2 families vie for custody of baby girl taken from womb

The child’s presumed biological father, Roberto C. “Tito’’ Rodriguez, petitioned the court for custody, according to his mother, Luz Mena, and a family friend, Dennis Berard, who waited outside the courtroom during the hearing. Rodriguez was ushered out through a backdoor by court officials and was unavailable for comment.

Relatives of Darlene Haynes, the woman whose mutilated body was found in her Worcester apartment July 27, are also seeking custody. Immediately after the hearing, Haynes’s aunt and uncle, Karl and Beverly Whitney, filed a petition for permanent guardianship.

The newborn will remain in a foster home as authorities investigate the families seeking custody and use DNA testing to confirm maternity and paternity, said Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families. Judge Carol Erskine will reconsider custody motions next month, when the next hearing is to be held.

Under state law, people seeking custody were not allowed to file a petition until completion of today’s so-called 72-hour hearing, which marks the third business day since the infant was taken into state custody. After yesterday’s hearing, the Whitneys and their lawyer, Debra Rosenthal of Springfield, filed their request in the office of the juvenile court clerk magistrate.

The Whitneys declined to discuss the case or their request for permanent guardianship in detail. Rosenthal said the events of the past few weeks had “devastated’’ Haynes’s family.

The child, believed by authorities to be Haynes’s daughter, was found last week at a homeless shelter in Plymouth, N.H. Police said she was abducted by Julie Corey, 35, a friend of Haynes’s who has been charged with kidnapping. She is currently being held in a New Hampshire jail on charges that she is a fugitive from justice.

No one has been charged in connection with Haynes’s death.

Yesterday’s hearing, which began at 2, was interrupted shortly after it began when the building’s fire alarms sounded, which officials said was a false alarm, prompting evacuation of the four-story courthouse.

Outside, Rodriguez declined to speak to reporters, but Mena, Berard, and Berard’s wife, who would not give her name, said that Rodriguez hopes to obtain custody and name her Isabel Justice.

“We’re changing her middle name to Justice, because that’s what we need,’’ Berard’s wife said.

Rodriguez is the father of Haynes’s 18-month-old daughter, who is also in foster care. Haynes’s grandmother, Joanne Haynes, has custody of the victim’s two other children, Jasmine, 5, and Lillian, 3, Whitney said last week.

Custody hearings are closed to all but “immediate parties,’’ that is, the child’s parents and state officials, said Craig D. Smith, clerk magistrate of the Worcester division of juvenile courts, who explained how custody hearings typically work during a midday press conference. He would not comment specifically on yesterday’s hearing.

“All matters, all proceedings, and all records are closed to the public, and that’s really for the protection of a child,’’ Smith said.