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Judge Criticizes Quets' Custody Action


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Allison Quets outside court
Allison Quets outside court

A judge has ordered a birth mother who kidnapped twins from their adoptive parents to pay the couple's legal fees, saying the woman pursued flimsy claims against them in court.

Allison Quets pleaded guilty last fall to international parental kidnapping and was placed on probation for five years. She spent more than eight months in jail before agreeing to plead guilty.

Quets took the twins, who were 17 months old at the time, on Dec. 22, 2006, from their adoptive parents, Kevin and Denise Needham, following an approved visit. Authorities apprehended her a week later in Ottawa, Ontario, and returned the twins to the Apex couple.

She has fought their adoption for more than two years, saying she was ill after suffering medical problems during her pregnancy and that she signed adoption papers under duress.

After Florida trial and appellate courts terminated Quets' parental rights in the case, she pursued the case in Wake County. She filed suit last fall to regain visitation rights, stating the adoption was contingent upon her "retaining a continuing and familiar role" in the lives of the children after the adoption was finalized.

District Judge Anne Salisbury dismissed her claims in January, saying she couldn't seek visitation because her parental rights had been terminated.

Salisbury last week filed an order requiring Quets to pay the Needhams' legal fees in the Wake County lawsuit, ruling that Quets filed the suit – and even misled her attorney – knowing she had few facts and legal arguments on her side.

"While (Quets') purpose has always been to resume contact with her biological children, the practical effect has been the creation of a financial and emotional burden on the (Needhams)," Salisbury wrote in the 17-page decision.(Quets was artificially inseminated, so she is the birth mother, but not the biological mother.)

Quets plans to appeal the ruling, according to her attorney, Mike Harrell. She also is appealing Salisbury's January ruling ending her lawsuit.

The Needhams' attorney, Deborah Sandlin, has until April 1 to provide a breakdown of the couple's legal expenses in the case.

RELATED TOPICS: Wake County, Apex, Florida Keys Oil Spill

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Well, this is Allison. Would you like me to demonstrate this by posting personal family information? I would rather not do that since embarrassing and humiliating people in a public forum is not a humane and decent thing to do. John Gurley and Denaze Needham had many personal conversations for many hours every week. Much personal information was exchanged and some of it shared with me. It was this relationship which John believed was based on trust and respect that allowed the Needhams to enter my life. Even John was exploited and there have been very unkind postings about him. It is really cruel and unnecessary. Ultimately, it only matters what Tyler and Holly Quets think and they will be traumatized to see the cruelty of these blogs. I think it is time to stop all damaging behavior. There is no point to it.

A couple more curious questions here. Maybe someone will indulge me with answers.

Why didn't the Needhams answer the door when Allison showed up with a police officer to reclaim the children just two days after the Needhams got to NC with them? Seems she was within her rights.

And when the neighbors looked at the house when it was for sale, why were the babies' cribs crammed into the smallest spare bedroom and why wasn't the nursery decorated? And where were the pictures of the babies in the collection of family pictures?

Let's just put it all on the table, eh?

wcnc, I have to say your statements about hg concern me greatly. I hope others aren't misled by your claim to be knowledgeable about the disease. If a woman gains 10 lbs in a twin pregnancy while on tpn, that's a VERY poor response to treatment. Seizures are also a very serious complication of HG that indicate nuerological complications, and didn't Allison have those AFTER delivery? That's some bad HG. And I will add that the women I known who have died of HG have ALL been in the hospital under treatment. So the idea that hospitalization is protection is just a false idea. Please do not mislead readers about the severity of the disease. Doing so is a disservice to all who suffer from it.

ROFL..reputation smeared and damaged...this is making me laugh so hard...

Let me try to help out here...I guess that is what happens when you kidnap two innocent children. You ruined it yourself...lolol Ok Jokester "alquets"...I do so love a good laugh. Was that the right answer?

alquets ROFL!! Bahahahahaha

Ok, now that I have my composure, whoever this really is, you are cracking us up with your sarcasm. You must have read her stupid, rambling website to come up with your post. Love it, you should go into comedy.

See if it was the real Allison she would just be fishing for real names so she could sue somebody else, blame somebody else, etc. Certainly her lawyers would have told her to lay low, especially after the Judge sanctioned her. But then again, how many attorneys have we seen her with in the media. Never the same one for very long.

Let's all let the Needham family live in peace. Oh and whoever posted as alquets, the children are protected. You don't see the Needhams parading around in the media do you?

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