Family and friends held up signs in front of the Baker County courthouse asking for the publics help in getting a nearly 4-year-old girl back after a judge granted custody of her to a sex offender. Last week, the judge found that the law requires Miranda Coleman be turned over to her legal, but not biological, father, Donald Coleman, because he was married to her mother. Her mother died, and now her family is begging to get the girl back in their custody, saying she shouldn't be living with a man who's a registered sex offender. Miranda's mother's family said they're worried about her well-being, and despite all the legal documents and arguments, they don't want people to forget that at the middle of all the debate and drama is an innocent young girl.
"We see her toys, and they're still in the same place," Becky Graves, Miranda's aunt, said while crying. "She doesn't wake up in the morning to tell us she loves us. She doesn't tell us she loves us before she goes to bed."
Graves said she has been brought to tears a lot lately since Miranda was taken away from her family by order of the courts. Miranda will be 4 years old on Sunday. She'll likely spend her birthday with her legal father, Coleman, a registered sex offender. "You can't play with a child's life," Graves said. "It's not a puppy. It's a human being.
"The custody battle is long and complicated. Coleman had a relationship with Miranda's mother, Wanelle Coleman, years ago. He was 38 at the time, and she was just 14. Wanelle Coleman became pregnant and had Donald Coleman's child. Donald Coleman was charged with having sex with a minor and sent to jail. But Wanelle and Donald Coleman said they were in love, so they stayed together, got married and had two more children. Miranda was the result of an extra-marital affair. It was part of the reason Wanelle and Donald Coleman were going through a divorce in 2007.
But before the divorce was final, and when Miranda was only weeks old, Wanelle Coleman died in a car crash, meaning Donald Coleman was still Miranda's legal father. That's why a judge last week granted custody to Donald Coleman and not Wanelle Coleman's family, who fears for the little girl's safety in Donald Coleman's home. "There's rodents and holes in the floor and wires hanging from the ceilings. There's exposed wires in the wall," Graves said of Donald Coleman's house. Circuit court documents appear to tell a different story.
The motions filed allege Miranda's grandmother, Rita Manning, who's been raising Miranda since she was born, "wrongfully removed or wrongfully detained the minor child." Manning was charged with child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor because she allegedly knew of the relationship Donald Coleman had with Wanelle Coleman when she was just a young teen, according to the documents. An emergency motion in the documents reads, "Rita Manning has charges in the past relating to children, which cause concern for the safety and well-being of the child.
"Manning's family, though, denies she is responsible for any wrongdoing and say she only signed off on the marriage because she felt it was best, given her daughter was already pregnant. Friends and family of Miranda's late mother have been outside the courthouse for days now, protesting, asking for help. They want Miranda back, and they said they won't give up until they have her. "It's awful," Graves said. "She's been with us since she's been born, and to have her snatched out of our arms is just as bad as losing her mom.
"Donald Coleman was unavailable for comment Monday. He also has custody of the three children he fathered with Wanelle Coleman. Wanelle's family is trying to get custody of them, too. They said they want all of Wanelle's children because they said they're at risk for some serious harm living with Donald Coleman because of his past. Graves and her family said that as they fight to have Miranda back, they want the laws changed on who a sex offender can have custody of
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