Article: Father Gets Custody; Adoptive Parents Must Pay

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A 16-year-old girl's adoptive parents have been ordered to give up custody to her biological father and to make child-support payments to him.

"We thought it was a joke," the girl's adoptive mother said of the ruling by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Brian Tollefson.

"He's gotten her, and he's gotten our paycheck, too," said the mother, who also is the girl's paternal aunt.

Tollefson ruled that the adoptive parents were fit to raise the girl, but he determined it was in her best interest to live with her biological father.

State law requires that the parent without custody pay child support, and because the adoptive parents still are the girl's legal parents, they ...

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