Hopes To Teach Judicial Lesson

Gay “Kidnap” Dad Tells His Side

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Eric Hyett’s looking to clear his name.

The 37-year old made news earlier this month when he escorted his son Jedidiah to Israel. This sounds innocuous enough, but not when you ask Hyett’s estranged husband, Joshua Glazer. Glazer claims Hyett “kidnapped” their son, over whom they have joint custody.

Infuriated by the reports, Boston-born Hyett, seen in the foreground above, sent an email out last week explaining his side of the story. He did not “abscond” with his son, he says. Rather, the trip to Israel’s for the best of Jedidiah’s “human rights,” which Glazer violated by failing to adhere to court ordered custodial agreements. And, as the basis of his argument, Glazer’s using the 1996 Hague Convention.

From an email Hyett sent Glazer on August 5, 2008:

[Jedidiah] and I have safely and legally arrived in the State of Israel, where we plan to remain in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as as Article 13 of the Hague Convention.

I have taken this step because Jed has consistently been denied his human rights due to your absolute refusal since September 24, 2007 to abide by the New York Family Court’s Temporary Order of Joint Custody. My attorneys and I have written to you over 200 times on the matter of Joint Legal Custody and have received not a single response. Letters to you from Jed’s court-appointed Law Guardian on this issue have all gone unanswered as well. You have repeatedly violated the Court Order to share responsibilites [sic] for Jed’s physical, emotional and developmental well-being with me. It is Jed’s human right and legal right to be nurtured and parented by both of us.

The Hague Convention typically gives the residing nations authority on such, so Hyett must successfully argue that Glazer endangers their son or has been shucking his legal responsibilities, thus giving Israel the right of custodial way.

Obviously displeased with Hyett’s actions, Glazer last week received an Israeli search warrant and successfully reclaimed his son. Hyett insists, however, that Glazer used “false pretenses” to obtain official involvement.

Hyett – after his lawyer translated the Hebrew affidavit – contends Glazer (pictured to the right) told a judge that he had been convicted of kidnapping in the States, which he has not, that Hyett’s been hospitalized for drug addiction and that Hyett suffers from AIDS-related dementia. Hyett denies both being an addict and having AIDS. (Although another source confirmed HIV infection.)

Glazer did not respond to an email for comment.

Glazer’s alleged misconduct hardly counts as Hyett’s only gripe in this ugly matter. He maintains that Glazer, whom he met in 2002 and married in 2004, has an unnaturally close relationship with his mother, Joan Glazer, who’s husband, Ira Glazer, is the CEO of WRCA, once called the Wire Rope Company of America. It’s Mrs. Glazer, Hyett told us, who helped break down the men’s relationship – and complicate things for their son:

The sickest part of the story is that my mother-in-law came into my Jereusalem [sic] home with the abduction team and said to my son: “Jed, come to Mommy!” The reason for the end of my marriage to Josh Glazer a year ago is that the man is already married– to his MOTHER– who has since forbidden him from having any contact with me whatsoever. Having told her repeatedly not to refer to herself as “Mommy” as it confuses my son (who does not have a Mommy but has two Daddies instead), I find this behavior repugnant and definitely not in my son’s best interest.

In the end, Hyett tells us he doesn’t simply want to iron out his custody battle with Glazer, but shine a light on what he perceives to be American Family Court’s failings: “…What is on trial here in Israel is not Eric or Josh” he wrote, “But the NYC Family Court system that allowed a child to suffer for so long with no end in sight. A criminal in the US has the right to a “speedy trial,” so why not a child?” It’s for this reason, says Hyett, that he fled to Israel:

[The Hague Convention], combined with UN Charter on Children’s Rights (to which Israel is signatory but not the US) made Israel a good forum for raising these issues. I could have run off to Cambodia or any non-Hague nation and disappeared if I wanted Jed all to myself. My point was to raise the issue of US Family Court process and its betrayal of children. I feel that Josh has rights too, but that our individual rights as parents are superseded by Jed’s right to BE PARENTED.

Hyett and Glazer will face off in Israeli court this Thursday. Regardless of the outcome, this poor child’s obviously in much more tug-of-war.

In the meantime, here’s a PDF of the Hague Convention.