Santa Clarita foster couple says it will 'never ever stop fighting' for 6-year-old Choctaw girl

LOS ANGELES >> A day after the state’s high court refused to intervene, the former foster parents of a girl with Native American ancestry vowed to continue their fight to retu her to their Santa Clarita home after being sent to out-of-state relatives per a court order.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Native American tribe that has been involved in the case said the 6-year-old girl known as Lexi is settling into her new home with her “loving family.”

• VIDEO: Rusty and Summer Page: We will ‘never ever stop fighting’ for custody of Lexi

The girl, who has part lineage from the Choctaw Nation, is considered Native American under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. As a result, the Los Angeles Superior court — with input from the tribe and others — determined that the child would be placed with extended relatives of her biological, Native American father.

• RELATED STORY: Santa Clarita foster parents vow to fight to bring Lexi back

Lexi, who had lived with the Page family since she was 2, was placed with the father’s relatives in Utah earlier this month, including a birth sister and another sister who lives down the street, an attoey for the girl has said.

“We’ll never ever stop fighting for her — ever,” a defiant Rusty Page, flanked by his wife Summer, said in front of the Califoia Appeals Court in downtown Los Angeles, where their case is currently pending. “Despite the news from the Califoia Supreme Court yesterday, we remain hopeful that the very court we stand in front of this moing will do the right thing.”

Choctaw Nation spokeswoman Lisa Reed said Thursday via email that they were pleased with the state Supreme Court decision. However, she said, “what is most important is that Lexi is settling into her new, loving home with her family.”

Page, who along with his wife has tried unsuccessfully to adopt Lexi, said he also hopes that the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) will “shift its position” and take a stand that’s “ethically correct for Lexi.”

The case has drawn widespread media attention and a Change.org petition launched by the foster family to keep Lexi with them had gaered more than 116,000 signatures as of Thursday.

At 17 months, the girl — who is 1.56 percent Choctaw — was removed from the custody of her birth mother, who had substance abuse problems, and the birth father, who has a criminal history and lost custody of one other child, according to court documents. The tribe agreed to place the girl with a foster family “to facilitate efforts to reunite the girl with her father,” and at the age of 2, she was placed with the Page family.

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After efforts to reunify the girl with her birth father failed, the father, the tribe and the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services recommended the girl be placed in Utah with a non-Indian couple related to the father. The court agreed, arguing the Page family had not proven “by clear and convincing evidence” that the child would suffer emotional harm by the transfer.

Lori Alvino McGill, who is representing the Page family, said the Califoia Supreme Court’s decision was not surprising since they would have to jump over the normal appellate process currently in place.

“It would have been an extraordinary move for them to intervene,” she said.

Meanwhile, the appeal in the state appellate court will go forward on an expedited process, McGill said. If the court does not rule in their favor, the family is prepared to take the fight to the Califoia Supreme Court once again and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary, she said.