Bedford court orders daughter's return in lesbian custody case

A court order filed Monday in Bedford County requires that a 7-year-old girl at the center of a custody battle involving a Forest woman be surrendered to the woman’s former lesbian partner in Vermont.

Rebecca Glenburg, the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union attorney for Janet Jenkins, confirmed that the Bedford Juvenile and Domestic Relations court filed the order. She said it ensures that the Vermont court order requiring Lisa Miller to surrender the couple’s daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, is enforceable in Virginia.

“We expect Virginia law enforcement to take whatever actions they can to locate the child and make sure the custody order is complied with,” Glenberg said Wednesday.

Miller’s whereabouts are unknown and her lawyer, Mathew Staver, of Lynchburg-based Liberty Counsel, has been unavailable for comment on the case.

Liberty Counsel has appealed the Vermont order, arguing that Virginia is not required to enforce it. That appeal is pending.

The Bedford County Sheriff’s Office has declined to comment except to say, “We have been and are, as I write this, working with the Fairfax Co. Police Department and officials in Vermont on this matter,” Maj. Ricky Gardner said in an e-mail Wednesday afternoon. “That’s all we have at this time.”

Miller was ordered to turn over her daughter last Friday at the home of Jenkins’ parents in Falls Church, Va., but she did not.

Jenkins’ lawyer filed an emergency motion for contempt Friday against Miller, seeking court sanctions and the assistance of law enforcement in locating her. Miller’s last known address is in Forest.

Miller and Jenkins were granted a civil union in Vermont in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian.

The Vermont Family Court judge presiding over the case first awarded child custody to Miller but granted liberal visitation rights to Jenkins.

He later awarded custody to Jenkins on Nov. 20 after finding Miller in contempt of court for denying Jenkins access to Isabella. He said in December that it appeared Miller had stopped speaking to her attorneys and “disappeared” with the child.

The supreme courts of Virginia and Vermont ruled in favor of Jenkins, saying the case is no different than a custody dispute between a heterosexual couples. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it.

Miller and her daughter attend Thomas Road Baptist Church, which has held prayer meetings in support of her case.

A Facebook group called “Only One Mommy: The Story of Lisa and Isabella Miller” has attracted more than 3,000 members. The page has many posts from people offering prayers for Miller and Isabella.

The group’s description reads, “Activist judges in Vermont have declared that a legal stranger is a mommy to another woman’s biological child. Now, a judge has decided this 7-year-old little girl should be stripped from the loving arms of the only mommy she has ever known — her biological mother, Lisa Miller — and be given to Lisa’s former partner, Janet Jenkins.”

Staff reporter Liz Barry and the Associated Press contributed to this report.