Falls v. Downie

MEMORANDUM REGARDING PETITION FOR RETURN OF THE CHILD

PONSOR, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

The petitioner Veronika Elisabeth Falls seeks an order from this court pursuant to the Hague Convention and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 11601-11610, requiring the respondent Richard Thomas Downie to return their two-year-old child Patrick Falls to her. These cases are always difficult but this one, arriving as it did two days before Christmas, was especially painful.

The court heard testimony from both the mother and father on December 23,1994 and rendered its…