You might be interested in reading this
article I originally posted in another
thread:
http://news.Enqui
rer.Com/apps/pbcs.Dll/article?Aid=/2007012
8/news01/701280321/1056/col02
the case generated headlines - big, bold,
front-page headlines: young father fights
to save his son from being given up for
adoption by heartless mother.
The spotlight shone on glenn spraggs in
january 2006 when he held himself up as a
model father and stopped his girlfriend,
sharicka watson, from putting their son up
for adoption.
Spraggs said then that if watson didn't
want thomas, he'd fight for the boy. He'd
take the baby himself.
That never happened.
Spraggs blocked the adoption, but he never
followed through on his promises.
Instead, thomas was taken away from the
adoptive family that wanted him and
spraggs dropped his custody bid. That
forced thomas back into watson's care.
Twelve months after the headlines, spraggs
provides no child support for 13-month-old
thomas or his 2-year-old daughter, taylor,
watson said.
His only contact comes when spraggs
baby-sits the children four hours a
week.
Alone, watson struggles to raise two
children, work and get an education.
The 23-year-old winton terrace woman says
she loves her children, but when she looks
at them she can't help but think, "what
if?"
"what if" the adoption had gone through?"
"what if" thomas lived with two parents
instead of a poor single mother?
"what if" she had only a daughter to
support, a prospect that to her seems much
easier than caring for two toddlers.
"if thomas had stayed with his adoptive
family, he would have benefited a lot
more, as well as my daughter," watson
said. "we would be able to do the same
things he would be doing with his new
parents."
spraggs, 25, could not be reached for
comment. Watson doesn't have his current
telephone number. A message left at his
job was not returned.
His lawyer, ken lawson, said spraggs
dropped the matter, thinking he would get
back together with watson.
"glenn did not want to pursue the case,"
lawson said. "he didn't want to maintain
the adversarial relationship, and that's
obviously his choice."
lawson said he has had no contact with
spraggs since last spring.
Watson worried that she couldn't support
two children when she got pregnant with
thomas in march 2005.
As things stood then, spraggs wasn't
always around for her or taylor, but he
resisted talk of adoption, she said.
"i gave him a time limit, a month to show
that he was going to be responsible and
show that he was going to come and help me
with taylor so I would know he would be
there when I delivered," watson said.
Watson said she gave spraggs repeated
chances, something he never admitted when
trying to get custody of his son last
year.
Thomas was born dec. 2, 2005. The days
ticked by with no help from spraggs,
watson said.
Watson dialed adoption link and arranged
for a dayton couple to adopt thomas.
"since he acted like he didn't care and he
wasn't going to be there, I had to do what
was best for taylor and thomas," watson
said.
Watson knew she made the right decision
when she handed thomas to the couple less
than two weeks after his birth, but that
didn't make it any easier. "i cried like
I never cried before," she said.
Spraggs was angry when he stopped over and
found thomas gone, she said.
He was so upset he hired lawson. In
january 2006, he sought custody of the boy
in hamilton county juvenile court.
Agency takes back boy
with the case winding through the court
system, adoption link took thomas away
from his new parents and dropped him off
at watson's place of employment.
Hamilton county common pleas judge thomas
lipps named watson the baby's legal
parent. He said spraggs had no legal
claim to thomas because he didn't sign the
birth certificate and never married
watson.
Spraggs could take a dna test and prove
paternity if he wanted custody.
Lipps temporarily placed thomas with
watson's father, aaron rosemond.
Rosemond took spraggs' side, saying
spraggs had the right to care for his
grandson, and supported his custody bid.
A dna test proved spraggs was thomas'
father, but lawson didn't show up for an
april 4 hearing on the matter.
Then, when lawson and spraggs failed to
show up for the next hearing in may, the
case was dismissed. Custody reverted to
watson.
"i don't think it was anything about him
actually wanting custody; it was him not
wanting me to place thomas," watson
said.
At first, watson said, she cried a lot.
"now, it's like I can't even cry anymore,"
she said. "it's pretty much a done deal,
it is what it is.
"crying over it is just a waste of time,"
she said. "all I can do is better myself
and try to help my kids."
no money from dad
spraggs pays no child support.
Watson called the hamilton county
department of job and family services,
which handles child-support cases. The
agency, she said, was slow and
unhelpful.
Jeff startzman, the agency's assistant
director over child support, said a
hearing was set for last may 31.
Watson's child-support request was
dismissed when watson and spraggs didn't
show up.
Watson had to re-file the request,
starting the process from the beginning,
startzman said.
Child support for both children will be
considered during a hearing scheduled for
march 27.
Watson is frustrated. Court dates were
set within days when it came to thomas'
adoption. Now that it comes to supporting
him, the process takes months.
"i went through all of this over somebody
supposedly wanting custody, and then when
he doesn't help and I need some help with
the financial stuff, I can't get that,"
she said.
Watson said she earns less than $300 a
week in her part-time job at a discount
store.
Job options are limited, she said. She
dropped out of high school, but got her
ged in july.
In september, watson started at national
college in bond hill, where she goes three
nights a week and is working toward an
associate's degree.
She gets good grades, but until she has a
degree, good grades don't translate into a
paycheck.
Watson relies on her mother and sister to
baby-sit.
Just recently, watson said, spraggs
started baby-sitting on thursday nights, a
four-hour responsibility.
At night before she falls asleep, watson
said, she thinks about why she tried so
hard to make a relationship work with
somebody who wasn't willing to make a
commitment.
"i tried so hard to make a relationship
with somebody who wasn't willing to do it,
who is not willing to be there and be
responsible and held accountable," she
said.
She knows her choices affect her
children.
"now, i'm raising them without a good role
model," she said.
"(they have) somebody who isn't doing what
he needs to do and people who think that
that's ok," watson said. "glenn is living
around a lot of people who think that what
he does - the little that he does - is
good enough.
"they think I should be jumping up and
down, clicking my heels together, saying
'thank god I have a baby's daddy as good
as he is'," watson said.
"because some of them don't do as much for
their kids as he does, and that's sad,
because he doesn't do much."
looking back, watson said, things would be
very different if thomas had been
adopted.
"thomas would be doing better, my daughter
would be doing a lot better," she said.
"i would be in a different place
financially and emotionally. We'd all be
in different places instead of going
though all of that."
thomas turned 1 year old last month. He
had no gifts, no party, not even a cake.
"i didn't have any money," watson said.
"i try not to think about that."
