Sidney
Watkins, the 10-year-old girl whose father was murdered by a maternal relative, says
that she doesn’t want to live with her mother anymore.
The
little girl at the center of one of the most bitter and public custody battles
in central Illinois history has this summer told a judge, a counselor and her
guardian ad litem that she’d rather remain with her paternal aunt’s family than
return home to her mother Jennifer Watkins, who once spent six months in jail
rather than allow visits between her daughter and the girl’s paternal
relatives. On Tuesday, Cass County Circuit Court Judge Robert Hardwick, Jr., formally
made Sidney a ward of the court and ordered that she remain with her paternal
aunt. The judge, however, stopped short of stripping Jennifer Watkins of her
parental rights.
“This
is not a termination of parental rights,” Hardwick decreed. “We’re not even
close to that yet. Hopefully, we never get down to that.” Michael Goldberg,
Jennifer Watkins’ lawyer, vowed to appeal the judge’s decision, which could be
a prologue to Watkins ultimately losing her daughter forever.
“Sometimes,
even great judges can render wrong decisions,” Goldberg said after the hearing.
“I think he’s wrong on the law, and we’re going to appeal.”
It
was a major setback for Jennifer Watkins, who afterward wept on the courthouse
steps. During a hearing last December, Hardwick, who years ago called Watkins “evil,”
said that he intended to return Sidney to her mother. But first, the judge said
last year, Watkins must demonstrate that she won’t leave Illinois with her
daughter to prevent visits between the girl and her paternal relatives. On
Tuesday, Hardwick said that he doesn’t have confidence that Watkins wouldn’t
flee if she got her daughter back.
Sidney’s
father Steven Watkins was gunned down from behind in 2008 when he went to the
Ashland home of his estranged wife to pick up his daughter for a court-ordered
visit. Shirley Skinner, Sidney’s maternal great-grandmother and Jennifer’s
grandmother, was convicted of murder. Prosecutors told the jury that Jennifer
Watkins her relatives considered Sidney their property, and Sidney’s father
paid with his life when his push to spend time with his daughter threatened
their hold on the girl.
Jennifer
Watkins did not cooperate in the murder investigation and asserted her Fifth
Amendment privilege during grand jury proceedings. On Tuesday, Hardwick said
that she has not yet demonstrated that she would act in the best interests of
her daughter, whom the judge last December found was a victim of neglect by virtue
of her mother’s refusal to allow visits with paternal relatives. Child welfare
authorities seized Sidney last September, when Jennifer Watkins was arrested in
Massachusetts after leaving Florida, where she’d lived for six years without
being served an arrest warrant for contempt of court for failure to allow visits
with paternal relatives ordered by Hardwick. The judge will revisit the case during
a hearing set for December.
Last
November, Sidney told the judge that she wanted to live with her mother.
However, on July 3, Sidney reversed course, telling Hardwick in judicial
chambers that she wanted to live with Ashley Clement, her slain father’s
sister, and Clement’s family in Virginia. Sidney told her guardian ad litem and
a counselor the same thing. Clement on Tuesday testified that she sensed a
change in Sidney that began in March. “She’s more open with me, more willing to
express feelings,” Clement told the court. The girl has supervised visits with
her mother once a week and is no long as incommunicative afterward as she was
at first, Clement testified. “Sometimes she says ‘It was fine,’” Clement told
the court. “Sometimes she says ‘My mom whispered.’ Sometimes she says ‘My mom
lied to me today.’”
Sidney
has said that her mother has told her that she’s spoken to the judge and
lawyers and that she’ll soon be coming home, Clement testified, even though
visitation supervisors have told Jennifer Watkins not to tell the girl that she
will be going home with her mother. The judge on Tuesday rejected a
recommendation from the state Department of Children and Family Services that
supervised visits be cut back to prevent Jennifer Watkins from manipulating the
girl.
Jennifer
Watkins testified that she and Sidney pray during visits that they’ll be
permanently reunited. Like Clement, Watkins said that Sidney has changed – for one
thing, she no longer cries when visits with her mother end. “Sometimes, Sidney
is distant, but that’s not the majority of the time,” Watkins testified. “Sometimes
she doesn’t act like herself, but that’s not every time.” She testified that
defying court orders to allow visits “was one of the worst decisions of my
life,” and she acknowledged that Sidney has developed feelings for her paternal
relatives. “She loves them,” Watkins testified. “I can’t deny that at all.”
Watkins
came close to tears on the stand. “I’m Sidney’s mom,” she said in a breaking
voice. “It’s a very difficult thing to lose your child.”
Why
did Sidney tell me that you told her to claim that she’s been forced to sleep
on the floor each night, asked R. John Alvarez, Cass County state’s attorney.
Why did she tell me that you’ve told her to cry every night and beg to go home
with you?
“I
have no idea,” Jennifer Watkins answered.
Alvarez
pushed for Sidney to remain with her paternal aunt, who testified that the girl
is getting straight A’s, is active in cheerleading and appears happy. “She’s
thriving,” Alvarez said. “It’s clear that she has developed on her own a
resentment toward her mother.”
Goldberg
asked the judge to consider the case in a vacuum, as if Sidney’s father hadn’t
been murdered by Jennifer Watkin’s grandmother. “That is the pivotal fact that
drives all this litigation,” Goldberg said. “In a vacuum, you don’t consider the
facts that brought us here.”
Hardwick
rejected Goldberg’s plea.
“We’re
not in a vacuum,” the judge said. “We all know why we’re here. … The prize is
Sidney Watkins. The prize is what’s in that little girl’s interest.”
The
judge agreed that children can’t be allowed to decide where they should live,
but he also said that Sidney’s wishes need to be considered. And he said he
doubts that Sidney has been manipulated into saying where she wants to live.
“She’s
changed,” Hardwick said. “God only knows why she changed. … She’s starting to
realize what a horrible, horrible, tragic mess she’s been thrown in the middle
of.”
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Aug 24-30, 2017.
