NO KIDS, JUDGE RULES AGAIN

Second Order Tells Mother Of 7 To Stop Procreating

A judge who last year ordered a Rochester mother to have no more children
until she redeemed the four children she had in foster care has issued a
similar order for a mother of seven.

Monroe County Family Court Judge Marilyn L. O'Connor has ordered that a
31-year-old homeless and drug-addicted prostitute, known in court papers as
"Judgette W.," refrain from procreating because she is incapable of caring
for the seven children she had with seven different men.

The children range in age from 8 months to 12 years. Six are in foster care
and one lives with an aunt. At least three, including the youngest, tested
positive for cocaine at birth.

In a ruling that echoed an unprecedented ruling she issued in March 2004,
O'Connor said Judgette W. has the right to bear children but doesn't have
the right to bear them irresponsibly and have their upbringing transferred
to taxpayers.

"All of her (Judgette's) children were removed from her care and custody
because she could not and did not take care of them," O'Connor said in a
25-page decision filed Dec. 22.

In the decision, which revolves around the youngest child, who is named in
court papers as "Victoria R.," O'Connor ordered the county Department of
Human and Health Services to provide family planning information to
Judgette but stressed she was not specifying any kind of birth control or
ordering her to have an abortion if she becomes pregnant.

The judge, who could find Judgette in contempt of court and jail her if she
becomes pregnant, said she hopes her order will push the mother into drug
treatment and help her reclaim her children.

"A 'no-more-children' order may help (Judgette) get Victoria back,"
O'Connor wrote. "More importantly, it may help Victoria get her mother back."

O'Connor created an international buzz last year when she ordered that
Stephanie Pendleton, who lost her four children to foster care, have no
more children until she could reclaim all four. The order, which lawyers
said was without precedent nationally, extended to Rodney Evers Sr., the
father of two of the children.

Pendleton, whose name became public after she was charged with assaulting a
police officer, is appealing the ruling in her case. But lawyers have said
she may have hurt her case by waiving her right to a lawyer during neglect
proceedings against her.

In contrast, Judgette W. was represented by a lawyer, making it more likely
that a timely appeal will be heard by an appellate court, which could
decide law that is murky for now, said lawyer Michael R. Wolford, president
of the Monroe County Bar Association.

"This (the latest) decision isn't too much different from the first,
although the facts are a little different and some would say more
egregious," Wolford said. "I'm not in a position to take sides on this
issue other than to point out that it clearly continues to be a controversy."

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union,
called O'Connor's decision last year "a punitive and needless assault on
the rights of the parents." She couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.