Bring Peri Home

Please help reunite Peri with her biological mother (Carla Moquin) and biological sisters, Alpha and Echo. Peri's adoption at birth was procured through the extensive fraud of her now-adoptive parents, Susan Englert and Demyn Plantenberg, and I am working to regain custody of her. I have the support and assistance of several professionals in this effort, and I plan to keep Peri in contact with her adoptive parents if I am able to regain custody, for Peri's well-being.

California case law and statutes make clear that fraud in procuring an adoption is grounds for rescission of the adoption and return of custody to the biological parent, and there is California case law holding that an adoption can be conditioned on an agreement for post-adoption contact. There is no California case holding that fraud is not sufficient grounds for rescission and return of custody. According to California law, if an adoption was procured by fraud, the relinquishment signed by the biological parent is not valid and the adoption is null. There is no California case law contradicting these principles for rescission of an adoption if fraud is proven.

Of course, Peri's well-being and best interests are my primary concern and are why
I filed this lawsuit in the first place and why
I have spent many hundreds of hours trying to fix this situation. I am working with numerous experts to ensure a positive transition and preservation of Peri's bond with Susan and Demyn in a healthy way, because I and the experts who are helping me all believe that this would be in Peri's best interests. One of Susan and Demyn's major arguments has been that even if there was fraud, because Peri has been with them until now, they believe that her best interests involve staying with them. However, given that Susan and Demyn fabricated a story (which has now clearly been proven false) in order to prevent evidence-gathering and delay the case by nearly two years, this argument carries little weight. In addition, several experts (and many other people supporting my efforts) believe that Peri's best interests involve her return to my care as soon as possible.

Susan and Demyn have clearly admitted that they always intended to legally designate the adoption as closed, which prevented our family from having any legally enforceable contact rights whatsoever and ensured that they could completely eliminate our contact with Peri at any time. Intent is the hardest component to prove in a fraud case, and I have a clear, sworn admission of the intent needed to prove my case. I also have extensive evidence documenting what happened, the suspicious timing of Susan and Demyn's cutting off of contact just after finalization, and their leading us on for years by telling us that things would get better with time.

Susan and Demyn went to extensive lengths to procure my consent to Peri's adoption while simultaneously going to great lengths to ensure that they could avoid being held to a single promise they made to our family. Within days after the adoption was finalized, they began treating her biological parents--and even her biological sisters--with callousness and disregard. Their clear admission in the lawsuit of their prior intent from before Peri's birth not to provide us with any legally enforceable contact (while they were telling us that they considered us close friends and part of their family, participating in a documentary about the openness, promising us extensive contact, and signing the contact agreement that clearly states it was to be filed) illustrates their lack of remorse or concern for what they have done and raises grave concerns about their lack of compassion and sensitivity as Peri's adoptive parents. Their actions show that they either lack understanding or don't care about the implications for Peri if she ever discovers how they procured her adoption, or if she sees the Discovery show and wants to know why she doesn't see her sisters more than once a year. The most likely result is that Peri would come to believe that we did not want to see her--which would likely be very detrimental for her emotional well-being.