What: California woman who posted Craigslist ad to give away her 3-year-old daughter ends up in multiyear legal battle with social services.When: California state appeals court, first district, rules on October 17.
Outcome: Appeals court agrees that mother should not have custody of child, but sends back the case to the trial judge for additional proceedings.
What happened, according to court documents and other sources:
Sometime around the spring of 2005, a homeless single mother in Oakland, Calif., posted an advertisement on Craigslist trying to give away her 3-year-old daughter.
The mother, who was living at the time at Oakland's Elizabeth House, is referred to in court documents only as Esperanza F. Her daughter is referred to as A.J.
Esperanza seemed to be at her wits' end at the time. Elizabeth House staff recalled that she would yell and scream at the toddler, ignore A.J. for lengthy periods of time, and talk of getting rid of A.J. and heading to Italy. Esperanza's grandmother, Nona W., was worried enough to repeatedly call the Department of Children and Family Services in Alameda County (which includes Oakland), to no avail.
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