New Jersey Dad in Brazil to Regain Custody of Son

By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times

A famous Brazilian athlete has once again been ordered by the court to relinquish custody of her son to his American father, who has spent the past four years fighting for custody of the child after his mother took him to Brazil to visit relatives in 2006 and never returned.

Hilma Aparecida Caldeira, a one-time Olympic contender and former member of Brazil's national volleyball team filed for divorce and custody of her son the same year she returned to Brazil. She has been ordered, for a second time in four months, to return her 4-year-old son, Kelvin, to his father, Kelvin Birotte of Houston.

Birotte, who saiid he has been unable to reach his estranged wife since he arrived in Rio DeJaniero, told the Associated Press that the deadline for his estranged wife to return his son is set for Thursday, but that he learned she has filed an appeal to the custody order.

In an attempt to encourage Caldeira to telephone him, Birotte has posted a phone number on his facebook page hoping his estranged wife will call. He has no idea what city Caldeira and his son are in, but vows to remain in Brazil until the custody dispute is settled.

"I'm going to be here until something happens, good or bad," said Birotte, who has not seen his son since at court hearing in 2007 when the little boy was a year and a half old.

The New Jersey dad had a simple yet powerful message for his son, "Daddy loves him and he misses him."

The Birotte/Caldeira custody dispute mirrors another international custody dispute that took nealry five years to settle after the boys mother died and his step-father fought to keep the boy rather than return him to his biological father in the United States.

David Goldman of Tinton Falls fought his former wife, Bruna Bianchi of Brazil for custody of their son, Sean. After Bianchi died while giving birth to a child she bore with her new husband, Goldman was swept into a legal battle with Bianchi's new husband and father-in-law. The case was finally resolved after a Brazilian Supreme Court judge backed a federal court's ruling that ordered the Brazilian family to return Sean, then nine-years-old, to his father.

Birotte told the media he drew inspiration from Goldman's battle, but the two fathers have yet to meet.


The New Jersey State Medical Examiner's Office is conducting an autopsy on a body pulled from the southern bank of the Raritan River in Sayerville Saturday. Police believe the body may be that of a three-month old baby girl who was tossed off of the Driscoll Bridge by her father back in February.

Clothing and other garments fitting the description of clothing the infant was last seen wearing match those found on the body found in the river Saturday. DNA tests will be conducted during the autopsy to determine if the remains are those of baby Zara Malani-lin Abdur.

Shamsid-Din Abdur-Raheem, of Galloway Township, was arrested in February and charged with kidnapping after investigators say he assaulted his daughter's grandmother during an argument at her East Orange apartment then fled with baby Zara and later throwing her into the River. Abdur-Raheem has pleaded not guilty to the charge and is awaiting trial.