Carmen and Claire Lops shown with their mother.SPECIAL

Judge issues emergency stay

Web posted December 25, 1997

By Alisa DeMao
Staff Writer

In Germany, the week before Christmas would have meant shoes and boots left outside for Santa to fill with candy, decorating the tannenbaum and preparing a big family dinner on Christmas Eve.

Instead, Carmen and Claire Lops spent their week in a Georgia Department of Family and Children's Services shelter. They are the center of an international custody battle that now leaves them celebrating a makeshift Christmas in Atlanta following an appeals court's 11th-hour stay of a judge's decision that would have sent them back to Europe with their mother.

The two girls, ages 7 and 6, were at the airport Tuesday with their mother, on their way back to Germany, when the group learned of the emergency stay issued by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The court order keeps the girls in Georgia or South Carolina until an appeal is heard on a decision by U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. to return the children to their mother, Christine Lops.

Attorneys estimated that mid-January was the earliest such a hearing would be held.

Judge Bowen had said he wanted to have the girls settled with one of their parents for Christmas. Although the children will not have to return to the shelter for the holiday, they will remain in Atlanta with their mother. A missing-children's advocate in the area said his family will try to provide a Christmas celebration for them.

``I'm going to have Christmas with my girls here -- it's the best I can do,'' their mother said in a telephone interview on Christmas Eve. ``I didn't know how to explain to my parents. They were supposed to meet us in Frankfurt and it was hard for me to understand. So you can imagine what it was like to call them thousands of miles away and explain this to them.

``I mean, you call on Monday and say, `Everything's OK,' and they're waiting for you to come home. And then a day later, you call back and say you're not coming.''

Ms. Lops and David Thelen, chief executive officer of the Committee for Missing Children, planned to go out Christmas Eve to buy a tree and some gifts for the girls.

``They will have Christmas,'' Mr. Thelen said. ``We'll make sure of that. My mother and father-in-law plan to do something and we'll have to make the best of it. They'll be happy. Santa Claus is coming to town.''

The girls' father, Michael Lops of North Augusta, said he was saddened that the children would not spend Christmas with him and his parents, although the stay and subsequent appeal would give them time to gather evidence that he had done nothing wrong and deserved custody of the children.

He didn't expect to see the girls for Christmas, he said. The stay doesn't order any visitation for him and leaves custody of the girls with their mother.

``I feel sorry my girls will not be here with my family and myself for Christmas,'' Mr. Lops said. ``I know they will miss being in the surroundings they love and are used to for the holidays.

``I have received hundreds of supportive calls and letters from people who know Carmen and Clair and know the love, support and affection they receive from my parents and myself, and who all wish them home with me. I promised my daughters that I will never stop working for their well-being and I intend to keep that promise.''

The girls must remain in the area so they are in the jurisdiction of the appeals court when it rules on an appeal of Judge Bowen's decision, said Jamie Gore, one of Mr. Lops' attorneys.

Judge Bowen ruled earlier this week that Mr. Lops and his mother, Anne Harrington of Martinez, illegally abducted the children from Germany 21/2 years ago when they brought the girls to the United States. The judge also found Mr. Lops concealed his presence in the Augusta area.

Officials said Mr. Lops had no driver's license, credit cards or bank account, held no regular job, used a car and lived in a house in his mother's name and hadn't filed a tax return -- all of which kept him out of computer databases searched by authorities looking for the girls.

Mr. Lops contends Ms. Lops abandoned him and the children and said he never tried to conceal himself. His attorneys pointed out in court that the girls participated in extracurricular activities, were well-known in the community and seemed happy and well-adjusted.