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SALT LAKE CITY — An American Fork man fighting a complex legal battle with the state for the chance to raise his daughter is one step closer to seeing the girl again following a decision last week by the Utah Court of Appeals.
Jose Vargas, 24, has spent more than a year seeking custody of his 2-year-old daughter, Major, ever since the Department of Child and Family Services took the girl from her mother, who later surrendered her parental rights. Vargas hasn't seen the toddler in more than a year.
After three years together, Vargas and the girl's mother separated before Major was born. But Vargas was present and involved in caring for the girl as an infant, and in a situation similar to that of many divorced parents, he began taking her to stay with him on the weekends once she was old enough.
Vargas was in the process of establishing paternity of Major — there was little question he was the girl's biological father, but he had not been declared her parent under the law — when the mother relinquished her rights and DCFS took sole custody of the girl, denying Vargas visitation or any opportunity to seek guardianship.
The Deseret News profiled the case and Vargas' efforts to get his daughter back earlier this year.
Among the many legal threads surrounding Vargas' dispute is a question of whether the juvenile court judge originally overseeing the mother's custody case had authority to award Vargas legal paternity.
The Utah Attorney General's Office, which oversees DCFS, petitioned the appellate court to overturn the judge's decision granting Vargas' paternity. The court of appeals denied that request on March 30 and determined the judge could and did declare Vargas to be Major's father.
Vargas' attorney, Caleb Proulx, maintains that DCFS' decision is not based on whether Vargas is qualified to be a parent to Major, and that he has never truly been considered.
Proulx said Vargas feels vindicated by the court's decision, but the attorney lamented what he sees as an effort by the state to tie up the case in court while his client is robbed of a chance to develop a bond with Major, which puts him at a disadvantage as he seeks custody.
"It should shock every Utahn that the state can essentially destroy a parent-child relationship through legal maneuvering," Proulx said, calling the court's decision an important clarification of the law on behalf of unwed fathers.
"Before this decision, fathers in Mr. Vargas' situation were met with procedural roadblocks concocted by the state which have nothing to do with a father's fitness. This decision makes clear that juvenile courts who have taken jurisdiction of a child's welfare should decide the issue of paternity if a father files a petition in their court before the mother gives up her parental rights," Proulx said.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office declined to comment, saying the office is currently reviewing the case and deciding how to proceed.
