US Man's Son Wants to Stay in Brazil
As Custody Fight Continues, Interview
with Psychologist Released
BRASILIA, Brazil (June 18) - A 9-yearold
boy at the center of an international
custody battle told a psychologist he
wants to stay with his stepfamily in Brazil
rather than return to the U.S. with his
biological father, according to a transcript
of the interview.
In the transcript, released by the Brazilian
family's lawyers on Wednesday, Sean
Goldman tells the psychologist that if he
is sent back to New Jersey to be with
David Goldman he will "break down
totally."
"I want to stay here in Brazil," the 9-yearold
repeats in the interview.
The interview with Sean Goldman was
conducted Monday by psychologist
Terezinha Feres-Carneiro in a Rio de
Janeiro hospital. It wasn't immediately
clear who paid for the psychologist's
services.
When asked to draw a picture of his
family, the boy drew only his stepfather,
sister and Brazilian grandparents.
The transcript's release follows comments
last week by David Goldman that a
hearing in Brazil had made public an
issue that he said he had been legally
barred from discussion previously: "The
psychological damage that has been
inflicted on my son is finally out in the
open."
"There's no words to describe the anxiety
and the pain that I feel from that," he said.
Goldman's lawyer told the judges about
reports by three court-appointed
psychologists who found Sean was
suffering.
Calls to David Goldman and his lawyer
late Wednesday were not immediately
returned.
In 2004, Sean's mother, Bruna Bianchi,
took him for a two-week vacation to her
native Brazil and never returned. She
divorced David Goldman in Brazil and
married Rio de Janeiro lawyer Joao Paulo
Lins e Silva.
She died last year, and a Rio state court
granted Lins e Silva temporary custody of
Sean.
A lower court in Brazil later ruled that
Sean Goldman be returned to the U.S.,
but that decision was suspended after a
petition was filed arguing that removing
Sean from his current family environment
would hurt the boy.
Last week, Brazil's Supreme Court
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rebuffed the petition, instead ruling the
decision on the boy's fate must be made
by a federal court.
