Cherokee child, Baby Veronica, returned to adoptive parents

A 4-year-old one percent Cherokee girl has been returned to her adoptive parents after the Oklahoma Supreme Court lifted an emergency stay that determined she should be with her biological father.

Baby Veronica was handed to her adoptive parents Melanie and Matt Capobianco on Monday night.

The girl's biological father reportedly held back tears as he packed her bags and readied to send Veronica to the South Carolina home where she spent the first 27 months of her life.

“He told her she was going to stay with Matt and Melanie (Capobianco) and they would be nice to her,” said Shannon Jones of Charleston, the birth father’s attorney. “He told her he loved her.”

The lengthy custody battler over the toddler began when Brown won custody over the girl in South Carolina's county and state courts citing the federal law protecting Native American families as paramount.

Veronica, who is 3/256th Cherokee, moved in with Brown in July 2011 after the ruling, but the Capobiancos continued to fight for their right to be with her.

In late June, the Unites States Supreme Court sided with the South Carolina Supreme Court ruling that Veronica should be given back to her adoptive parents. However, Brown failed to give her up and was later arrested in his Oklahoma hometown.

After turning himself in and being released on bond, Brown got the Oklahoma Supreme Court to agree to hear arguments on the case as well as to grant him an emergency stay that allowed him to keep Baby Veronica until a decision was reached.

On Monday, a judge said the opponents had tried to reach several agreements which granted Brown visitation rights over the summer and sporadically throughout the year. It was not clear how the latest ruling would affect the involvement he might have in Veronica's life from here on out.