by NJJN Staff

June 4, 2009

New Jersey's senators, Frank R. Lautenberg (D) and Robert Menendez (D) hailed the decision by a Brazilian federal court to return Sean Goldman to his father, David Goldman of Tinton Falls. Sean and his father were to be reunited June 3.

Sean, who is nine, was taken to Brazil by his mother, Bruna Goldman, in 2004, purportedly for a two-week vacation. Upon her arrival, she informed her husband that she intended to remain in Brazil with their son. Goldman then began an intensive campaign to bring Sean home.

After obtaining a Brazilian divorce, Bruna married a Brazilian attorney; she died in childbirth in 2008. Her wealthy and influential family and her second husband have continued to fight efforts to return Sean to his father. Only recently was David Goldman allowed by Brazilian authorities to visit with Sean for the first time since the boy was taken to Brazil.

“After several agonizing years, justice may finally be done for the Goldman family,” Lautenberg said. “We successfully pushed the U.S. and Brazilian governments to reunite the Goldman family, and it looks like our efforts have paid off. Nothing can make up for the years lost between David and Sean, but reunification will allow the Goldman family to rebuild and put this difficult episode behind them.”

Menendez said, “This terrific news means that the heartbreaking story of a NJ family torn apart will finally have a happy ending when father and son are together again. The one truth at the heart of this case that made this the only moral and just verdict was that family comes first.”

Lautenberg, Menendez, and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) were the prime authors of a Senate resolution that passed in March calling for Sean’s return to the United States. In January, Lautenberg met with David Goldman and U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Clifford Sobel in separate meetings about the case. Lautenberg also personally urged Brazilian Ambassador to the U.S. Antonio Patriota to press his government to follow international law and return the boy.

In February, Lautenberg and Menendez sent a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calling on him to follow international law and assist in the return of Sean to his father.

Under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, to which both the United States and Brazil are signatories, a child who is a habitual resident in one party country and who has been removed to another party country in violation of a parent’s custodial rights is to be returned to the country of habitual residence.

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