few more days, but it's possible the little girl could be returned to her birth family in Chicago, where the girl's grandmother is waging a legal battle for custody of the child.

Third District Juvenile Judge Kimberly Hornak ruled Tuesday the Division of Child and Family will keep temporary custody of the infant, while the adoption agency, A Cherished Child, will retain legal guardianship.

Another hearing in 3rd District Juvenile Court is set for Friday. Meanwhile, all eyes are on a Chicago judge who is expected to issue a ruling today in a civil lawsuit brought by the child's maternal grandmother, Marie McDon- ald.

McDonald sued the adoption agency claiming it coerced her daughter, Carmen, into giving up the baby while Carmen was suffering from postpartum depression and bipolar disorder. The McDonald family had named the child Tamia.

Critics of the adoption say it also is symptomatic of a larger problem — that low-income, single black women are pressured into relinquishing their babies to white couples in Utah where adoption laws are more lenient than many other states.

Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Murphy recently ruled that A Cherished Child violated the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children with regard to this baby and will issue another ruling today. Hornak invited lawyers for all sides into her chambers Tuesday and placed a call to Murphy prior to the child's Utah hearing.

The prospective adoptive parents, Steven Kusaba, 50, and Lenna Habbeshaw, 45, were arrested March 17 on one count each of possession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, as well as one charge of child endangerment, according to Salt Lake police detective Dwayne Baird.

Baird said the cocaine and child endangerment charges likely will be enhanced to felonies because the allegedly illegal activities

occurred within 1,000 feet of a school.

Richard Van Wagoner, attorney for A Cherished Child, said the agency rescinded the adoption, which was not yet complete, once it got credible information about the couple's situation. Van Wagoner also said the agency relied on the state Department of Human Services to investigate the couple, including Kusaba's voluntary admission that he had a drug problem in 1990-91.