Judge orders Baby Sam parents back into talks

A rare post-trial mediation session is ordered before the long and bitter custody fight heads back to court for a new trial.

By ANITA KUMAR

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 3, 2001

An Alabama judge has ordered the two families vying for custody of 5-year-old Sam Johnson to undergo mediation, months after a similar process failed to bring the bitterly divided sides together.

Tuscaloosa Circuit Judge Philip Lisenby gave Sam's adoptive parents, Mark and Tracy Johnson, and his biological father, Christopher Vietri, 30 days to meet and try to come to an agreement. A mediator, a neutral third party, will try to broker the deal.

Anthony Marchese, the Johnsons' Florida attorney, confirmed mediation would take place, a common practice during the early stages of a civil case but rare after trials have been held and appellate courts have ruled. Vietri's attorney, Martha Jane Patton, could not be reached.

After years of unexpected legal twists and turns, the Alabama Supreme Court sent the case back to Lisenby this year after mediation failed when Vietri walked away at the last minute from a compromise that allowed the Johnsons to keep Sam, Vietri's wife said.

Erika Vietri also said Patton called recently to try to broker a deal outside the court in which the Johnsons would retain custody and Vietri would have visitation rights.

If mediation fails, Lisenby would preside over another trial before deciding who would have custody. It could take months before attorneys finish the fact-finding stage and are ready for trial.

Lisenby ruled for the Johnsons in 1998 after a trial that focused on the disputed adoption and whether Vietri abandoned his unborn son. This time, the trial will decide custody based on Sam's best interests -- allowing the Johnsons to delve into Mrs. Vietri's recent allegations of spouse abuse.

The five-year adoption snarl began in 1996 when Sam's biological mother, Natasha Gawronski, signed newborn Sam over to an adoption agency and said she didn't know the father's identity. Gawronski and Vietri broke up during her pregnancy, and she told Vietri the baby died at birth. Vietri suspected his child was alive and filed for custody.

Sam, who has started kindergarten, met Vietri in February and has visited with him twice since.

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