State legislators yesterday rallied in support of Tinton Falls resident David Goldman‘s efforts to repatriate his 8-year-old son, Sean, from Brazil.
And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was reported to have phoned Goldman over the weekend in Brazil, where he had gone to voluntarily submit to a psychological examination.
The call followed a meeting between President Barack Obama and Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the White House on Saturday at which the topic of the Goldman case was reported to have come up in private discussion.
The Star-Ledger reports today that the state Senate yesterday passed a resolution calling on Brazil to turn Sean over to his father.
From the Sledger:
President who spoke to the Brazilian leader just this weekend … and
to our secretary of state and to all those in the State Department and
the diplomatic corps in this country and in Brazil that we want them to
do everything, everything humanly possible to correct this injustice,”
Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) said…
“Thank you for the support from my great state,” Goldman told the
Senate. “I need it more now than ever and I am grateful for you
standing behind me in this plight for my son.”
The upper house gave him a standing ovation after his address.
Goldman said he returned Sunday night from a three-day trip to
Brazil to submit to court-ordered psychological evaluation. During the
trip, he spent time with his son. Also during that trip, Goldman said
Clinton called him to renew her pledge to help him gain custody of his
son.
The boy was taken to his mother Bruna Bianchi’s native country when he was four years old, purportedly on vacation, according to his father. On arriving, though, Bianchi called Goldman in the U.S. to tell him that she was divorcing him. She later remarried and died last August.
In the intervening years, Goldman has waged a quixotic battle in U.S. and Brazilian courts trying to win back custody of his son, first from his ex-wife and, since her death, from her second husband, who is reported to be a member of a family prominent in Brazilian legal circles.
