Author:
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Andy Netzel
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Source:
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Alabama Press-Register
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Date:
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12/17/2006
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Format:
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Serial
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(registration and/or payment may be required)
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This series follows one young man's struggle to hold onto joint custody of the little girl originally considered his biological daughter.
From the "modern family" story file: A young man's paternity is disproven after a year of joint custody; the mother wants him out of her daughter's life. He's determined to maintain partial custody.
The series focuses on Jeremy, the young man, in part because the young mother refused to speak with Netzel. We asked Netzel for some background on this challenge: "Throughout the six months we reported this story, photographer Bill Starling and I made many attempts to interview the child's mother, Angela Roberts. For a while, it seemed like we were going to get to talk to her. We spoke to Angela's mother and aunt while sitting on their front porch, though they would not speak on the record. I talked several times with her stepfather. He also declined to speak on the record. We even had an interview scheduled, but when we arrived we were told by a babysitter that Angela and her stepfather had gone to the hospital and would not be back. When I called the next day I was told they didn't want to speak any more.
"We dropped by her lawyer's office several times; I sent a 'MySpace' message to both her and her best friend in an effort to get in touch.
"Their decision not to speak, which they said was prompted by advice from their lawyer, made the story far more difficult to report. I relied on court records and any other documents I could come by. I scrutinized Jeremy Waldrop's comments about Angela. I verified everything that was verifiable. For those facts that couldn't be checked with a third-party or official document, I asked the source the same question months later to see if the responses matched. My editor read with a skeptical eye. He pressed me on every detail in the story.
"Ultimately, I wrote the story from Jeremy's point of view; but this perspective is tempered. Many details were left out because they could not be verified or because I felt it would be unfair to include them without a response from Angela. I tried to include as much perspective from her -- and others -- as I could.
"So the story is about Jeremy's determination to be a dad to this child who is not genetically his. That's what I'd found so interesting about this story in the first place. The custody battle is not the focus. By narrowing in on him, it makes everyone else secondary, though still important."
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