Where is my daughter?

WESTERN BUREAU:

Javaughn Reid’s attempt to end a troubled marriage has spiralled into emotional turmoil after his estranged wife unexpectedly left Jamaica for the United States in March 2023 with their toddler daughter. Since then, the father, who describes himself as a “girl dad”, has been desperately searching for his only child as her mother has not made contact since.

“It has been an emotional roller coaster. That is the only way I can accurately describe it. It’s the same feeling as finding out a close family member died, but it’s worse because if someone close to you dies, you get to go to a funeral and process stuff. This is just a continuous state of trauma and I don’t know how to move on because my only child is out there,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

According to Reid, he and Dionne Legge-Reid got married in 2016 and welcomed baby Jada Alexisse Reid on New Year’s Day in 2021. The couple’s relationship later went sour, causing him to move out of their Montego West Village home in St James in January 2023, when Jada was only two years old.

“We were not getting along. A lot of the issues stemmed from her mother moving in to take care of the baby whenever we went to work. We had our own issues, which got worse as time went on. At some point, I decided that I wasn’t going to stay in the house with her and her mom, so, just for peace, I left in January. I continued to pay the bills [and] visited a couple of times a week to see the baby. I still had most of my stuff here anyway,” Reid shared.

However, within two months, his estranged wife and daughter disappeared.

Reid soon learned through the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) that they departed the island via the Sangster International Airport on March 30, 2023, for Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

The distraught dad said he was unaware that his two-year-old daughter had a Jamaican passport or a US visa. PICA records show that the passport was issued in November 2022.

“I was filing for divorce at the time. I told her weeks before that. I got a lawyer and I was going through the process of filing, so at some time in the near future, she would have been served. I told her in good faith to keep everything civil since we had a daughter, but one day, I realised that they had left,” stated Reid.

“I didn’t even know that my child had a passport, much less a visa. I certainly wasn’t aware that she had plans to leave with the child,” he added.

Reid said that efforts to obtain information from his mother-in-law have yielded no success, despite taking her before the Family Court.

“We both went to court, but she refused to give up information that would help locate my child. The judge asked her if she was okay with a granddaughter growing up without a father, but she didn’t budge,” he claimed.

INTERNATIONAL PACT

The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction establishes a framework through which a child who usually resides in one country is wrongfully removed or taken to another state may be promptly returned to the origin country so that the court can resolve any custody or access matter.

The convention was entered into force between Jamaica and the United States on April 1, 2019.

Under the convention, the central authorities in each state are required to liaise to “take or cause to be taken all appropriate measures in order to obtain the voluntary return of the child”.

Reid sought to have Jada returned to Jamaica under the Hague Convention, but that route has also not yielded any success.

He showed The Sunday Gleaner a letter which the Office of Children’s Issues in the US Department of State – the central authority in the US – had written to Legge-Reid, informing her that the Government of Jamaica had notified the US of Reid’s application under the convention to have Jada returned to the island.

The June 14, 2023 letter was sent to Legge-Reid via her known email address.

“We write today to ask whether you are interested in working with Mr Javaughn ... Reid and/or any professionals which you may find helpful such as an attorney, mediator, and/or social worker to facilitate a resolution without litigation,” the office wrote.

It noted its authority in the matter and stressed that the Hague Convention does not determine who should have custody, but rather where custody should be decided and to secure rights of access.

“If we have not received your response by June 28, 2023, or if you elect not to return the child to Jamaica and/or come to some resolution that is mutually agreeable to you and Mr ... Reid, then we ... will be obligated ... to continue processing the application and to facilitate the initiation of judicial proceedings by ... Reid to have a court in the United States determine Jada Alexisse Reid’s country of habitual residence and where custody should be decided,” the letter added.

Reid said it remains unclear whether Legge-Reid responded to the letter and what exactly transpired since he has been unable to get any concrete update.

When The Sunday Gleaner tried to get an update, a US State Department spokesperson shied away from addressing the specific case, citing privacy considerations.

“Preventing and resolving cases of international parental child abduction (IPCA) is one of our top priorities. The department engages actively with parents, stakeholders, and countries across the globe, to identify, resolve, and prevent IPCA cases,” the spokesperson said, however.

“When a child is abducted from or to the United States, the Department of State works with our US embassies and consulates abroad, state and federal agencies, foreign authorities, and the left-behind parent or legal guardian, as appropriate,” the spokesperson added.

The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), which handles matters of international parental abduction through the Jamaica Central Authority, also said it would not discuss Reid’s case with The Sunday Gleaner.

provides legal representation

However, CEO Laurette Adams-Thomas noted that it “provides legal representation to parents/legal guardians who have had their child/children removed and taken to another jurisdiction/foreign country and where that jurisdiction/foreign country has accepted Jamaica, as a signatory to the Convention on Child Abduction”.

Last Friday, she disclosed that between 2019 and 2023, the CPFSA assisted with the return of 33 children to Jamaica under the Hague Convention. She said the number of active cases being processed was being tabulated. The Sunday Gleaner did not receive the figure before press time.

“Different countries have various forms of mechanism in place. In Jamaica, the Jamaica Central Authority provides legal representation,” Adams-Thomas said in response to a question of whether parents could obtain legal aid after Reid said he was told he needed an attorney.

Meanwhile, describing his psychological struggles since losing access to his only child, Reid said he has been left with sleepless nights and severe anxiety.

“It’s very hard to continue to live and you know that it’s not a case where you were abusive or threatening in any way. You know, if it was a case like that, then I would have known something was bound to happen. I think she didn’t want the shame of me filing for divorce,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

“This is also to highlight the systematic issue in Jamaica because fine, we’re married, but why was she able to get a passport [for the child] without at least my signature? She shouldn’t have been able to get a passport for the baby in the first place,” he said.

Girls should not be without their fathers

Furthermore, family psychologist Dr Beverly Scott underscored the importance of an active father in a young girl’s life.

“Girls should not be without their fathers and that is very important in the formative years. The child could also be suffering from separation anxiety at that age if she loses a significant other like her father,” Scott told The Sunday Gleaner.

She further stated that parental abduction may have severe psychological and mental implications on the parent whose child was taken without permission.

“This will have a deep-seated emotional effect on this man, like anybody else, because this is his offspring. He may not be able to sleep at night. He ought to be traumatised that this has happened to his one child.

“He is wondering ‘What is happening with the child?’ ‘Whose presence is the child in?’ ‘Is there another man in the woman’s life and will that man negatively affect the child’s life?’ Everything may be passing through his mind as to what is happening to his little girl,” she said.

Reid remains hopeful that his estranged wife will allow him to play an active role in the life of their now three-year-old daughter.

“At this point, all I want is really simple, and it’s for the benefit of everybody. It’s just for her to do the right thing – allow her daughter to have a relationship with a father who is willing and able to be in that daughter’s life. She would have been the first one in three generations to get married, so I do think that one of the reasons why it was so easy for her to do this because she didn’t have a male figure growing up. I want to forcefully and honestly say that at no point in the past, leading up to when she left, was there any form of abuse, whether physical or psychological,” said Reid.

rochelle.clayton@gleanerjm.com