Hello, my name is Robert, and I’m reaching out to ask for your support during one of the most challenging times of our lives. I have been fighting an uphill battle to protect my legally adopted son, Eric, from an unjust and highly contested legal situation that threatens to tear our family apart. This battle has been raging on since at least 2020, and I now find myself in desperate need of assistance to cover the legal fees that are necessary to continue fighting for my son’s future.

Here's what’s at stake: My son was legally adopted by me, his mother’s husband, and we have raised him together in a loving, stable, and nurturing home along with his sister. He participates in sports, goes to church/religious education, and is a brilliant young man. However, his biological mother’s ex-partner, a man who is not the biological father, has taken the fight to court — in a jurisdiction far away from where we lived at the time (over 130 miles away in fact, El Paso County Colorado 4th Judicial District). He has convinced a court to designate him as my son’s “psychological father,” even though he never adopted him when he had the opportunity and with zero testimony by a mental health professional or even an advocate/liaison for my son, who had been living with me for almost a full year prior to this decision.

This individual is now attempting to change custody, decision making, and whom my son resides with, even though we have been the ones to raise him. He’s filed for custody, and his lawyer is using aggressive tactics to intimidate and silence me throughout the entire process claiming that my presence or mere messages through email or the "talking parents" app is "interference". I am being bullied with threats of contempt, and I’ve been denied a meaningful voice or say in decisions about my son’s life, even though I’ve never been deemed unfit and continue to have legal decision-making rights over him. This has been a painful and exhausting battle, and despite the legal barriers he has pushed, I am determined to protect my family. We have been all the way to the state supreme court twice but they declined to take the case because it was too acute. However, we scored a higher legal victory in the court of appeals which upheld my adoption case that he appealed, but said I need to challenge his status in El Paso County where he filed to become a psychological father... which has proven unfruitful...

For over a year, this “psychological father” had proceeded in court without properly joining me as an indispensable party, even though it was clear to everyone involved that I legally adopted my wife’s son in open Morgan County Court. We filed motions to set aside prior orders for failing to join an indispensable party, motions to dismiss psychological father for lack of standing post adoption, and even had my son see a licensed mental health therapist who testified that my son did not consider this man a psychological father, but the court dismissed her because she did not "solely" work with children. The emotional and financial toll of this case is overwhelming, and without legal support, I fear that my son could be ripped from our home and placed with someone who has no legal claim to him and has never been part of his life in a meaningful way.

We are asking for your help to cover the growing legal fees so that we can continue fighting in court to ensure that my son stays with the family who loves and cares for him. The funds raised will go directly to attorney costs, court fees, and other legal expenses to ensure that we can keep up this fight.... because it never ends... and this clown just keeps filing more and more and more. This go around will be his third attempt since 2020 to modify parenting time/custody orders to try and take Eric, and a new attempt to subpoena my financials to reduce any child support that he may have to owe (I don't want any, I want my adoption and rights as a parent recognized).

Every donation, no matter how small, will make a huge difference in helping us protect our son and keep our family intact. Your support means the world to us, and we are deeply grateful for any help you can provide, whether through a donation or simply by sharing our story. I have literally emptied my retirement savings and paid well over $100k in recent years for attorney retainers and fees for both my wife and I (since we are two separate parties but with aligned interests).

Thank you for standing with us during this difficult time. We remain hopeful that with your support, we can keep our son home where he belongs.

With heartfelt thanks,

The Camilleri Family