June 11, 2008 -- The father of tortured tot Kyle Smith yesterday insisted he had tried to get custody of his son but was rebuffed by the courts, allegedly paving the way for the boy's monstrous godmother to help abuse the child.
"More than anything, I wanted my son to be with me, not them," said dad Elliot Smith, referring to his son's godmother, Nymeen Cheatham, 30, and her boyfriend, Lemar Martin
Cheatham and Martin have been charged with assault and child endangerment after Kyle's bruised and battered body was found at their Brooklyn home Friday.
"I fought for [Kyle], but they [the courts] didn't give me custody," Elliot Smith said outside his mother's home on East 93rd Street in Manhattan. "I love my son. I just wanted my son to be with me. . . . They never should have gotten him."
The Administration for Children's Services has said that if Smith had wanted, he could have taken his son from Cheatham at any time, since she never had legal guardianship. Cheatham was taking care of the boy after his drug-addicted mother abandoned him.
But Smith apparently never tried to get the boy, sources said.
The accusations came as officials contended that little Kyle "would be alive and well" if not for a stalled bill in the state Assembly that would allow the city to conduct federal criminal checks on people seeking legal custody.
Cheatham had her four biological kids taken away from her in Texas in 2003.
TORTURE TOT DAD'S COURT BID - New York Post
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