What to Know
- The baby’s maternal grandmother, Betty Osceola, filed the order, saying she wanted to keep Ingrid away from Johnson.
The parents of an infant taken from a Miami-Dade hospital by members of the Miccosukee Police Department that ignited a debate over tribal authority and jurisdiction have added the county and several others to their lawsuit over the incident.
Justin Johnson and Rebecca Sanders, the parents of baby Ingrid Johnson, added Miami-Dade County as well as a lawyer for the tribe and Sanders' gynecologist, to a suit stemming from the March 2018 incident inside Baptist Hospital in Kendall according to the Miami Herald.
The original suit listed the police department, tribe members and the hospital for allowing officers to enter and take the child just days after she was born.
Ingrid Johnson was only a few days old when a Miccosukee Police detective entered Baptist Hospital and, on tribal orders, took the infant away. The baby’s maternal grandmother, Betty Osceola, filed the order, saying she wanted to keep Ingrid away from Johnson.
According to the initial tribal order, the grandmother claimed the father was violent toward Sanders while she was pregnant. Sanders and Johnson denied those claims, with Johnson calling them "false," while saying Osceola is upset and does not want Johnson, who is white, in the child’s life.
Days later, the baby was returned to her parents amid public outrage from officials that included U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who claim the tribe overstepped their jurisdiction.
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The new lawsuit must be approved by a judge and claims that the hospital allowed for the kidnapping to take place due to a long-standing relationship the tribe – located 30 miles away – has with sending members to the hospital for care.
Hospital officials told the paper they see "no legal merit" in the case and claim the Miami-Dade Police officers who assisted with Miccosukee officers did so because they thought there was a valid order.
