Woman explains how she signed her baby away. Two more videos with more background on this story are below.
I’m a mom, and whenever I hear a story about a mom losing access to her kid my heart kind of sinks and I immediately feel for the other mother. Then I force myself to let logic kick in and I wonder how it got to that point. Like there must have been so many warning signs that this woman ignored and this story is not adding up for me. I do feel incredibly sorry for her, and I hope she gets both attention to her cause (which she is getting) and permanent primary custody of her daughter. The couple that scammed her into giving up her baby should be criminally charged. In the mean time I hope that baby is cherished and loved.
Ok so if you haven’t heard this story yet it’s a doozy. The gist is that a naive 29 year-old single mom met a guy online who promised her the world and then some. He claimed to have an important job with the CIA, he claimed to be from a wealthy and prominent family, and she bought it all and had a baby with him without every checking him out at all. She apparently didn’t even look in his wallet or glance at his credit cards since he lied to her about his name too. Then after she had his baby, he asked her to sign papers giving him rights as the father. She didn’t bother to read them at all and actually signed papers in which she relinquished all parental rights to the guy. Some time later, he took the baby for a visit, didn’t bring her back the next day, and dropped the news that he was married and that she’d granted him full rights to their daughter. Here’s more:
Kristy Gaffney says she thought she’d found love when she met a man online. Now the Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania woman claims she’s in the battle of her life — fighting for the child they had.
“I thought like he was Mr. Perfect, ha, ha,” Gaffney told NBC10 Philadelphia investigator Harry Hairston. “There’s no words for it. I’m just so angry at him.”
Gaffney said she met a man who told her he was Ed while surfing a popular dating website. The single mother, who is 29, said at first she was standoffish, but eventually warmed up to meeting him at a public place. Gaffney says that first date was at a restaurant just outside of Philadelphia and it led to many more dates and an intimate relationship.
Gaffney said her new love interest told her he was a businessman, divorced, worked for the C.I.A. and was related to one of the most well-known, wealthiest families in the country.
“He said, ‘My last name is Dupont,’ and I’m like, okay. And I said, ‘related to the Duponts?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’”Gaffney says eventually Ed started talking about wedding bells.
“He also was talking about having kids. He said he never could have kids because him and his wife, she couldn’t get pregnant,” Gaffney said.
As their relationship continued, Gaffney got pregnant. She said at first Ed demanded she get an abortion and then changed his mind. After the baby was born, Gaffney said Ed asked her to sign some papers that would ensure he could claim his rights as the baby’s father. Gaffney said although she didn’t understand the paperwork, she signed it anyway and the two shared caring for the baby while Ed rehabbed his home so they could all live together as a family.
One day, Ed didn’t return their child as planned. Instead, Gaffney said he dropped this bombshell:
“That’s when he told me that the paperwork I actually signed was me giving up the rights, not to him to have his rights. It was me giving up my rights so his wife could adopt my baby, and I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”As it turned out, Ed wasn’t Ed Dupont. He was Emmitt Dippold, who was still married and he and his wife were in the final stages of adopting the baby.
“I couldn’t even believe that someone was capable of something like that,” Gaffney said. She took Dippold and his wife to court to get the adoption overturned.
We reached out to Dippold at his office and his home for his side of the story, but were not able to speak with him. In court documents, Dippold denied that he ever claimed to be a Dupont and says Gaffney may have assumed that because his email reads ‘ew-dupont.’ Dippold denied that he ever wanted Gaffney to have an abortion and denied that he ever talk about marriage. He said Gaffney should have known all along that he was married because pictures of he and his wife were in plain view the times he and Gaffney were in his home together.
In the end, the Judge believed Gaffney and overturned the adoption based on fraud. But the fight isn’t over because the Dippolds filed an appeal. Dippold’s attorney declined comment for our story, saying it’s inappropriate to talk about pending custody and adoption matters.
[From Today.MSNBC.com]
In her appearance on the Today Show, (video above) Gaffney revealed that despite the fact that the judge sided with her, the appeal (even though the judge says it’s totally frivolous) means that the baby will stay with the Dippolds for up to several more months. She still only gets to see her daughter every other weekend. This whole thing sounds outrageous and I don’t blame her for going public. Even if she must have made a mountainload of mistakes to get to this point, she doesn’t deserve to lose custody of her baby. It takes some terrible people to plot to steal a mother’s baby like that.
Background for the interview above:
An earlier interview and background story with Gaffney:
Note that this news came out a few weeks ago, but this woman was just on The Today Show so I wanted to report on it.
I’m really stunned at what some women will do just so they don’t have to be alone.
BINGO!!!!
Yep. Torn between feeling bad for her and thinking she is utterly pathetic.
Any man is not better than no man.
You should meet my adoptive mother. The woman is THE definition of “in love with being in love.” Walked out on me when I was 14. Told my dad she wouldn’t try to take me away from him as long as he didn’t go after her for child support. A real winner, that one.
I’m stunned that ANYONE in this day and age will actually “just sign” paperwork without reading it through completely and understanding 100% what they’re agreeing to.
I learned my lesson after signing my way into a cell phone contract 5 years ago, and I was only in my early 20’s. This woman signs paperwork regarding HER CHILD and didn’t bother to read it????
What????
Yes, the guy is a scam artist and a horrible person blah blah blah, but this broad is a damn MORON.
If you are putting your signature on something, READ EVERY LAST WORD AND MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY WHAT EACH WORD MEANS. Period.
She signed papers the father of her child asked her to sign. I’m presuming she loved and trusted the guy.
My stepmother (well, the 2nd of 3) is an accountant. She’s a highly educated, intelligent woman with a serious career. She also signed paperwork my dad said was to do with his tax returns – and found that she had signed away all financial claims on him (they weren’t married, but had lived together long enough that in that jurisdiction she had de facto marital rights) and agreed to pay all the original stamp duty on their jointly purchased home, when they sold it and split the proceeds. She’d gone into that relationship mortgage free; left it with debts and a mortgage. She also has a serious and incurable medical condition that he knew about, and at the time, 2 dependent kids. She had been a brilliant spouse and a superb, engaged and loving stepmother. He just screwed her over because he’d met someone else.
I no longer have contact with my father, I may add.
My point is that normal and decent people tend to trust those closest to them. They don’t assume someone is a lying sociopath. I’m more careful than most because, well, I’ve been exposed to my father (this was wife numero 3 he screwed over, though numero 2 was as bad as him, which muddied the waters a little).
The fact the courts are so clear that the mother in this story is the best person to parent this child is pretty telling, IMO. They don’t casually remove an infant from a home it is settled in, because of the risk of emotional harm. The real scandal here isn’t what she did, it’s that the appeals process is delaying that child being where she belongs – with the non-narcissistic party in the proceedings.
Your words pretty much echo my first thoughts as I read the story. The guy is a real con artist. He probably planned the whole scam in advance to get a baby for him and his wife. However, the woman is an idiot. The minute a guy tells me he’s in the CIA, I think he’s a liar. Seems like all of the pathological liars try to pass themselves off as CIA. Also, whoever heard of a woman needing to sign papers to guarantee the rights of the father of her baby? If his name is on the birth certificate, he’s the father. Dumb, dumb, dumb!
I saw this story this morning and I at once felt sorry for this girl and thought maybe she wasn’t all that bright – she said she didn’t understand the paperwork she was signing; anyway, it was just a signature page.
No matter what, this was horrible.
The guy was clearly a con artist and probably very smooth – he obviously saw her as easy prey. Side note: People who work for the CIA wouldn’t say so. Furthermore, what about this guy’s wife? What did she know?
I don’t know all the details of how long this woman was with the father of her baby and what their relationship entailed, but to just “trust” him because she loved him and wanted him to be in her life is the STUPID part of all this.
The ONLY people in my life that I would even consider blindly signing papers if they brought them to me, would be my parents. And if I did that, my Dad would probably hit me upside the head and ask me why I’m being so STUPID to sign something without reading it.
My husband, who I truly believe would lay down his life for me, has never done anything to make me distrust him, and we’ve been inseparable for over 7 years — I still read anything and everything he brings home for me to sign.
Because I know how STUPID a few moments of weakness can F*CK you up big time.
And this woman is now dealing with the fallout of her STUPID decisions. Yes, the guy should be strung up by his toes for what he did, but naive people doing dumb things is what brings most pain and suffering around in this world.
Judge Judy would have a FIELD DAY with these people.
Too right.
And there are way too many sociopath men online. It’s the ideal environment for them because they reel women in psychologically first, and the rest is easy.
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one that said “stupid” when I saw this story. I’m having to try really hard not to pass judgment becuase the heart will encourage you to abandon reason and do stupid sh*t.
True, but you’d think that someone would take the time to read a document/contract that was about their own freaking baby.
These are the same women who are coaxed into having unprotected sex because that’s what the guy wants, and in her misguided attempt to make her man happy, winds up pregnant or diseased (or both).
Fabulous. How about looking out for your own bodies and welfare FIRST, and the rest will follow?!
Who’s naive and stupid?
The most hateful and judgemental comments about this young lady…coming from women getting half the story from a gossip rag.
Now that’s stupid and scary!
That is so, like, true. Like who would judge a 29 yo woman for what she did over the heat of, like, months??
Dude, neither ViktoryGin nor I is saying she deserves what she got, but her analytical skills sure do bite.
Whaaaat? This whole story is insane and makes me sick to my stomach. What is WRONG with people?
What’s wrong with people is that it’s all me, me, me, me, me. No one cares about their fellow man anymore, everyone is out to take care of themselves. It’s a sad, but true fact.
It is true that we have raised self-absorbed boys to become men without honor. But we have also raised affection-starved girls to become women without self-worth.
Some of these boys have grown up to become sociopaths. Just look at the rate of men killing their wives, and trying to hide it from the law… Especially when vacationing in Aruba 😉 If my boyfriend comes home one day and tells me he’s paying for a vacation together in Aruba; I’ll know that we are over!
It goes back of what I think of girls, how we should raise them. I wrote further down in number 7, so will not take more space to repeat it.
You’re right. In fact I was just saying that the other day. What a sad society we have become….
I don’t think this kind of thing happens more than it ever did, tbh. I mean, look at the horror and outrage. If you look at history people have been behaving in terrible ways forever. What is spooky here is the combination of the internet and the use of the law – the cold-bloodedness. But plenty of guys took kids away from their mothers for no reasons back in the day – the only difference then was that the law allowed it.
@Kate #2, Actually, this kind of thing used to happen to a lot more women in the past century (20th), who got married, or were promised marriage to a man, who turned out to be already married, and would simply steal the woman blind, and take away her child.
That is why I insist on women getting education, AS WELL as raised with self-esteem and self-worth. Comment #7. When faced with a misogynistic pig, no matter how blind love is, no matter if the woman is an accountant, or a stay-at-home mom, if she was not raised with a diverse education, and self-worth, no matter how kind and nice she is, with a “good religious background”, if not combined with self-worth, she will let a manipulative pig take advantage of her.
Maguita, you are a very wise person.
And you’re right about the way people are raised. Boys get to be self-absorbed and spoiled men. Just see the reaction of guys when a woman doesn’t want to date them. It makes her a stupid bitch and all women stupid, because they don’t like nice guys like him.
Nice? Really? Nice guys don’t call people stupid bitches just for not wanting to date them.
Yeah, scams NEVER used to happen, this is a totally new phenomenon.
Thank you @Flan… Sh-t happens sometimes and I start making sense! 😉
True about the boys being raised so differently. If only we can concentrate a bit more on the girls and their self-esteem. Because quite honestly, I don’t see any major changes regarding boys’ behavior in the next 20 years, so why not give our daughters a fighting chance?
Let’s also stop glamorizing the life of prOn stars, which BTW is sooo done to please men, and teach our daughters self-worth, and self-esteem.
Poor kid. Mother is an idiot, father is crazy.
Yeah, but he chose her because she was easy to influence. He probably tested that the first time he met her and tried to figure out whether she was the “type” he could control. It was probably instinct to him; it is to a lot of predators.
These are her own words,”he told me he
did not have children because his wife
could not conceive. He told her he had
a wife, why did she continue with him?
He did not say MY EX-WIFE. He said my
wife. That should have raised all kinds
of flags that he was only looking for a
vagina & a womb, an incubator!
Why would a guy from a wealthy family join the CIA???IJS…That right off the bat sounds crazy, this lady is an idiot.
Neither parent need to have custody. God help this kiddo, both parents are useless…
George Bush Sr. is and was wealthy. He was a member of the CIA for many, many years. It’s a prestigious occupation for the wealthy elite, and often times is parlayed into a political job. Not so often presidency, but he did so.
George HW Bush was Director of Central Intelligence(CIA) for less than a year in the 1970s. This was a political appointment by President Ford, and a position Bush held between being special envoy to China and working as director for a Houston bank.
He didn’t really “work for the CIA” in the normal sense. I don’t think that you will find many independently wealthy people employed at the CIA.
And someone who is truly employed by the CIA is usually pretty discreet about it, not yapping about it to the world.
Yeah, she was pretty gullible.
I’m sorry but that is beyond naive. I’m not saying she should lose custudy of her baby, but she has really bad judgement.
I feel really sorry for this poor child. I wouldn’t know what to do if I was the judge. I haven’t followed this story or heard anything about it until now but if she developmently delayed or just very naive? Because anyone in a vulnerable position is prey for sick individuals who troll dating websites looking for a “sucker” to take advantage of. In this case, this man wanted a baby without going through the legal channels to adopt one properly.
The article says that Dippold and his wife were adopting but if that’s the case, why set out getting another child this way? You hate to see the kid not have a relationship with both parents but good heavens, neither parent seems quite fit!!
The article states that they were in the final stages of adopting the baby. So I took it that it meant they were trying to adopt the woman’s baby. If that’s the case they were probably planning this for a while.
If her judgement is that bad, should she really be allowed to take care of a helpless human being? He obviously shouldn’t because he’s a sack of s**t, but really?
I mean this woman is so epically, EPICALLY stupid she sounds like a plot line from Idiocracy…
@Tapioca: I loved that movie!!! And am I the only one that thinks we’re actually living the plot right now?lol
@whatthe,Not until we have Gatorade in the water fountains.
I always think about that movie when I see the Duggars.
I am not a mother and don’t ever wish to be one but I do kind of feel a little empathy towards her. But at the same time I just do not understand why no warning signs came out during her time with him. There is something fishy going on here. I do hope that she gets her child back though and those two monsters get put in jail.
It is really easy to overlook red flags when you are desperate to be loved.
Oh CB, your first paragraph just squeezed my heart!
It bled black coffee, but still, it was beautifully written! I would freak out too. I have no kids, I have a dog, and every time I see some awful dog abuse on the news, I just hug my dog. Can’t imagine if it were my child.
But let me spell it out for you people, TEACH YOUR DAUGHTERS STRENGTH AND INDEPENDENCE.
How? Simply get the fact that knowledge is power, and no, in this day and age, ignorance is not bliss.
Let your daughters be taught, and be taught for a very, very long time. As much as you can afford. No matter if you don’t agree, with science, politics, RELIGION, arts. Let your daughters understand all about the world while you raise them with self respect, and self worth, and NO MAN will ever be able to take advantage of them. Ever. For armed with knowledge, they will always be able to not only defend themselves, fend for themselves, but also THRIVE and rule themselves.
If you don’t see my point, look at Michelle Duggar. And her poor sheep of daughters.
Preach it!! 🙂
Best comment EVER!
You GO!
You said it correctly!! BRAVO!! I
I love your comment, but its easier said than done I think. My mother taught all her three daughters everything and a bag of chips about independence, knowledge and ll that you claim, plus we saw how our father treated her at times!!
And you know what? none of us saw the point of what she was really saying until we experienced some of the negatives for ourselves….. we never made stupid mistakes, but we sometimes did things that lead to consequences which could have been avoided in spite of our mother’s teachings.
On a different note though, this womam does not appear to be the brightest bulb.
Eloquent & true. Sing it, sistah!
Amen.
Would it be weird if I said I love you?
Such wise and important advice. There is a book called Raising Ophelia and it speaks to what happens to girls after the age of 12 or 13 when their bodies start to change and society sees them differently. It is good reading and also speaks to your point.
Parents teach your daughters that a man is great a addition to your life, if that is your thing but not a necessity for fulfillment.
If I may add to your very excellent comment…
Our children get “marketed” to from a very young age. Disney “Princess” films, although they’ve gotten much better at not casting the woman as a helpless victim who needs a man to save her. Photoshopped images or surgically enhanced looks that are constantly fed via the media and are designed to make you feel “less” so that you’ll buy and buy in the hopes that the latest makeup, dress, pair of shoes or whatever will fill that niggling doubt they have so carefully cultivated to make you easier to sell to.
Wow, the response! Thank you guys 🙂
And no Cerulean, I don’t mind it at all… Just keep it in mind next time we disagree about anything in regards to the unholy triangle! 😉
Holy shit. Some people are just despicable. I hope she gets her daughter back. And I hope his parental rights are terminated. How can you treat a child like a piece of property that can be stolen?
She did show a horrifying lack of good judgement but the father here sounds positively diabolical.
wow you sometimes hear of a man being referred to as a glorified sperm donor, but I never heard it the other way around about a woman.
I feel sorry for the baby. The whole situation is a mess. So sad.
She deserves her daughter back, and the guy should be in jail for fraud. However, she is one of the dumbest people on the planet. She thought he was a DuPont? Idiot.
Sickening story.
Oh and I forgot something…was the wife in on this the whole time? So she was totally okay with her husband leading a double life and screwing someone else? People never cease to amaze me. Weirdos, they are.
I wondered the same thing. Crazy.
Jaysus!! I can’t quite believe that this really happens
Obv the womn should never have signed anything w/o reading first but she was obv cleverly manipulated and was in love so trusted this guy completely
Silly niave woman… maybe of below average intelligence or vulnerable – but I hope the guy gets done because surely his manipulation is fraud and not legal?!!
I just hope the poor baby is ok and not traumatised by this horrific situation long term
I’ll never understand why people sign paperwork they don’t understand
.
I’m not justifying here, but take one woman with low self-esteem, not educated and pair her up with a manipulative sociopath and ….. this is what you get. It’s so very sad for that little one! Wifey is just as culpable here too.
She didn’t understand the papers. She comes across naive and insecure, and some girls fear questioning the men they’re with.
She comes across as ignorant – never, never, never sign anything you don’t read or understand. If she is that naive, she may not be ready to be a parent just yet. Neither one of these two, or three, I guess, would be parent of the year material.
What a dipsh!t.
I’m with you. Even if it was my father or my husband (the two men I trust most in this world), I would STILL read whatever is put down in front of me. I just don’t get it. I feel for her, I really, REALLY do, but not reading the papers was stupid. I hope she teaches her daughter better.
I’m kind of speechless when it comes to this. If someone took MY child from me, I don’t think I’d be level headed enough to find a lawyer. I’m pretty sure I’d hunt down the bastard who took him. The end results would not be pretty. Maybe that’s not a very good way for a mommy to act, but I’m definitely a momma bear when it comes to my little guy.
how does the real wife of the jerkdad live with the knowledge that she stole another mother’s child?
People will do SICK things to be a parent. Stealing another woman’s child is unforgivable.
Wonder what Michelle Duggar would say to all of this…
She would say: Honey you need a good home perm!
Just choked on my lunch!
Ok now I spit wine all over my laptop. You owe me a new iBook.
And now that baby is named Blue Ivy…
LMAO!!
wouldnt that be delicious if she was the mother of their baby.
Im curious how and why his wife went along with this. Stuff like this makes me so glad my mother raised me to be independent. I cant believe some of the stories I read about women/men so desperate to be with someone that they fall for scams like this.
OMG Peachy! Your water made me spit my water out my nose. Thanks for a humerous post to a depressing story.
LOL!
She should have read those papers carefully. It is a sad story, but also a cautionary tale for anyone who signs important papers without reading first.
I feel most sorry for the baby. 🙁
O___o
I’m sorry, but I don’t feel for her. She’s an idiot. Granted, the man is a sick $%&*, and should face the consequences, but she’s still an idiot.
We really need to teach our daughters to have some self-esteem. This woman has none and maybe thats the reason why was so easily fooled. Still, she should have been more careful.
Samigirl:
You are so right. People will murder to have a child of their own. It is beyond disgusting what some people will do to get a baby.
True. And then you have people who will kill their own children and toss them away like trash. Human beings really are something……
No!!!!! I know the mom was in a bad place, but didn’t her intuition kick in? I know mine would. I have two boys, 12 and 10. Even if I had to give my child away, I would make absolutely sure the parents were top-notch. Hell, I would do that if I were giving my dog (a very high maintenance Jack Russell) away.
It boggles my mind the women who join dating sites and go out with men who are so suspect with their stories and they make excuses for why things don’t make sense. I have a friend whose stories are shocking. But women are so desperate for a man that they overlook signs that aren’t what they are portraying. It makes me sad how desperate women are to be with a man. Just look at the show The Bachelor. No self-esteem.
This woman doesn’t sound very smart. I feel for her, though. What disgusting people he and his wife are. Karma will get them, I hope.
I am conflicted. On one hand this man is just evil and really unfit. On the other this woman is really scary in her total lack of life skills and instincts. Unless she has some limitations beyond her control, I find it weird.
She gets no sympathy from me. When will people learn to take responsibility for their own actions. The only thing that stands out here to me is glaring stupidity.
In cases of adoption, I thought both parties were required to secure seperate legal representation? How was this ever legal in the first place?
No sympathy for her, she sounds like she was desperate to be with somebody and got way in over her head, especially with the very flawed art of dealing with people online. Plus, why would you sign legal papers without reading all of them?
However, I do have sympathy for the infant and hope this case is resolved quickly and without a lot of legal battles. I really hope the baby is well cared for and loved.
In this day and age who signs contractual agreements (especially regarding their child) without reading them?? It’s hard to feel sorry for somebody so stupid. I feel sorry for the baby who’s father is evil and biological mother is brain dead.
stupid is as stupid does, and this woman is epically stupid. She’s not some kid, she’s old enough to have a bit of common sense. And that man is despicable.
I could see trusting and believeing a con artist enough to follow through with a pregnancy. Con artists are very good at what they do. I’m sure many of us have been conned in a way that we don’t even know. Or conned on a lesser scale. I can see her falling for all of it, right up to the paperwork.
And it is at this point, that she becomes an idiot.
If she put his name on the birth certificate, as I’m sure she did, then he already had parental rights. She does not understand the purpose of a bith certificate.
Stupid Strike one.
Now–unbeknownst to her willfully ignorant mind–the papers she signs would be totally unnecessary. But she never thinks about this very basic legal fact. Does she even question what type of papers NEED to be drawn up? Apparently not. And yet at no point does check with the lawyer alongside her loving partner to make sure they are getting exactly the right arrangement.
Stupid Strike two.
Now let’s say she isn’t bright *cough*. And she trusts the father of her child. Okay. And I get not slogging through extensive paperwork you don’t understand, anyway, when you have professionals to do it for you (professionals you have apparently never met–half a strike). But here, she does not even give the document a CURSORY reading, not even to say “look at this! Wow! We are a family!” Not even to make sure the LAWYER was filing the right papers. We know she didn’t, because the words “custody” and “sole” and “forfeit parental rights” would have to be within the first, very skimmable section. At this juncture, it becomes questionable as to whether she can even read.
Stupid Strike 3.
And it is at this point I realise that Darwin has failed me, because somehow, someone this stupid has managed to procreate.
Couldn’t agree more.
And we need licenses to drive. People like this should have birth control put into their water supply. hahaha
And how could she not notice that his last name on the documents was different than the one he’d given her? Umm major red flag.
That poor child, what a horrible beginning to her life.
I didn’t even think of that one. His name would be in the first line, and DIRECTLY next to pretty much every place she had to sign.
Not everyone is born smart. Okay. But it is hard to feel pity for someone so WILLFULLY ignorant.
Oh, Zelda.
I think I heart you.
ugh. both her and the guy seem totally unfit to be parents. what kind of a person, a mother, would sign her child over to someone?!?! WITHOUT reading what she was signing?!?!?! what is this, 20/20 regret on her part? hindsight? wtf?!?!?! who are these people who make these horrible life decisions, and then refuse to be responsible for their own actions? i do feel awful for the baby, though. the baby deserves better than parents like this.
why do so many stupid people breed?
And so easily? These are the kinds of things that REALLY pissed me off (and still touch a pretty raw nerve) after Hubs & I went through pregnancy losses and multiple fertility treatments.
Yes, a Dupont is just trolling the internet looking for idiot girls…
How stupid can anyone be? Read before you sign! Holy crap!
Sunned, just STUNNED.
Uh. WOW. Kind of disturbed by the amount of victim blaming going down in these comments.
Yeah big surprise, naive vulnerable person attracts predatory person who proceeds to take advantage, lets all mock and ridicule vulnerable naive person for being so vulnerable and naive…
Anyhoo, i’m going to do some reframing here, instead of ‘she’s soooo stoopid!’, I say ‘he’s sooooo evil!’, and i am going to replace ‘don’t be so naive or needy and always read before you sign’ with ‘don’t be such a manipulative abuser, don’t take advantage of vulnerable people and absolutely do not steal people’s babies’.
Jeez, empathy people.
Agreed. This woman belived the man loved her. They had a baby together. She trusted him, as one should the father of her child. She misplaced her trust, but obviously as a result of the skillful manipulations of a con artist of the highest order.
Her sins? Love and trust.
His: Deception, fraud, adultery, lying, baby theft, to name a few.
I am very comfortable with placing the blame squarely on this evil man.
The woman was incredibly naive & trusting, but she didn’t deserve to have her child stolen from her by this man & his wife. Despicable people! I bet they want to keep this quiet. Wouldn’t want the people knowing the lengths they went to to obtain a child.
Somewhat off topic but….my husband’s Aunt’s bf is a registered sex offender. The Aunt and his family claim he’s innocent and that he wasn’t smart enough to understand the plea agreement he signed! Apparently I’m the evil one for not letting my boys around this poor, dumb, wrongfully accused man 😒
Dumb/naive are not defenses. If you don’t understand something that’s legally binding, find someone who can explain it to you.
Just to be clear on the Sex Offender thing, you do know that in some states if you are caught peeing in public, you are a registered sex offender, right?
But if there is a hint of reason that his offense was really related, how ever close or far, to child abuse, yeah, trust your instincts, and keep your kids far-far away!
Just wanted to point out about how messed up the legal system is on “sex offenders”.
@mag, yes. I did know that and think its horrible! However, I read his sex offender profile on the megans law website and discussed the case with my husbands aunt. He was convicted of sexually assaulting his three year old son (which entails oral or anal penetration).
If there’s even a scintilla of a chance that this happened, I don’t want him around my 3 1/2 year old and 10 month old boys. Initially his Aunt told me they were going to have his conviction overturned because he received poor legal advice from the lawyer that recommended he sign the plea. However, they now claim it’s too expensive and I should just take their word for it. I felt like I was in the “twilight zone,” as I was being called judgmental and inconsiderate for not considering the feelings of a man accused of raping his three year old son!
Holy Sh-t! I just threw up a bit! Keep your kids away. Better be safe than sorry. It may be that this boy’s mother had wrongly accused the father, but oh you are so right not to take the chance!
And if he is innocent, he would totally understand you keeping your boys away, because he would know that he’d probably do the same.
Harsh!
@mag, it was horrifying and it was kept secret from me. The family members with female children were told, but I wasn’t told until my SIL got in a fight with the Aunt over the boyfriend wanting to drive the two hour distance from his house to my house to see my sons. Apparently the Aunt showed him their pictures and he had to come see “us” even though we barely know each other! My SIL was so afraid for my boys she revealed the secret, and now my husbands extended family has disowned me and my SIL.
And, they do claim that he was wrongly accused by his wife (at the time) because her parents won the lottery and didn’t want him to have access to their money. However, this makes no sense. Since they would have to die before his then wife got any of the money. I just sounded like a bullsh!t excuse for the accusation and conviction. It makes me sick just thinking of him and my husband’s family is just as bad for protecting him.
jee-zus! that is awful! Keep your boys safe at all costs!
And good riddance of the extended dysfunctional family. Who needs to live in fear and hatred?
A tip for the ladies (or for anyone, really): People who work for the CIA will not tell you they work for the CIA, particularly if they just met you.
If you meet someone and they tell you that, you know off the bat you just met a liar.
HA! Excellent point and very true….
If she watched as many Bill Kurtis narrated shows as I do, she would know to run the other way whenever a man says he is a Dupont or Vanderbilt. Personally, I would have laughed him out of the room.
IKR? Once a guy on Facebook told me he was a Prince (LOL) and that his mother (the Queen) was in the hospital. He then asked me if I could “help them out.” I wrote back ‘LOL’ over and over again. There are people who really fall for that stuff. Any guy who tells me within two breaths of meeting me that he’s rich or royalty gets the hand.
Or Rockefeller. Wasn’t there a Lifetime movie not long ago about a fake Rockefeller?
Look, “love is blind.” After 18 months, she trusted him and thought that he had her best interests at heart telling her he wanted to adopt her son and claim to be the father of her new baby. When you trust someone who is about to marry you, you don’t suspect they are out to burn you. That’s how con men all over are able to get money from ALL levels of intelligent people and not so intelligent people. The horrible fact is that the judge knows he conned her and is allowing this poor child to grow up until it is maybe 3 or 4 years old with these type of “parents.” That is the galling part. He should be dis-barred.
He was the biological father, right? I don’t think that is in dispute. If that is the case, and he was planning on marrying her, or she believed he was, he wouldn’t need to “adopt the baby” or have parental rights assigned to him legally.
The whole thing is very odd and she is either extremly gullible, sheltered, or unfortunately obtuse.
The problem with that is: a) he IS the baby’s father, and b) in contract law, the contract is the contract is the contract. Whatever is agreed to “within the four corners” of the document is 100% legal and binding unless it involves asking for one or both parties to commit established crimes. If the contract cannot be enforced or one party reneges, money damages are assessed pursuant to the value of the contract.
For example, let’s look at Michael Jackson’s contract with what’s-her-face. While some find it morally repugnant that she gave up her children, she agreed to it in a legally binding contract and signed that contract, and it has remained in force for years.
Contract law DOES NOT “CARE” about what happens after the contract is signed- if it’s signed, it’s signed, and that’s the end of it. Unless you can somehow “prove” that you were fraudulently coerced into signing, which is I guess where she will have to go from here, except that she admits right there in that interview that she signed the documents without reading them because she “trusted” him.
I understand that morally it seems simple, but legally, it just isn’t.
THIS IS WHY YOU DO NOT SIGN SOMETHING YOU HAVE NOT READ. I cannot reiterate that enough.
My contracts prof in law school used to say that any contract can be challenged and modified if not overturned. There are issues of capacity, coercion, fraud, among other things.
Obviously it is good advice to read and understand the damn paper first before ya sign it! Sympathy? Yes, because we must all strive for it. As for him – I think he will eventually end up charged criminally for what he did to her…
She probably would have traded the baby for magic beans eventually
I can’t feel sympathy for anyone this stupid.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is either more to this story or people are playing an elaborate prank on the media
“She probably would have traded the baby for magic beans eventually”
LMFAO
The new face of naivete. And you never. EVER. sign anything you haven’t read. EVER.
(Watch South Park’s Human Centipad.)
I’m equally amazed by her stupidity and his (and his wife’s) evilness.
If she does not want to give her baby up for adoption, she shouldn’t have to, end of story. But FFS, read before you sign, and if you don’t get it, find someone who does. Amazing.
Poor kid, both options are pretty dismal.
*SIGH* (a big one). She ignored the warning signs. Why don’t these dating sites do more to sift out the married men/women, fake names and crazies? Background checks are easy to do. This is just sad. The wife is a gem too. If he could really do that to another woman, what does she think he’s capable of doing to her?
I completely agree. This is why I won’t get on dating sites. I can just imagine how easy it is to pander to someone when you have preliminary information about their likes and interests. You know what Momma always said, “Better to be alone than attract a married sociopath you met on the Internet…”
There are just some really bad people out there. I feel horrible for her!
The guy obviously knew he was taking advantage of someone who wasn’t too intelligent. But being dumb and trusting shouldn’t mean that the person who snowed you gets to take and keep your baby.
Or walk away free without any legal consequences.
Totally agree.
Sometimes people deceive documents and in order to understand them needs to obtain legal advice and sometimes just sometimes u may have to pay. In her case I do not know what went on but any who I would like to know what the he– the wife is thinking how can u b married and knowingly adopt a child ur husband planned to have with someone else is sick that couple is sick and I don’t care how desperate u r at wanting a child if u cannot have yourself the proper way then go about it the proper way don’t lie cheat and steal some else’s baby and as for the young lady I do think she is naive and hopefully she has learned from her huge mistake but I do hope the judge takes into consideration what sick seed the couple has done
she’s beyond a moronic; and he’s a scumbag.
the kid doesn’t have a chance.
Child needs to be away from bio mom. She is a danger
“He also was talking about having kids. He said he never could have kids because him and his wife, she couldn’t get pregnant,” Gaffney said.
Am I reading this correctly? She knew he was married? I guess she thought he was going to leave his infertile wife to be with her. If that’s the case, she’s no better than he is.
I’m sorry, I want to feel sorry for her, but I can’t. She’s so stupid, she has no business raising a child. The father and his wife are sneaky and disgusting, but she’s not some innocent little Teen Mom – by 29, unless there are developmental issues, she should at the very least know to read the paperwork she’s signing in regards to the custody of her child. We’re not talking about the latest iTunes update.
No, he told her he was divorced. So I think he meant he and his then wife couldn’t have kids while they were married.
If you read the first or second paragraph, the victim says” he told me he had no children because his wife could not conceive. He did not say my
ex-wife. Unless,she is one of those ppl
who don’t listen….
The only person deserving of sympathy or pity in this story is the child. No mother should be so GD stupid as to sign any legal document concerning her child without reading it FFS! She’s incredibly naive if you want to be kind and just plain f-ing stupid if you want to be honest. The wife of the father of the child must be one of those women blinded by desperation to have a child not to mind her husbands way of doing so. She’s just a couple of steps up on the sanity ladder from those women that steal babies and kill the birth mother.
Child Protective Services need to take that kid away and put him or her into the care of some well balanced people. The mother is clearly an idiot and not fit to be a mother and the father is a sociopath not fit to be a father. I feel so bad for this kid, he/she will not have a chance! Not ONE!
Biology does not a parent make.
Why would I be sympathetic to a women not child/girl who did not use common sense. I only have sympathy for the baby. No one is that clueless in life.
*shakes head in disgust* How stupid is this woman? First of all, where is her common sense? Secondly, to have a baby so quickly with a guy who was obviously feeding her the biggest crock of bs. Really? He is royalty and working for the CIA? This tops the list of unbelievable stories.
Really, you all must be very diligent. I sign schwa all the time without reading it. I skim field trip permission forms, I sign waivers at the sports places. I constantly click the ‘terms & conditions’ box online without reading it. When my children were born, I just wanted the heck out of the hospital. I read maybe a half dozen of the 6 dozen papers I signed. This week I signed a bunch of stuff at the dmv without reading it. From the comments I feel like the only one!
This is the first I’ve heard of the story. The husband and wife obviously set her up. My goodness there are some horrible people in the world. Why didn’t they just buy a baby from a crack head a la svu ?
I hope for this poor child’s sake, the judge invalidates the adoption, severs rights of BOTH idiot bio parents and places the child with a sane, loving family. Oh…and both of the dim wits should be mandatorily sterilized…..
both are idiots. seriously?! you feel bad for the mom, CB?
I agree, how can this man’s wife live with the thought that she and her husband stole another woman’s baby. Absolutely despicable.
She was taken by a con, and a good one at that. I don’t normally comment, but enough, please stop blaming the victim. Anyone is a potentiual victim, and yes, I mean all of you.
Con men (and women for that matter) are good at what they do. They know how to spot a mark, cultivate that mark, and milk it for all its worth. I should know, I was the victim of a con man 15 years ago disguised as someone who loved me.
I met this guy through friends, folks I trusted, and we dated for six months before I figured out what he was. And let me tell you, this guy was good, but not good enough that he got away with it. He told me everything I wanted to hear, played into my emotions and desires. When things started to not add up, he always was ready with a plausible excuse. Hell, even when confronted with evidence he was lying, he had an excuse. Fortunatly, I ended up only loosing cash, a few pieces of jewlrey, CDs and my dignity. The hardest part was convincing his friends that he was not who he said he was as none of them believed me at first. They were all looking at me as if I was the con, but eventually they believed me after I showed them mounting evidence. He was even trying to groom a replacement online, which let me tell you was a very awkward chat room conversation I had to have with a complete stranger whom I probably saved from this asshole.
I am college educated, smarter than the average bear and not insecure by any stretch of the imagination. Anyone is a potential mark, blaming her and saying that you would have known better is just crap.
With regard to birth fathers on birth certificates, in some states you can not automatically put the baby’s father on the birth certificate unless you are married. My partner and I had to go through a whole separate procedure to list him as our son’s father because we are not married. We were lucky because there was a person in the building when we were figuring out all the paperwork, who was able to give us the paperwork and have it notarized otherwise we would have had to have done it after the fact. So her story about the paperwork for the birth certificate is plausible.
Curious as to what name she put on the birth certificate as the father? The fake or real one?
Seems to me that we had a very cheap and selfish couple (the baby stealer’s I mean), who had trouble getting pregnant so they deliberately went out to obtain a surrogate mother for FREE.
While more people should read all contracts they sign, I can believe that her trust was misplaced.
I truly feel sorry for her and hope that she gets justice from the court.
For what it’s worth, I worked with a real DuPont once and he was as sketchy as this guy. Plus he was a narcissistic douchenozzle to boot. Sounds like this guy could easily pass off as the real thing.
Well i guess everyone here saying she’s stupid, unfit etc. and doesn’t deserve her child must be perfect. People make mistakes and get conned all the time. It doesn’t matter how smart and self confident,independent you are. Yes she was clearly looking for love and brushed off some red flags and any other doubt she may have had he could have sweet talked all the worry from her head. His version doesn’t make sense either. If she knew he was married and still chose to have his child then he could have just taken her to court to get custody and said she was unfit. But seeing as he drafted documents terminating her rights he clearly took advantage of her.
I think there’s a HUGE gap between perfection and signing away the rights of your newborn baby to a married member of The DuPont family. Did she trust him because he’s a CIA agent maybe?
Also “Hey honey here’s a document about parental rights, just sign it and hurry, my barren wife who really wants a baby is waiting in the car?” is a really big “red flag” to ignore.
We feel compassion, but anyone this gullible needs an “attendant”.
I’m a little baffled that in the comments so many people are talking about women empowerment yet, here is a woman, who was extremely naive who was manipulated by an obvious sociopath, and instead we victim blame. It’s easy to say, “oh I’m too smart, independent, insert adjective here, for this to happen to me” because facing the reality that on some level we are all vulnerable to sociopaths who prey on decent, normal human beings is scarier and too sad to face.
I feel for this woman. Extreme naïveté or the need to be loved should not have been punished by losing her child. We should be disgusted by monsters, not disgusted by the victims.
This too, is an important part of empowering our daughters and fellow women.
I agree completely. There is no empathy, no decency, and no humanity whatsoever in most of these comments.
To be unable to have sympathy for someone who was abused by a conman and his wife is an appalling comment on one’s character. “Well, I would have…” — well, how terribly convenient, to comment with one’s nose in the air about something that happened to someone else. Life isn’t zero-sum. You don’t have to only feel sorry for very young orphans or other purely innocent/blameless humans victimized, intentionally, by other humans. Come the f on.
Wat! This is ludicrous, what the heck is wrong with our society.
I’m appalled at how judgmental most of the comments are… seems like none of you have ever been mislead, conned, lied to or cheated on… There are many many people out there who are really good at manipulating their partners, friends and families. This woman is obviously very very naive, yes, but remember that HE is the one who lied and set her up. Stop with the victim blaming please, and remember how you judged her next time you just discover you signed a shitty contract or that someone you trusted stabbed you in the back! Karma is a bitch, you all…
How do the authorities even letting these crminal couple to even stay near the baby?!
Who cares if she signed something she didn’t read through?
This is absurd. We are talking about her own daughter and these people sound completely sick.
Inhuman to do something like that!
umm…i didn´t think STUPID when i read this…i think this propably could have happened to me,since you may think im effing stupid etc.but it is simply being just too naive and trusting.dont know why i myself would have thought the father of my son handed me papers saying they are totally harmless only to them being FOR ME TO GIVE UP MY CHILD TO HIM AND HIS WIFE.after birth,i did sign some papers that gives him his rights as a father,thou that was not done at home,but at a supervised situation.
God, I feel so sorry for this woman. How horrible.
Gaffney dated this man for 19 months…This was no short term relationship. He groomed this young lady like a predator.
We as women should stand with her, not throwing stones…Damn biyatches it’s times like this I am ashamed of my gender!!