Lethal Guardian

by M. William Phelps

  The Carpenters were thwarting Buzz’s efforts, however, at just about every opportunity. During the second week of October, Buzz and Kim went over to get Rebecca. When they came back, Dee recalled, they were “very upset” because the Carpenters had not allowed them to take her.

  On October 17, Kim got permission from her parents to take Rebecca to a school fair in Old Lyme that Dee, Suzanne and Billy had already made plans to attend.

  Buzz, who had given up dancing and decided to go into nursing, had just started applying for aid to go to school. He was towing cars and selling wood—anything he could do to earn a buck—but promised to turn his life around once he was finished with nursing school.

  After agreeing to let Rebecca go, the Carpenters made it clear she was to be back in Ledyard by 4:00 P.M. No excuses. Legally, the Carpenters didn’t have a leg to stand on. Nevertheless, Kim agreed so as not to cause any problems. After all, she desperately wanted to spend time with her own child. Buzz had promised Kim that she would soon have Rebecca back. If they needed to go along with the Carpenters’ rules for visitation for a few more months, so be it. It would all be settled soon.

  During the fair, one thing led to another; because they were having so much fun, Kim lost track of time. They didn’t return to Old Lyme until after five. As soon as they walked in, Buck Clinton informed Kim that the phone had started ringing at about four and never stopped.

  “Let me guess,” Kim said. “My mother?”

  “Actually, it’s your sister, Beth. She’s livid!” Buck said.

  So Kim called the Carpenter house.

  “I want to give Rebecca dinner over here,” she said. “Then we want to put leaves into Halloween bags…. I’ll have her home after that.”

  The Carpenters said it was okay.

  At around seven o’clock, Kim realized that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Rebecca to go back to Ledyard; the entire day and night had been a page out of The Waltons. Rebecca was having a ball with her new family. There had been lots of smiles, laughs and love. Why end it now?

  So Dee made a suggestion.

  “Look, it’s cold, it’s late. We’re all tired. Why don’t you call your mother and tell her that Rebecca is going to stay here? She can sleep with Billy or Suzanne. We have plenty of beds.”

  Kim agreed. So she called her mother and explained the idea.

  “Bring Rebecca home in forty-five minutes, or I’ll call the police!” Cynthia snapped.

  Kim began to shake. Her eyes welled up with tears. She turned white.

  Obviously, Cynthia was appalled that Kim would even bother to ask. What concerned Cynthia most, she later said, was that Suzanne had mentioned one day that Buzz and Kim were “living in a shed behind the house.” So Cynthia assumed the worst, as one might imagine any mother would. Allowing her daughter to live in a shed with a male dancer was one thing; Kim was an adult. She could make up her own mind. Allowing her grandchild to sleep in a “shed” wasn’t something Cynthia was interested in discussing. In addition, Rebecca had no clothes other than what she had been wearing, and Kim had only taken two diapers for the day. Rebecca could have stayed in the Clinton home, of course, but Cynthia speculated that the Clintons had no crib for her. Rebecca could get wild at night when she slept. An accident might occur.

  Isn’t anyone thinking of the child? she projected.

  But Cynthia never asked about “the shed,” or if the Clintons could accommodate Rebecca’s needs for the night. She just assumed the worst.

  When Kim hung up, she walked over to Dee, bowed her head and stood in front of her.

  “What happened?” Dee asked.

  “I have to bring Rebecca home.”

  “Who has legal custody of Rebecca?” Dee wanted to know. She was through with staying out of it. It was time to get to the bottom of things.

  “I do,” Kim said.

  Not to make any trouble, Kim gathered Rebecca’s things and brought her back to the Carpenters’.

  When Buzz returned home and heard what had happened, he phoned Cynthia. At his breaking point, Buzz had heard enough. It was time he spoke up to Cynthia and Dick. No more games. Kim had custody of Rebecca, not the Carpenters.

  “I’m not happy with the arrangements for Rebecca,” Buzz said to Cynthia. “Kim and I are planning on getting married in a couple of months, and I am planning on adopting Rebecca.”

  “I am going to get Rebecca one way or another,” Cynthia shouted back before she hung up.

  The battle had begun. Mentioning the word “adoption” was akin to the Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor. Buzz had just awoken a sleeping giant. The fallout, Kim warned, was going to be endless.

  Within days, the Carpenters had made it clear: Rebecca would not be allowed to go over to the Clintons’ home any longer.

  Kim had always had a tough time speaking up for herself. She later claimed her parents made her “nervous.” It was obvious to anyone involved in the custody dispute directly that Kim was being told what to do by her parents and was easily intimidated by them as well. But as Buzz began to step up his presence and rally behind her cause, Kim became more of her own person. Buzz was resolute, tenacious. If he wanted something, he didn’t wait for people to give it to him; he went out and took it. But at the same time, he was a fair man, willing to play by the rules. He had fallen “head over heels in love with Kim” by this time, Dee later said. He was attracted to her “gentleness, kindness.”

  “He got serious about getting a new job. He was talking about going to school to be a CNA. He began to become responsible and vowed to do anything he had to do to support a family.”

  A family that, indeed, included Rebecca.

  For the past few weeks, Buzz had been begging Dick Carpenter to sit down and talk to him “man to man.” But Dick had always refused, saying, “Speak with my wife.” This only heightened Kim’s anxiety. She was finding herself always stuck in the middle. Buzz had just wanted to express to the Carpenters in a calm manner that he and Kim were getting married and that they wanted to take Rebecca and give her a life she had never had. Regardless of what Kim and Buzz had done up until that point in their lives, things were different for them now. They both had made mistakes in the past, but they were in the process of putting their lives back together. Buzz was going to be a certified nurse’s aide soon. Once he got his certification, he could look for work anywhere. They could move off the Clintons’ property, get their own place and live a normal life. But the Carpenters, some later claimed, either couldn’t accept Buzz for who he was, or didn’t want to give him a chance.

  After the phone call, Cynthia became suspicious of Buzz’s intentions toward Rebecca, she later said. She wondered what business Buzz had with Rebecca. Why, for instance, was he so “interested” in her? She also felt Buzz was talking for Kim. Kim wouldn’t say such things, Cynthia maintained. Buzz was putting thoughts in her head and words in her mouth. Furthermore, what kind of relationship, Cynthia wondered, did Buzz have with his own family if they allowed him to live in a shed behind their home? Did he think for one minute that Rebecca was going to be living in a shed? He was a male stripper and his current employment was selling wood! What did he have to offer Kim and Rebecca?

  These were the things Cynthia fretted over and spelled out in an affidavit she was preparing to bring into probate court so she could sue Kim for total control over Rebecca’s life.

  On the outside, it appeared as though Cynthia and Dick Carpenter were the driving force behind the fight to win custody of Rebecca, and Beth Ann was merely a concerned sibling, educated in the law, who could help out when needed.

  But that was not true—and a letter Beth Ann wrote to John Gaul on October 19, 1992, was proof.

  Beth Ann opened the letter by telling Gaul that “an application for Removal of yourself and Kim Carpenter as guardians of Rebecca has been filed in Ledyard Probate Court.” For the first time, Beth Ann admitted her intimate involvement in the lawsuit: “Myself,” the next sentence began, “and Mrs.
Cynthia Carpenter have also applied for temporary custody and appointment as co-guardians.” Then she went on to explain that a form she had included in the letter, if Gaul signed it, would act as a release so he could be notified of all “hearings, etc.” Ending the letter, Beth Ann asked Gaul to contact her “ASAP” if he “consented to removal of guardianship.”

  The letter had been sent certified mail. Beth Ann wanted to be 100 percent sure Gaul received it, read it and completely understood it. The Carpenters—Beth Ann included—were preparing for war, and, at the same time, letting John Gaul know that there was indeed a reason behind Kim and Beth Ann’s little visit a few months ago: the Carpenters and Beth Ann wanted Gaul on their side.

  It was a team effort now. Together they could fight Kim and Buzz on Rebecca’s behalf.

  Together they could win.

  Chapter 17

  One day in late October, Kim showed up at the Clintons’ house with a set of legal papers Cynthia had given her to sign the previous night. When Kim walked into the main house foyer, Dee was standing there talking on the phone to an old friend. Kim, Dee later remembered, looked disheveled and confused.

  “I’ll talk to you later,” Dee told her friend. Then, turning toward Kim, she asked, “What’s wrong, Kim? What’s going on now?”

  Kim handed Dee the document. If Kim had signed it, she would be agreeing legally to give up all parental rights to Rebecca.

  “My sister, Beth, drew them up,” Kim explained.

  “You didn’t sign this, did you?”

  “No!”

  “Thank God.”

  After a further reading of the papers, Dee realized the Carpenters wanted Kim to sign over complete parental rights of Rebecca.

  “My mother said to sign these…. It will make things easier for me.”

  Things had calmed down somewhat since Buzz and Cynthia had had their little blowout over the phone, and the Carpenters had begun letting Rebecca spend some time at the Clintons’ home. No sleepovers, of course. But an afternoon here or there didn’t seem to bother the Carpenters. It almost seemed as if they were giving in a little bit.

  Later that day, Cynthia showed up at the Clintons’ to drop off Rebecca for a few hours while she did some shopping nearby. When she pulled up, Dee and Kim came out to greet her.

  As Cynthia took Rebecca out of the car, Dee could feel the tension in the air.

  “Just sign the paper, Kim,” Cynthia said before getting back into her car. “It’s going to make it easier on you if you do.”

  Kim didn’t say anything. “As usual,” Dee later said, “she just shook. She was frightened to death of that family.”

  When Kim finally dredged up enough courage to speak, she said Buzz’s reaction was going to be bad when he found out about the paper. “I’m not signing that.”

  Cynthia became incensed.

  “This has nothing to do with Buzz. It has to do with you and me!”

  When Buzz came home and learned about the paper, he didn’t quite react in kind, but just saw it as another way for the Carpenters to try to control not only their granddaughter’s life, but their daughter’s life. Instead of butting heads, arguing and making idle threats, Buzz decided to make himself visible whenever there was going to be a visit with Rebecca. Whenever Kim took Rebecca, Buzz said he’d be there.

  But it didn’t make any difference. The Carpenters were steadfast now about their intentions. Buzz and Kim were not going to be taking Rebecca anymore. That was it. Absolutely no more visits. The court would decide when, where and whom Rebecca should be with. Until then, the Carpenters suggested, they were calling the shots.

  A week or so later, for about three days, Kim and Buzz had no idea where Rebecca was. The Carpenters had refused to answer their door or telephone, which only infuriated Buzz more.

  Afraid for her granddaughter’s well-being, on October 20, 1992, Cynthia filed an immediate temporary custody order with the Ledyard Probate Court in hope of, first, obtaining temporary custody of Rebecca and, second, gaining perhaps permanent custody later on. The Carpenters had seen enough. With Buzz and Kim living in what they saw as a shack, Kim not really paying as much attention to Rebecca as the Carpenters had wanted, and Buzz fumbling along as a tow truck driver, the Carpenters saw no alternative other than letting a judge decide as to who should legally care for the child.

  When it came down to it, as blood relatives of Rebecca, the Carpenters had every right to seek custody of the child. By filing the paperwork, they were merely exercising that right.

  In her four-page, single-spaced petition to the judge, under the guise of anecdotal evidence collected throughout the past six months, Cynthia accused Kim of the most egregious parent-child violations imaginable. She wrote that Rebecca had been “abandoned” by Kim and that Kim had made no attempt to show any “interest” in her welfare. Rebecca needed “stability” in her life, Cynthia wrote, especially since Kim had already been diagnosed with PKU. It was possible Rebecca, already contending with several disabilities, could end up with the disease.

  Still, the bulk of Cynthia’s argument centered on Kim’s new beau, Buzz, and Rebecca’s attachment to her “aunt Beth, who,” Cynthia wrote, “takes her to gymnastics each Saturday.” She also said that when Kim was at the Carpenter home in Ledyard, Rebecca “showed little interest” in her and “preferred going to Beth or her grandpa.” She insisted she was “saddened” that things had turned out the way they had, “hoping [Kim] would begin to put Rebecca’s welfare ahead of her own.”

  Then came the attack on Buzz.

  Cynthia said she was “very concerned about Rebecca’s welfare” while she was under Buzz’s care, because, “historically,” Buzz had “shown no interest in children….” It was an accusation based solely on Buzz’s relationship with his son, Michael. Apparently, the Carpenters had taken the time to investigate Buzz’s life as it pertained to his son, but not as it concerned Kim.

  Nowhere in Cynthia’s statement did she take into account that Buzz was studying to become a nurse’s aide. She was only concerned with what Buzz hadn’t done, not with what he was doing.

  Yet it didn’t end there. The final paragraph made reference to a notion that Buzz was Kim’s puppeteer—that Kim wouldn’t act unless Buzz snapped his fingers: “Being manipulated by him, she now expresses no ideas of her own.” The petition concluded by stating that Kim was now more concerned with Buzz’s priorities than Rebecca’s.

  If one piece of truth rose to the surface out of the petition, it was that Rebecca was in desperate need of a guardian who would love her unconditionally and care for her mounting health problems without concern for himself or herself. Caring for Rebecca was, indeed, a full-time job. Diagnosed with ptosis—a droopy eyelid—the child had just gotten surgery on her right eye within the past week so she could see better. Allergic to Enfamil (an infant formula) and regular cow’s milk, it was a constant fight to make sure she had enough vitamins and calcium in her system. Her vocal quality, moreover, noted one speech therapist, was “breathy and raspy.” She was still having trouble speaking like other children her own age.

  Buzz and Kim were beginning to understand that Rebecca needed them desperately. A custody fight would only spread any dysfunction further. It was time for Rebecca to have a permanent home—and Buzz insisted that he could provide it, if only given the chance.

  A week after Cynthia filed the petition, the court agreed there was ample amount of evidence to—at least for the time being—award full temporary custody to Cynthia.

  The Carpenters had won the first battle.

  Buzz and Kim were upset, of course. Here they were engaged to be married, with Buzz beginning a new career, while getting his and Kim’s life on track, and the Carpenters stepped in and took away the one stable thing they had in their lives: Rebecca. Now it would be court dates, pleadings, motions. Neither Kim nor Buzz had money or anything of worth to put up for collateral. They would have trouble getting a private attorney to represent them, whereas the C
arpenters could hire anybody they chose—not to mention, perhaps, one of the most important factors to date: Beth Ann was an attorney who had studied this very type of litigation. She was even going to be starting a job at a highly regarded law office with a lawyer who had himself taken on child custody matters.

  A full investigation into Kim’s life was subsequently unleashed by the Department of Child and Youth Services (DCYS), a state agency charged to look into any allegations of child abuse and neglect made by family members, hospital personnel and law enforcement. The state would now decide if Kim was, in fact, the horrible mother her own family had been making her out to be.

  Because of the pending investigation by DCYS, it was suggested by Judge Frederick Palm, on October 27, 1992, that Kim and Buzz attend parenting classes at a local church, and that Kim submit to a psychological evaluation and have supervised visits with Rebecca three times a week at the Carpenter home.

  It seemed Buzz and Kim couldn’t win. Suddenly, Kim wasn’t the mother anymore; she was a “parent” being mandated by the court when and, more important, where she could see her own child.

  Feeling helpless, Kim sat down one day with a copy of her mother’s statement and began on paper to dispute the accusations against her.

  Where Cynthia wrote that the Carpenters had been “babysitting Rebecca since birth,” Kim fired back that her parents had always “offered” to babysit while she was at work. Where Cynthia claimed Kim had taken off on July 6 and it “was the last time [the Carpenters had seen] her on a regular basis,” and that they didn’t know where she was and didn’t have a phone number to reach her, Kim said it had all been fabricated to make her look like a bad mother. Kim said she was “home that night and every night after.” After she met Buzz, Kim insisted that the Carpenters had Buzz’s “beeper number.” Moreover, the reason she had been sleeping downstairs at the Carpenter home wasn’t because she wanted to get away from Rebecca, but because Beth Ann’s boyfriend, Joseph Jebran, needed a place to sleep when he was in town. Whenever Joseph stayed at the house, the Carpenters insisted that he sleep in Kim’s room, while she was forced to sleep on the pull-out couch downstairs.