Sex offender's wife fights to keep unborn son

Woman must notify child welfare officials of birth

Melissa WolfHawk, who is married to a sex offender, is fighting to keep her unborn child.

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POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Melissa WolfHawk, due to give birth any day, lives in fear that her baby will be taken from her by the government.

The county child-welfare agency believes her child won't be safe because her husband is a sex offender who spent more than a decade in prison for rape in a case involving two teenage girls.

But WolfHawk, 31, says her husband of three years, DaiShin WolfHawk, is no "monster."

She won a federal court order last month keeping child-welfare workers from asking about her pregnancy, at least until a hearing next week.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has taken her side, argued that the county was too aggressive in monitoring her pregnancy and will ask a judge Monday to block the agency from taking the baby.

Melissa WolfHawk also is fighting to regain custody of another child, a girl now 21 months old living with a family in Maryland, in a case that also began with questions about her husband's fitness as a father.

Despite the restraining order she won last month, Melissa WolfHawk is still required to notify the Schuylkill County Department of Children and Youth Services within 24 hours of giving birth.

"I am living every woman's worst nightmare -- that when your child is born and you close your eyes for one second, if that baby isn't sleeping on your chest, you open your eyes and that child isn't going to be there," she said in an interview at her modest row home.

She said she is not worried about her husband's past.

"If he was this miserable monster -- and I've dealt with miserable monsters -- I wouldn't be able to close my eyes at night, knowing I was carrying his child," she said.

DaiShin WolfHawk, 53, was known as John Joseph Lentini when he pleaded guilty in New York in 1983 to rape, attempted rape, sodomy and attempted sodomy.

"I'm not saying I was an angel. Maybe more like a Hells Angel," he said.

DaiShin WolfHawk, who is unemployed, said he lives about 20 miles from the home his wife shares with her father. He described himself as the chief of an American Indian tribe, the Unole E Quoni, which he says has 175 families in eight states but is not recognized by any state or by the federal government.

The ACLU argues that officials in Pennsylvania have no right under state law to question Melissa WolfHawk about her unborn baby, and that DaiShin WolfHawk should not be punished further.

"There's just no evidence in this case that Mr. WolfHawk has engaged in criminal acts against very young minors," said attorney Paula Knudsen. "And while the charges that were lodged against him in the early 1980s are not excusable, he certainly has paid his time for those crimes and has moved on."

Melissa WolfHawk's federal lawsuit, filed in Harrisburg, says county officials violated her due-process rights by threatening "to 'take' her baby" and leaving notes on her front door saying they were monitoring her pregnancy.

Schuylkill County Children and Youth Services confirmed in a September 23 letter to WolfHawk's attorney that the department may seek custody of the boy once he is born.

"Schuylkill County Children and Youth Services believes this child's physical and emotional health is in danger because of the abuse perpetrated by the natural father against other minor children," wrote agency attorney Karen E. Rismiller.

Rismiller said confidentiality rules prohibit her from commenting further.

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