David Goldman, the New Jersey man fighting for five years to gain custody of the son taken to Brazil by his mother, was reunited with him today. Sean Goldman, 9, was brought to the US consulate in advance of a 9am deadline by his maternal grandmother and stepfather, but the scene wasn’t all happy: He cried as he came in though the scrum of journalists in front of the consulate, and his grandmother called it “a very difficult moment," the AP reports. Guards had to violently push back photographers and TV cameramen.
Sean has been living in Brazil since 2004, when his mother brought him to her native country for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation. Once there, she divorced David, sparking the custody battle. She died in childbirth last year, and Brazil’s chief justice ordered Sean returned to his father on Tuesday. The Goldmans plan to fly back to the US within hours.
(More Sean Goldman stories.)