Lops stay upheld

Web posted January 1, 1998

 Fund started

By Alisa DeMao
Staff Writer

Two little girls at the center of an international custody battle must stay in the United States while their case drags on into February, and their mother says she won't return to Germany without them.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld its demand that Carmen and Claire Lops, aged 6 and 7, remain in Georgia or South Carolina until the court can hear an appeal of a decision that would have sent them back to Europe with their mother.

``I could leave, but I can't go and leave them here,'' Christine Lops said on Wednesday afternoon. ``I don't want them put back into a shelter or anywhere like that.''

The girls had been living in a Department of Family and Children's Services shelter for almost two months when U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. ruled last week that they were abducted from Germany by their father and grandmother 21/2 years ago, when they were brought to the Augusta area to live.

Under the Hague Convention, a international treaty signed by the United States, the girls should be returned to Germany, where German courts would rule on custody, Judge Bowen decided.

Even before he made the decision, the judge had said he wanted the two girls settled with one of their parents by Christmas.

Attorneys for Michael Lops of North Augusta, the girls' father, and Anne Harrington of Martinez, their grandmother, asked the appeals court for an emergency stay of Judge Bowen's decision, to keep the girls in the United States until an appeal is heard. Ms. Lops' attorneys had been fighting the stay, asking the court to allow the girls to go back to Germany until the hearing.

Wednesday's decision will keep them here until the hearing, scheduled for the week of Feb. 23.

``We're really happy about it,'' said Sherry Barnes, Mrs. Harrington's attorney. ``Our position all along has been that we did not want them to leave the country, because once they leave the United States, we don't know if we'll be able to get them back.''

Mr. Lops contends that Ms. Lops abandoned him and the children before the girls were brought to the United States. The girls were found at Mrs. Harrington's house Nov. 4 after police tapped her telephone.

Mr. Lops said he never concealed the girls, and his attorneys pointed out in court that they participated in extracurricular activities and appeared in local newspapers in stories about their academic achievements.

Judge Bowen ruled the girls had been concealed because Mr. Lops didn't have a driver's license, bank accounts or credit cards, didn't hold a regular job and had an automobile and house purchased in his mother's name, all of which kept him out of government and commercial databases authorities used to search for the girls.

Ms. Lops, who has already been in the United States for two months while the case wound through the court system, said she wouldn't leave the girls, even though the stay doesn't prevent her from returning to Germany without them. She retains custody while they wait for the appeal, and she and the girls are staying in Georgia, in a location that is being kept secret.

``I think this is a very difficult situation for the mother and the children,'' said Ms. Lops' attorney, Linda Shay Gardner. ``This is denying them the ability to go back to Germany and re-establish their lives there.''

Fund started

A missing-children's advocacy group in the Atlanta area has set up a fund to provide financial support for Ms. Lops, who has no source of income while she is in the United States, said David Thelen, executive director of the Committee for Missing Children. Donations can be made to the Committee for Missing Children Assistance Fund, c/o First Union National Bank, 870 Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, Lawrenceville, Ga., 30043.

The fund will be used solely for Ms. Lops, Mr. Thelen said.