Senate OKs Bill Intended to Free Jailed Mother

WASHINGTON — The Senate late Thursday approved a measure designed to free imprisoned plastic surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Morgan, who has been in jail for two years because she hid her 7-year-old daughter, Hilary, and refuses to produce her for unsupervised visits with her father.

Morgan has charged her former husband, oral surgeon Dr. Eric Foretich, with sexually abusing the child, a charge that he has vehemently denied.

The Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent just before midnight.

The bill would place a 12-month limit on civil contempt jailings in child custody cases in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. It would apply retroactively to Morgan, who has been held in a Washington jail since Aug. 28, 1987.

House OKd Similar Bill

The House passed a similar bill in June, but it would limit all contempt jailings in the District of Columbia to 18 months. A House-Senate conference committee must resolve differences between the two versions before a bill can be signed by President Bush.

“The purpose of civil contempt is not to punish but to coerce compliance with the court’s order,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), sponsor of the Senate bill, said on the Senate floor before the vote.

“Once it is clear that the civil contempt sanction will not coerce a recalcitrant individual, that sanction must be removed,” Hatch said. “The failure to do so constitutes a deprivation of liberty or property without due process.”

Foretich, however, called the congressional action “a repudiation and a disenfranchisement of both my daughter and me.” He said his goal was not to keep his former wife in jail but to get Hilary back.

Last month, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals, Washington’s highest court, ruled that Morgan was being held in prison unlawfully. But the panel’s decision to free her was stayed pending a hearing by the full court, scheduled for Sept. 20. It was unclear if the oral arguments will still take place as scheduled in light of the congressional action.