OK Supreme Court Issues Stay In Custody Case

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court has granted an emergency stay to keep a 3-year-old Cherokee girl with her biological father.

A docket listing for the state Supreme Court shows that the stay was granted Friday in the case of 3-year-old Veronica.

Her biological father, Dusten Brown, has been fighting a South Carolina couple, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, for custody of the girl for years.

Both sides were in a Nowata County court on Friday. The Oklahoma Supreme Court granted an emergency stay to the Nowata court's ruling that Veronica should be transferred immediately to the Capobiancos.

Veronica's birth mother put her up for adoption. Brown is Veronica's birth father and a member of the Cherokee Nation. He fought the Capobiancos' adoption of Veronica under the Indian Child Welfare Act.

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