Baby Sam: how we got here

By Compiled by Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000

Here are critical dates so far in the saga of Baby Sam

1995

SUMMER: Christopher Vietri, then 26, and Natasha Gawronski, then 17, conceive a baby while living together in a Palm Harbor apartment.

AUGUST: Gawronski tells police that Vietri grabbed her throat and pushed her down. She has a split lip and separated shoulder. He says she tried to jump from a speeding truck, he grabbed her arm to save her. She injured her lip while biting his hand, he says. Assault charges against Vietri are dropped after Gawronski recants her story.

OCTOBER: During an argument, Vietri leaves the apartment, taking along furniture to "teach her a lesson." That same month, Gawronski contacts Gift of Life adoption agency in St. Petersburg, which starts paying her bills. The agency knows that Vietri won't consent to the adoption, but plans to terminate his rights under Florida's "pre-birth abandonment" law. Gawronski refuses most of his phone calls and writes him a letter saying he has no further say in her and their unborn child's life.

1996

JANUARY: Vietri starts to date his current wife, Erika.

MARCH: Gift of Life refuses to terminate Vietri's rights after discovering that Vietri had taken Gawronski to a Lamaze class in January, which she hid from the agency, and that she had retracted her abuse allegations to the police.

MARCH: Gawronski goes to Adoption By Choice agency in Tampa, which pays her support money. She tells them she doesn't know who the father is.

MARCH 19: Gawronski gives birth to a boy in Tarpon Springs' Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital.

MARCH 22: Mark and Tracy Johnson, having paid ABC $17,400, take Sam home to Tuscaloosa, Ala. They sign a contract acknowledging that the adoption is "at risk" because the biological father has not consented. They promise to return the baby if the father's rights can't be terminated.

LATE MARCH, EARLY APRIL: A tearful Gawronski tells Vietri the baby was stillborn. Suspicious, he checks hospitals, death certificates and crematoriums and finds no evidence.

APRIL 10: Vietri files a paternity suit against Gawronski in Pinellas County, asking for temporary custody if the baby exists.

MAY 15: Gawronski takes a copy of Vietri's lawsuit to ABC and asks for advice. She admits Vietri is the father but says he was abusive.

MAY 22: Without notifying Vietri, ABC attorney Gregory Boyer petitions a court in Hillsborough County to terminate the parental rights of an "unknown father." ABC's director Debra West swears under oath that the baby is not subject to other litigation. That kept the Hillsborough court from knowing about the Pinellas litigation and deferring to it.

JUNE 3: ABC tells the Johnsons that Vietri is fighting for his child. Sam is 11 weeks old and they feel bonded. They also worry about ABC's allegations that Vietri abused and abandoned Gawronski. They begin to consult lawyers.

JUNE 13: At a paternity hearing before Pinellas Circuit Judge Richard Luce, Gawronski admits she gave the boy to ABC, and they gave it to an Alabama couple. Because ABC's termination petition is pending in Hillsborough, Luce defers action.

AUGUST 26: The Johnsons file suit in Hillsborough seeking to have Vietri's rights terminated, citing "pre-birth abandonment," a theory that a father effectively abandons a child by failing to support the mother during pregnancy.

NOV. 15: A Hillsborough judge dismisses the Johnsons' suit, saying they have no standing because ABC is the legal guardian.

NOV. 27: Luce gives Vietri temporary custody and orders ABC to retrieve Sam from Alabama.

DEC. 2: A Hillsborough judge dismisses ABC's termination suit against Vietri. Vietri has won in Florida.

DEC. 16: ABC asks a Tuscaloosa judge to enforce Luce's order. The Johnsons fight it.

1997

JAN. 22: The Johnson file an adoption petition in Tuscaloosa. They argue "pre-birth abandonment" though Alabama law doesn't recognize it.

APRIL 15: Tuscaloosa Judge Philip Lisenby denies ABC's request for Sam and gives temporary custody to the Johnsons.

1998

APRIL 28: After hearing witnesses, Lisenby terminates Vietri's parental rights, citing evidence of prebirth abuse and abandonment, and approves the adoption.

1999

FEB. 13: The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals upholds Lisenby's order 4-1.

JUNE 11: A pre-birth abandonment law passed by the Alabama Legislature goes into effect. It's not retroactive.

2000

NOV. 17: The Alabama Supreme Court overturns the adoption, saying pre-birth abandonment was not Alabama law at the time. The court orders Lisenby to transfer Sam to Vietri's custody. An appeal could delay that transfer.

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