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The grandparents have not seen Adam Rotell since shortly after their daughter's arrest in the grim 1999 case.
By CHASE SQUIRES, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2002
TAMPA -- Kristina Gaime's parents have no right to visit her surviving son, now in his father's custody after Gaime was charged with trying to kill the boy, a judge ruled Wednesday.
It doesn't matter what tinkering the Legislature does to grandparent visitation laws on the books; the bottom line is grandparents have no legal right to visit their grandchildren if a parent objects, Circuit Judge Vivian Maye ruled.
Gaime, 37, has been in jail since authorities charged her with the April 1999 murder of son Mathew Rotell, 6, and the attempted murder of son Adam Rotell, then 8. Investigators say she drugged the boys and tried to gas them and herself with the exhaust of her minivan at their Land O'Lakes home.
Her parents, Gary and Kathleen McDuffie, have not been allowed to see their grandson since shortly after Gaime's arrest. The boy is in the custody of his father, Stephen Rotell.
Gaime was scheduled for trial March 18 in Dade City, but her attorneys are asking for a delay while she is checked for medical problems. Defense attorney Bob Nutter informed the criminal judge this week that Gaime has an ovarian tumor and might have a colon tumor requiring surgery.
Nutter, who contends that Gaime was insane at the time of the killing, also told the court Gaime has been scheduled for a brain scan after a defense expert reported she had suffered a blow to the head that left her impaired.
At Wednesday's custody hearing before Maye, attorney Larry Rardon argued for the McDuffies that a state law updated in 2000 allowed grandparents visitation rights.
Maye said versions of the law were found unconstitutional in 1996 and 1998 because they violated parents' privacy rights. No matter how many changes are made to the statute, it won't hold up, she said.
Rotell's attorney, James Kramer, argued, "The newly enacted statute does not change the Constitution."
"It's unconstitutional, impermissible interference," Maye said.
Another of Gaime's attorneys, Charles Scruggs, did not attend Wednesday's hearing but sent word that Gaime wanted her parents to visit Adam. The state Department of Children and Families notified Maye that the state opposed the visitation.
Attorney Tracy Ellis, representing the Hillsborough County guardian ad litem program, also objected and said contact with his grandparents could taint Adam's anticipated testimony at his mother's trial.
Neither Stephen Rotell and his attorney nor the McDuffies and their attorney commented after the hearing.
Also Wednesday, Maye recused herself from overseeing a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Stephen Rotell against Gaime, the boys' former psychiatrist and Gaime's former employer, a Hillsborough hospice care organization.
Maye said she is a hospice volunteer and stepped aside on that basis.