Adoptive Mo. Dad's Obesity Tale Trashed

[December 19, 2007]  KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A man who gained national media attention by claiming he was not allowed to adopt a baby because of his weight was awarded temporary custody of the child, but the judge chided him and his wife, saying they knew the primary reason the boy had been removed from their home had nothing to do with obesity.

Gary and Cindy Stocklaufer had violated adoption law when they failed to obtain some required paperwork when the baby was moved into Missouri from another state, Jackson County Circuit Judge John R. O'Malley said in his order, which he made public Tuesday.

After their petition to adopt the baby, Max, was denied in July by another judge, the couple publicly said it had been because Gary Stocklaufer weighed 550 pounds at the time. The 35-year-old underwent gastric bypass surgery for free from a Dallas clinic in August after the publicity and has lost about 200 pounds.

"He seeks to extort a favorable result by his accusations," O'Malley said. "Fortunately, Missouri courts base decisions on the weight of the evidence, not the weight of the litigants."

The judge said he took the unusual step of making his order public because of the publicity surrounding the case. He likened the attention to a "parade that would embarrass P.T. Barnum."

O'Malley said the Stocklaufers took advantage of the confidentiality of court proceedings in adoption cases. "Knowing the other parties could not respond, Mr. Stocklaufer made his physical condition an ersatz issue," he said.

Under Missouri law, it is a felony to bring a child into the state for adoption without getting a court order first. The Stocklaufers failed to do that, O'Malley said, but the judge still agreed to award them temporary custody.

"In spite of their unlawful actions at the start of this process, they did care enough to step forward and are responsible for bringing (the baby) into the state and their home," O'Malley said. He added that the Stocklaufer home has a "loving, close environment."

Max, who has been cared for by a family in Missouri, is to be transferred to the Stocklaufers by Dec. 31.

Cindy Stocklaufer, 34, would not comment on the judge's remarks.

"I'm very excited," Stocklaufer said by phone from her home in Independence. "We're very excited. We're just waiting for him to come home. That's all that matters."

She referred all other questions about the case to the couple's attorney, Gerald McGonagle.

McGonagle, who was not the Stocklaufers' attorney during the first hearing, agreed that the earlier ruling denying custody was "not totally" based on Gary Stocklaufer's weight. He added that the couple never intended to break the law.

McGonagle said Gary Stocklaufer had gone to the media "to bring attention to what he thought was an injustice."

"What I'm concerned about is that the court made what I think is the appropriate decision in the case," the lawyer said.

O'Malley's order is for statutory adoptive custody with a new hearing in six months to finalize the adoption, McGonagle said.

Angie Flores, director of patient relations for the Renaissance Hospital in Dallas, which performed Stocklaufer's surgery, said she is "ecstatic" for the Stocklaufers.

"Everything I saw had to do with his weight," Flores said. "I actually got to see the documents and how they talked about his weight." The documents she was referring to were from the guardian ad ltem in the case, not the court.

The Stocklaufers have been married 15 years and have an 8-year-old son they also adopted.

[Associated Press; By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER]

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