In too many courtrooms across the country, advocates complain, children do not get the legal representation they should. Crystal's case highlights many of those inadequacies, they say. Literally, Thursday morning, as I was driving to work, I wept. It claims that Wake County Human Services failed to thoroughly investigate the parents before the custody hearing. Pitts' intervention halted the change in custody until a hearing May 7.
Crystal remains in foster care until then.
The stay came a day after a hearing in which the woman originally accused of abducting Crystal was instead charged with felonious restraint. Gaytan was arrested on April 18 under the name Katherine Romero. Her attorney said Romero was her name at the time the abduction warrant was issued seven years ago, but she has since married. Urick said in court that she asked Gaytan's brother to care for Crystal temporarily while she was homeless. She said she did not know that the brother, Chris Ryan, would give the girl to Gaytan.