HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A Tampa father's fight for his daughter continues after an adoption agency took her two days after she was born without his knowledge or consent.
Tampa father fights for daughter after she was given up for adoption without his permission
More court delays in Tampa father’s 5-year fight to raise his daughter
The ABC Action News I-Team has followed Ulysess Carwise's case for more than a year, providing a rare look inside the often private battle fathers can face over parental rights simply because they're not married, prompting other dads to come forward with similar stories.
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From the time she was born, Carwise has fought to bring his little girl home. While he's had visits, she's been with the prospective adoptive parents the whole time — the only family she's known. She's now six years old.
The case is still not done.
After an adoption agency's unsuccessful efforts to terminate Carwise's parental rights in Orange County, the case was moved to Hillsborough County. Earlier this month, a judge terminated his parental rights. Carwise was given 30 days to appeal, and the clock is ticking.
When the I-Team first met Carwise, he was standing in a decorated but empty little girl's bedroom where he said his daughter should be.
“I’m her father! Her real father!” Carwise said.
Following a trial, Carwise said to the judge, "She made her decision on my birthday to terminate my rights and put my daughter up for adoption.”
Carwise said he was told there was a period of time when he was fighting in court for his daughter that he didn't pay child support to the adoption agency that took custody of his child.
“That is my child. So — I don’t want to put my child up for adoption, so I don’t understand that you can pass laws that would say different. Against the father. Just because we wasn’t married," Carwise said. “I know what I did was right. And I’m continuing to do the best I can to fight to get my child.”
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Carwise said he tried to take money out of his retirement fund to pay for a new attorney to file an appeal in his case to pay the thousands of dollars more that were needed, but he was unsuccessful.
"I’m running out of time," Carwise said. "I might not see my child until she’s 18-19 years old, because these people, they got my child.”
Carwise's sister, Rosalyn Green, has helped her brother every step of the way over the past six years.
“It causes you to lose sleep, you get angry, you have all kind of thoughts," Green said. “While I’m trying to call these attorneys, I’m shaking, because my time is running out.”
Green said the bottom line is you need money to continue to fight in court.
According to a state report from December, the total cost of private adoptions is estimated to range from $30,000 - $60,000.
“Usually, an everyday family don’t have that kind of money to make those types of purchases. So the system is set up for the prospective adoptive parents to win these cases," Green said.
Attorneys for the adoption agency and prospective adoptive parents have told the I-Team they cannot comment on ongoing cases.
Sitting in front of a sign that said, "Family forever and always, no matter what", Carwise said his daughter will remember him.
“I know she knows who I am. She knows who I am and she knows I exist," he said.
Carwise has until July 5 to file an appeal.
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