A Timonium man has asked the New Jersey attorney general's office to investigate the 1976 adoption in which his infant son was switched with another child. The infant's whereabouts are still unknown, as are the substituted baby's origins.
In a 14-page letter, Ron Ryba asked Attorney General Paula T. Dow to seek the facts surrounding the adoption and to order the adoption agency, Catholic Charities of Trenton, to turn over all records relating to the case.
Ryba, 51, has been trying since 2008 to learn the whereabouts of the boy he and Kathy Butler, of Medford Lakes, N.J., turned over to Catholic Charities for adoption.
Philip Bloete, 34, of Stony Point, N.Y., was the infant Catholic Charities said was Ryba's and Butler's son until DNA tests in 2008 proved none of them were related. Bloete is asking Dow to help him discover his true origins.
"We have nowhere else to turn for these answers," Ryba, Butler and Bloete said in their plea to Dow. "Please help us."
Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for Dow, said the case is "under review" by the office's Division of Law. A decision on whether to launch an investigation should take about a week, he said.
The case attracted national attention in October after an article in The Baltimore Sun described how Catholic Charities helped to "reunite" Ryba and Bloete.
Ryba and Butler were both 16 when she became pregnant. Unable to care for a child at that age, they agreed to give the baby up to Catholic Charities for adoption with the assurance that they would be able to reunite if the son was willing.
Bloete's adoptive parents had been told the baby they were to adopt had blond hair. But when they picked him up, the baby's hair was black. They said a senior Catholic Charities social worker told them the child's hair had changed color in the six weeks since he was born.
Ryba stayed in contact with Catholic Charities, and was told the boy was doing well with his adoptive family. And in 2004, Catholic Charities facilitated a reunion.
Ryba and Bloete met in 2004 and their families became close. Butler met Bloete in 2008. But none of them saw a physical resemblance.
When Ryba sought to add Bloete to his will, his attorney advised them to get DNA tests. The tests found a "zero percent" chance they were related.
Ryba's efforts to enlist Catholic Charities' assistance in unraveling the mystery met with resistance. The agency argued that federal privacy laws prevented them from releasing records that contained "medical data." And when it asked a New Jersey Superior Court for guidance, the judge agreed.
The judge denied the request, and documents in the case — including the judge's reasons for denial — were sealed.
Catholic Charities officials in Trenton could not be reached for comment Friday. But last fall, the agency's spokeswoman, Lisa Thibault, acknowledged that the situation was "tragic," and that a "mistake" was made somewhere. But she insisted the agency had done all it legally could to assist.
In their letter to Dow, Ryba, Butler and Bloete argued that Catholic Charities' refusal to release the records is "unsupported" by the law. Federal medical privacy rules do not cover adoption agencies, they said. And Catholic Charities never sought a waiver of federal privacy rules, or consent from Ryba, Butler and Bloete, who would have given it. The agency's petition was "materially incomplete," they argued. "One must question as to whether it was designed not to succeed."
In a separate letter to New Jersey state Sen. Philip Haines, seeking the state's assistance, Ryba, Butler and Bloete accused Catholic Charities of working "to obstruct any inquiry into this situation." Haines' office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Ryba's letter asks the attorney general to order Catholic Charities to release all records of the adoption or to participate in a private review of the records before a judge. As alternatives, the letter asks the attorney general's office to investigate the adoption, or to appoint a "Special Master" with subpoena power to investigate.
Ryba, who has two other children, one of them headed for college next year, said he has spent $30,000 on attorney fees and private investigators, and "can't keep up financially with Catholic Charities."
In their letter to Haines, Ryba, Butler and Bloete said getting the attorney general's office and the Department of Licensing involved to reveal what happened in their case is "critical" to the integrity of all adoptions in the state.
Ryba said he has not sued Catholic Charities for financial damages. "I even told [his former attorney] Steve [Sacharow] to tell Catholic Charities I would sign an agreement of no monetary damages whatsoever, if they would just find my son."