Hi everyone,
I'm a relatively new member of NJSWF, and a newbie to striper fishing (BTW so far Fish-7 Jeff-0 ), and I appreciated the welcome and advice I've experienced here! On my fishing forum up here in Long Island, I found out about the situation described below. Could you take the time to read this(kind of long-with links), and take any action you are up for as soon as possible? If possible, please spread this message/info as much as you can. Time is of the essence. The following is written by the administrator of a forum from Montauk, LI and reprinted and distributed with permission.
Thanks!
Jeff
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Last week the international child abduction case of Sean Goldman, the son of David Goldman of Shore Catch Guide Service here in NJ was made public on WABC TV New York (video). On Wednesday the 24th, the story is going national on NBC's Today Show.
While I do not know all the details of this case, I do know David, he is a good friend who has spent every cent he has earned over the last four years paying lawyers here in the US and in Brazil to get his son home. Off the record, I was told by a mutual friend that the situation had become so bad that on a trip to Brazil he was told that it would not be good for his health if he ever returned! In spite of that blatant threat he has never given up.
The case took a sudden and tragic turn recently when his ex-wife died during child birth in Brazil. Now her new husband is demanding custody of David's son.
On Sunday night a small group of David's friends decided that the best and most proactive way we could help David was to put up a web site to coincide with the Today Show feature. Everyone started working on that immediately, I am the "webmaster/editor" and the site is being hosted on my server.
The URL is
http://www.bringseanhome.org. Due to some configuration issues with my provider, WestHost, Inc. I am late in getting the URL spread across the internet. You should be able to connect to the URL this afternoon but if not try
http://208.131.156.143 - that works!
As you will see it's work in progress but the site along with a Wordpress blog will be finished tonight so we'll be ready on Wednesday when the story goes national on the Today Show.
Right now if you view the video of the WABC TV's report last week it will help answer most of your questions.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=6393806A PDF file of the official 2004 NJ Superior Court order directing that Sean be returned home is on the server already.
http://www.bringseanhome.org/USOrder.pdfBetween us we have tens of thousands of clients, most of which are working when the Today Show airs or are online debating which rod and reel to buy or where the bass may be today. If each of you would post a message about the case and a link to
www.bringseanhome.com on your message bards we have the potential to raise a substantial amount of money to help David gets his son back. Just as important, one of our clients might have the right "connections" to personally address one of the people listed on the How To Help page. At the very least we can flood Washington and Brazil with emails and faxes.
If you visit the URL you will note an explanation about the PayPal donation process. For the time being these monies will be routed through Shore Catch Guide Service's PayPal account. That is the only and fastest way at this time. If you know Shore Catch's Jim Freda, Gene Quigley or Shell E. Caris you know they are men of unimpeachable trust and honesty. If any of your readers question the process please assure them that this is not a scam.
If you or any of readers have questions please feel free to call me at: 732-297-5656 or
Mark DeAngelis: marktdus@yahoo.com or bringseanhome@yahoo.com
Jim Freda: 732-528-9307 jimfreda@optonline.net
Gene Quigley: Flyfishcharters@aol.com
Anthony Rizzuto, AVR Consulting: 732-450-8630 arizzuto@avrconsulting.com
Tim White: Timothy.White@gsocap.com
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A MESSAGE FROM DAVID GOLDMAN (THE FATHER IN HIS OWN WORDS)
I, David Goldman, married Bruna Bianchi Caneiro Ribeiro in Eatontown, New Jersey, USA, on
December 17, 1999. We had a son, Sean Goldman, born in Red Bank, NJ on May 25, 2000. On
June 16, 2004, I drove Bruna, Sean and Bruna’s parents to Newark Airport for a planned 2-week
vacation to her parent’s home in Brazil. Bruna arrived in Brazil and called me that day to tell me
our marriage was over, she and Sean were not returning to the US, and if I ever wanted contact
with my son again, I would have to sign custody over to her. I have never signed any papers
granting Bruna custody of our son, Sean.
Prior to Bruna’s (with the aid of her parents) decision to permanently remove Sean from our home
and my life, without my consent, the three of us were living as a family in Tinton Falls, NJ USA.
Prior to Sean’s “abduction”, I was under the impression that our home-life was happy and typical
of any American family’s. Even since the date of Sean’s abduction, Bruna made no allegations to
the contrary, and this is documented in the court records in Brazil and the United States.
I have been fighting in the Brazilian courts under The Hague Treaty for 4+ years. All counts of
the law under The Hague Treaty as well as Brazilian, US and international law are clear and
documented in court records in Brazil and the US that Sean was and still is being retained
illegally and should be returned to the US. The Brazilian courts have ignored these orders as well
as The Hague law and have continually ruled that Sean belonged with his mother and the mother
is the most important bond. They have ruled as if it were a simple custody case, where the
mother always gets the child. During the past 4+ years, I have made many trips to Brazil in the
hope of being reunited with my son. I have been present for all rulings rendered by Brazilian
courts, yet have never been permitted to see Sean. At the Superior Court level in Brazil, Bruna
was awarded custody by a panel of 5 judges. 3 judges ruled in favor of Bruna, while 2 voted in
favor of me.
Although Bruna and I are still legally married in the United States, Bruna obtained a divorce in the
eyes of Brazil (without my presence or knowledge). It is my understanding that Bruna became
pregnant and remarried in Brazil within the past year. Bruna married a Jaoa Paulo Lins e Silva,
an attorney in Brazil. He works for his father’s law firm, and they are a very prominent Brazilian
family from what we can tell from internet searches and other sources. The irony of it all is that
both Jaoa Paulo and his father concentrate on “Family Law”, particularly international Family
Law. His father, Paulo Lins e Silva, has even spoken at The Hague regarding child abduction.
On August 22, 2008, Bruna tragically passed away during childbirth. I was not informed of her
death by her parents, nor by her new Brazilian husband. I found out only through the research of
friends in the U.S. Since I am his biological father, and the only other person with a reasonable
claim to custody, I assumed that I would be reunited with Sean and return him to our home in the
U.S. I immediately contacted my Brazilian counsel Ricardo Zamariola Junior 011-55-
1182771001. I also contacted my lawyer in the States, Patricia Apy Esq. 732-219-9000 Red
Bank, Monmouth county NJ. Both attorneys advised me to travel to Brazil as soon as possible. I
traveled to Sao Paulo on Delta flight 121, which arrived in Sao Paulo at approximately 9:40 am 7
September 2008. I traveled to to Brazil with my mother Eleanor Goldman and our family friend,
Anthony Rizzuto. Since learning of Bruna's passing, all attempts to directly contact Sean or
Bruna's family in Brazil have failed. Through my attorney in Brazil, I attempted to set up visitation
with Sean. Via response by their Brazilian counsel, Bruna's Brazilian husband and parents have
denied any contact between Sean and myself or his paternal grandmother.
I have been told by both attorneys that I "should" be able to see and regain custody of Sean.
However, nothing in this case has ever gone as it "should" under Brazilian and/or international
law. Worse still, recent events in Brazil have given us greater cause for concern and have
reinforced our beliefs that the corruption / bias in Brazilian legal system could prevent justice from
ever being served. Soon after our arrival in Sao Paulo, we learned that Bruna's Brazilian
husband did not file for custody of Sean. Instead, he filed to replace me (his biological father) on
a birth certificate issued for Sean in Brazil. My lawyer has stated this is clearly an invalid
application of Brazilian law. However, the only assurance he could provide regarding the
potential outcome of this action was that it "should" not be successful.
I am engaged in a battle to regain custody of my son, who needs me more now than ever.
Unfortunately, I am fighting against people with substantial influence at high levels in the Brazilian
judiciary system, government and media. It is imperative for my success that I have high level
support within the government and media of my own country. I need this now more then ever. I
find it impossible to believe that the United States will passively allow the child of a U.S. citizen to
be abducted and naturalized to another country.
So now after four years of trying desperately to be with my son, I find myself sitting in a hotel
room in Sao Paulo since September 7, hoping and praying to reunited with my son, ready to bring
him home and resume our life as father and son. We have much healing to do. I have never lost
hope the day would come for us to be together again. I will never give up, but I need help.
David Goldman
gdgoldie@aol.com
Mobile: 732-489-1075
Sao Paulo Hotel: 011 5511 3146 5966, Room 1713
