BY JESS WISLOSKI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, March 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM

A judge rejected a desperate bid last week by a Queens mom to get back from city custody the 6-year-old daughter she lost after being accused of suffering from a rare mental disorder.

Some six months after the Administration for Children's Services took custody of Amber James, her family members finally got their day in Queens Supreme Court last Thursday - an uncommon venue for a custody case.

But the ruling by Justice Peter O'Donoghue to keep Amber in foster care for now was heartbreaking for the girl's mother, Vanessa James, 41.

"Judge! If you leave my daughter in the care of ACS, she will die!" the distraught mom wailed in the courtroom. "They will kill her!"

Amber was taken from her family because a doctor feared Vanessa James suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy - a rare disorder in which a person believes a child is sick, or actually makes the child sick, to get attention.

Since the city took custody in August, Amber has been hospitalized for evaluation twice at mental health clinics. She has also been hospitalized three times for pneumonia, according to court records. And, she has been diagnosed with asthma.

Police officers stood by outside the courthouse last week for an anticipated protest by the family's supporters, a court officer noted.

Moments before the decision, the family shared a prayer.

"Please give us the strength to endure this day," said Amber's father, Marvin James, 48, encircled by friends and supporters.

But O'Donoghue deferred to a prior decision by Family Court Judge Marybeth Richroath.

"[Her] decision tells me the parents are a serious risk to the child. I have no reason to disturb that," O'Donoghue said in rejecting the appeal.

Richroath, who denied the parents custody in November, is not mandated to explain her decision.

Vanessa James had rejected a doctor's diagnosis that Amber was healthy, saying her daughter had unexplained fainting spells and chest pains.

In court last week, Vanessa James noted that Amber's foster parents have also reported that the girl has had fainting spells and chest pains.

"If I have Munchausen by proxy, then all the mothers she's been with in foster care have Munchausen by proxy," Vanessa James said.

jwisloski@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/03/03/2008-03-03_
judge_wont_make_acs_return_girl_to_woman.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor