A Florida father claims the mother of his baby told him the infant died during childbirth, but that wasn't the truth. Brandon Marteliz's daughter is very much alive and was reportedly put up for adoption without his consent. Now, the father is embroiled in a lawsuit so he can gain custody of the child he thought he lost.
Marteliz told WFTS he was with the child's mother just days before she gave birth, and he thought that everything was OK. He shared an image of him and the woman looking happy with his hand on her pregnant belly. Marteliz said his life was torn apart in the days that followed the photo.
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Marteliz said the baby's mother began acting strangely.
The devastated father told WFTS that the day before his daughter was born, he texted the mother and asked when she was going to the hospital. The mother allegedly told him her plan but then seemingly ghosted him. He was understandably concerned. His baby's mother later told him that the infant died from SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome. The news crushed Marteliz.
"I couldn't accept it. I needed to see," Marteliz said. "I'm going to hospitals, and they're calling security on me because I'm in here looking for my daughter. And I can't find her."
A short time later, the story reportedly changed.
He told WFTS that he received text messages from the mother that read, "I have her" and "I got the baby." He responded that he wanted to see the baby, but the mother disappeared again.
"I found out from a CPS lady that there was a baby that was born, a newborn that was alive. And I reached out to someone that worked for her. The adoption agency that she told me about," Marteliz said. "I felt like OK, well I'm the father, I'm her dad, I can take a test, I can prove I'm her dad, my daughter's alive."
The mother allegedly signed papers to put the infant up for adoption without the father's consent.
According to court documents obtained by the news station, the mother did not list Marteliz as the baby's father, only as a "man who may have interest in the minor child," WFTS reported.
The court documents reportedly explained that a termination of parental rights was not required as Marteliz's name didn't appear on the baby's birth certificate. His name also didn't appear on Florida's putative father list, a state registry for fathers who claim paternity.
According to the mother, Marteliz didn't provide for her during the pregnancy.
In the court documents, the defendant claims Marteliz had "not paid a fair and reasonable amount of living and medical expenses."
"I am willing to do whatever it takes to be given custody of my daughter and be in her life," Marteliz reportedly countered in the court documents. "I am willing to pay whatever form or support or cost it takes."
WTFS reported a judge ruled in October that Marteliz did not provide adequate support for the child's mother; therefore, his consent for the adoption was not required.
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Marteliz is heartbroken.
He told WTFS that he spoke with a representative of Heart of Adoptions, which handled the baby's adoption, and he was not satisfied.
"They were trying to ask me if I would — that she's going to a great home and all this, and I, I couldn't hear that. I cut off, I said no she's not. Over my dead body, she's not," he said.
David Hurvitz, Marteliz's lawyer, said he is fighting an uphill battle with a law that favors adoption agencies.
"It's very difficult to navigate it and it's hard to fight against it, it needs reform," Hurvitz told WFTS.
