Judge Terminates Mom's, One Dad's Parental Rights In Case Of Kids Found In Freezer
DETROIT (WWJ) - A judge has terminated the parental rights of Mitchelle Blair — the Detroit woman who confessed to killing two of her children and hiding their bodies in a freezer — as well as the rights of one of the fathers.
At a best interest hearing on Monday, Judge Edward Joseph stripped Stephen Barry's parental rights to the 8-year-old son he had with Blair, while ruling Alexander Dorsey will maintain his rights to his daughter, who just turned 18.
In explaining his decision regarding Barry, Joseph said it's all about the best interest of the child.
"We've had testimony regarding Mr. Barry that, to this day, he remains without housing, he remains without stable employment," the judge said. "Dr. (Jim) Henry (an expert in child maltreatment, trauma and development) in his testimony indicated there's no significant bond to describe between Matthew and his father."
Joseph ruled that it would simply take "way too long" for Barry to get his life together in a way that he could provide a suitable, permanent and stable home for his son.
"Matty's best interest is to achieve permanency and stability as quickly as we can, given the extreme needs that he has at this point," Joseph said.
The goal for the boy, the judge said, is a permanent adoption.
Joseph will not order Dorsey's daughter to see her dad, however; and Dorsey was asked if he hopes to reunite with her someday soon.
"I ain't gotta hope for it," he told WWJ's Vickie Thomas. "She'll see me when she's ready...She's been through too much. She'll be alright."
Blair did not object to the termination of her rights to her two living kids — being that she's serving live without parole for murder.
Speaking to the court live via video from prison, she thanked the judge for terminating Barry's rights, saying that she wasn't really worried about Dorsey.
Under questioning, Blair testified that she'd never prevented the fathers from seeing their children, as has been alleged. She complained about Barry's alleged lack of effort.
"The first time he popped back up, um, I wanna say, in 2011 — I forget around what time, whether it was summer or spring or whatever — but he just, just showed up," Blair said. "And I'm like, 'You realize they're not dead, they're alive, right?'"
"That's what I always used to say to him: Everybody could be dead and you wouldn't even know it," she added. "That's kinda ironic."
Neither dad remained in the courtroom to listen to what Blair had to say.
"I've been hearing her all my life; I ain't gotta hear her no more," Dorsey said.
The bodies of two dead children were found at Blair's home March 24 by court officers carrying out an eviction in the Martin Luther King Apartments. They found the frozen corpses of 13-year-old Stoni Ann Blair and 9-year-old Stephen Gage Berry who autopsies found had been beaten to death. Police believe they died months apart in 2012 and 2013.
The oldest girl said she was forced her to put her sister's body in the freezer, according to a court filing, and both surviving siblings suffered abuse at this hands of their mom.
