I went out to lunch today with some friends from the office. As we were driving out my lawyer called me. He told me the court had overturned the return order for Sage. We won't have the full decision till sometime next week but we know it was not favorable.
He thinks they probably didn't outright deny Sage's return but just remanded the case to the state appeals court so that my now 3 year old son's voice can be heard because he was never formally given a chance to speak 2 years ago in the family court, or a year ago in the appeals court (even if neither the abductor nor myself ever asked that it be.) I sat through lunch like I always do, acting like all is well with the world and wishing for it to end so I could go back to work and come home to an empty house. I suppose the best case scenario is that we now go back in time to a court we left one year ago to allow my son to testify only to have the court say he is not, in fact, old enough yet for he wishes to be taken into consideration (heaven forbid we didn't at least give him the chance to express them though) and only then start over in the first level federal court. In other words, maybe we can start over again in a lower court and maybe another year from now we can get a new "final decision" from the Mexican courts.
I want to thank the US State Department for making this possible. Twenty years of non-compliance with the Hague Convention from our southern neighbor and most active treaty partner would never have been possible without their tacit approval.
I hope the rest of you find the justice that has eluded my family,
Carlos Bermudez, father of Sage Bermudez
