Parents Unlawfully Denied Visitation Rights

Swinton supporters believe that this punishment was excessive and that if it weren't for bias against anyone in the Black community leading an alternative lifestyle, the authorities would have simply taken the children away temporarily and given the couple counseling in proper nutrition. The Swintons were never charged with deliberately trying to harm their children, and Judge Richard Buchter himself said when sentencing them, "I believe they were not consciously malevolent. Oddly enough, they may have deluded themselves into believing that they were doing something positive."

Since their incarceration, the Swintons have been unlawfully deprived of their right to see their children. Joseph has never even laid eyes on his 1-year-old son, who was born since the father's imprisonment. Silva has not seen them since February.

On July 23^rd, the Swintons were brought before Judge Edwina Richardson-Thomas in the Queens County Family Court pertaining to their parental rights and custody of their children. The judge adjourned the case until October 29^th and 30^th in order to carry out further investigation before making her decision. She called for psychological evaluations of the Swintons, and thorough background checks on the three different parties filing for custody of the children.

When Judge Richardson-Thomas learned that the Swintons had been denied visits with their children since their incarceration, she sternly reprimanded the children's law guardian, the Administration for Children's Services representative and ABC Variety House, the foster care agency that placed the children with a foster family. The judge said that they had deliberately broken the law, for they know that incarceration is not grounds for denial of parental rights. She ordered that provisions be made for the children to be taken to see their parents.

However, on July 24^th, the law guardian submitted a motion to the judge asking that the Swintons be denied parental visits. The judge granted the motion. The couple's spiritual advisor, Rev. Herbert Daughtry, and other Swinton supporters such as New York City Council Member Charles Barron and Queens Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubrey, Chairman of the Assembly Standing Committee on Correction, are attempting to find out what could have possibly been in the motion that caused the judge to change her mind and deprive the Swintons of visitations with their beautiful children.