from U.S. Department of Energy v. Masterdecided Wednesday by Judge Norman Moon, W.D. Va. (For more on the Virginia Court of Appeals’ recent decision invalidating an adoption, see this story from the Associated Press [Martha Mendoza, Juliet Linderman & Claire Galofaro]):
The facts alleged in the plaintiff’s complaint tell a remarkable story of tenacity and duplicity. In September 2019, “Baby Doe” was discovered in the rubble of her home following a joint operation by U.S. and Afghan forces in rural Afghanistan. Her parents and siblings are deceased. She was seriously injured and was sent to a US military hospital for emergency treatment. Soon after, the International Committee of the Red Cross (“ICRC”) and the U.S. and Afghan governments began trying to find “Baby Doe” and reunite her with her biological family in Afghanistan.
In February 2020, their efforts paid off. Baby Doe is reunited with her family. The plaintiffs, John Doe (young Doe’s cousin) and his wife, Jane Nameless, were a young married Afghan couple who became young Doe’s guardians. They raised the little doe as their own daughter for a year and a half. But in the meantime, an American couple is struggling to get a doe out of their care.
The defendant, Joshua Mast, a Marine Corps major and military prosecutor, was stationed in Afghanistan in the fall of 2019, where he became familiar with Baby Doe and her case. Joshua knew that the ICRC was looking for Baby Doe’s family. However, in October 2019, Joshua and his wife, defendant Stephanie Mast, filed a request Virginia The family court requested temporary custody of Little Doe, claiming she was “stateless” and that the Afghan government would soon relinquish power (also known as “jurisdiction”) over her. At the time, Doe had never been to Virginia. Or the United States. Stephanie had never met her. But based on their statements, a Virginia family court granted the Masters temporary custody. Days later, Stephanie obtained an interlocutory adoption order from Virginia Circuit Court naming Joshua and Stephanie Mast as the doe’s father and mother.
Then, the day before Doe was to be reunited with her biological family in Afghanistan, the Masters came before this court and sued the government, asking for an emergency order to halt the transfer. Joshua’s brother, defendant Richard Mast, represents them in all of these proceedings. When this court asked Richard why Joshua and Stephanie wanted to prevent Doe from returning to her relatives in Afghanistan, he incorrectly responded that they were not seeking to adopt Doe, but only to obtain her medical care in the United States care. This court denied the motion.
However, the Masters were undeterred by the prospect of the doe being reunited with her family. In fact, just days later, Richard obtained a final adoption order for Masters from the Virginia Circuit Court for the baby doe. Additionally, Joshua Mast continues a new program to contact does directly and convince them to bring doe calves to the United States. To do this, Joshua used his connections with defendant Kimberly Motley, a lawyer working in Afghanistan. Joshua told Motley that he and his wife wanted to adopt the doe and raise her in the United States. Motley knew about the custody order. She also knew Afghanistan had not relinquished jurisdiction over “Baby Doe,” thereby invalidating the order. She also knew that the ICRC had helped reunite Doe with her Afghan family. Despite this, Motley agrees to help the Masters take the doe away from John and Jane Doe so that the Masters can raise her. Motley contacted John and Jane Doe directly on Masters’ behalf. Over the next year, Motley courted John and Jane Doe, telling them repeatedly that an American family (the Masters) wanted to help Jane Doe’s baby get the professional medical care he needed in the United States. She even introduced John and Jane Doe directly to Masters. Joshua Mast paid Motley thousands of dollars for her help.
Masters also cooperated with defendant Ahmad Osmani, an Afghan who has family in Afghanistan. Osmani met Joshua Mast in a WhatsApp Bible study group and agreed to help the Masts bring Doe to the United States so they could raise her as their own daughter. Osmani served as translator between Masters and John and Jane Doe. He told Motley the same story. However, neither Motley nor Osmani informed John and Jane Doe of the Masters’ custody or adoption order when they contacted them; or of efforts to prevent Doe from being reunited with them. Joshua Mast wired Osmani more than a thousand dollars. He used the funds to buy Doe a fake Afghan passport for the Masters, with an Americanized name and the Masters’ surname.
In August 2021, as the Taliban closed in on Kabul, John and Jane Doe thought this might be their last chance to get medical care for “Baby Doe” in the United States. Although Jane Doe was in her third trimester, they did not agree to bring Jane Doe’s baby to the United States for medical care until Joshua assured them they would be able to return to Afghanistan later. Along the way, Joshua and Stephanie Mast urged them three times to let Doe travel to the United States with them, claiming it would make it easier for her to enter the country. The Du family refused. Joshua Mast also falsely claimed that he was their lawyer and could help them get through customs. When they finally arrived in the United States, Joshua Mast gave immigration officials a fake Afghan passport for “Baby Doe” – a passport that Baby Doe had never seen before. He told them it was just a means to facilitate her easy trip to the United States.
When John, Jane, and Doe arrived in the United States in September 2021 and were housed at Fort Pickett, Virginia, Joshua Mast hatched a plan to remove Doe from their care once and for all . A woman riding in a transport vehicle, under the guise of a housing transfer, placed the doe in a car seat while the doe was inside the vehicle; when it stopped, the woman picked up the doe and held her. A social worker “then informed John and Jane Doe that they were not the legal guardians of Baby Doe and that Joshua Mast had adopted the child.” At first they didn’t understand. However, when Joshua Mast walked into the room, the Doss knew he would be taking the doe with him. The woman gave the doe to Stephanie Mast over the objections of John and Jean Doe. Jane Doe, who was more than eight months pregnant at the time, fell to her knees and cried, begging Joshua Mast not to take little Jane Doe away. From the day Joshua Mast and Stephanie Mast abducted Baby Doe, John Doe and Jane Doe The doe was never seen again.
John and Jane Jane Doe have been doggedly pursuing ways to challenge the Masters’ custody and adoption orders for Jane Doe’s baby in Virginia courts. They had some success this month, when a Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that the Masters’ custody and adoption orders were invalid from the beginning. This federal case does not involve adoption or custody. It involves claims by John and Jane Doe that Masters, Motley and Osmani conspired to kidnap Doe’s baby and committed fraud and multiple torts in the process. They seek millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.
The case was brought before the court after defendants filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s amended complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, lack of personal jurisdiction, and failure to state a claim. The court held that it had jurisdiction over the majority of the case for the following reasons – although both of the plaintiffs’ claims, their request for declaratory relief and any claim brought on behalf of “Baby Doe” will be dismissed no bias The domestic relations exception falls within federal diversity jurisdiction at this time. Notwithstanding these claims, the Court will not abandon resolution of John and Jane Doe’s three remaining infringement claims under the Patents Act. Burford or colorado river Abstentionism. The court further concluded that it had personal jurisdiction over defendants Kimberly Motley and Ahmad Osmani. Finally, the plaintiffs advanced state law claims beyond reasonableness, alleging fraud, conspiracy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress by the defendants….
There’s a lot more to the opinion.
