The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

March 14, 2007

Judge OKs visits for twins’ mother

Ends visitation by jailed father

By Dan Nienaber

MANKATO — Visitation will continue for the mother but not the father of conjoined twins born at a Rochester hospital, according to a judge’s ruling filed Wednes-day in Blue Earth County.

Valerie Jean James, 19, and Robert Lee Heck III, 27, both of Mankato, are fighting Blue Earth Coun-ty’s effort to end their parental rights. Both were charged in Olmsted County last week with assaulting one of their twin boys born conjoined in November, then immediately separated. The twins and an older daughter were taken from them in January, shortly after doctors reported one of the twins had 24 rib and leg fractures.

A motion was made Tuesday by Mark Lindahl, assistant Blue Earth County attorney, to also end the couple’s visitation sessions with the children during the civil process that’s started to end their parental rights. The couple has been allowed to have one-hour supervised visitations with the children three times a week since the children were placed in protective custody.

James and Heck are scheduled to make an initial appearance for the assault charges on April 12. Neither James nor Heck was taken into custody after the Olmsted County charges were filed in Rochester. However, Heck was jailed for probation violations from an unrelated theft conviction in Nicollet County late last week. He later asked a judge to execute his one-year prison sentence for the conviction, which will result in about three months in jail for Heck with credit for good time and time served.

In his order following the motion, Blue Earth County District Court Judge Bradley Walker said ending Heck’s visitation rights was a moot point right now because the sentence Heck is serving doesn’t allow visitation.

Walker said James should be allowed to continue visitation because she’s innocent of the criminal accusations in Olmsted County until proven guilty. However, Walker also pointed out that a judge there may end contact with the children as a condition of James’ release after she makes her initial court appearance April 12.

He also said the attorneys involved “were all very passionate” while they argued their sides of the case Tuesday. More evidence is needed before the parental rights issue goes to trial, Walker added.

“In the child protection/termination matter, the filed documents make it readily apparent that the child has been the subject of egregious harm,” Walker wrote in a memorandum filed with his order. “The nature and extent of the serious injuries including multiple broken bones is obvious. The causation of the traumatic injuries is still the subject of dispute and must ultimately be determined after hearing credible and admissible evidence rather than simply arguments of counsel.”

The order is temporary, Walker said, and can be addressed again by attorneys for both sides during another hearing scheduled for March 23.

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