Sean Goldman allegedly wants to stay in Brazil

Sean and his father David Goldman. (Family photo)

A 9-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle told a psychologist he wants to stay with his stepfamily in Brazil rather than return to the U.S. with his biological father, according to a transcript of the interview as reported by AP.

In the transcript, released by the Brazilian family's lawyers on Wednesday, Sean Goldman tells the psychologist that if he is sent back to New Jersey to be with David Goldman he will "break down totally."

"I want to stay here in Brazil," the 9-year-old repeats in the interview.

I'll believe it when I see Sean himself say that on live TV.

The interview with Sean Goldman was conducted Monday by psychologist Terezinha Feres-Carneiro in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. It wasn't immediately clear who paid for the psychologist's services.

I think we know who paid for that interview.

When asked to draw a picture of his family, the boy drew only his stepfather, sister and Brazilian grandparents.

What exactly was he asked to draw? In what terms? He lives with them, so of course he's going to draw them when asked to draw his family or house, not his father in New Jersey with whom he hasn't lived for five years.

The transcript's release follows comments last week by David Goldman that a hearing in Brazil had made public an issue that he said he had been legally barred from discussion previously: "The psychological damage that has been inflicted on my son is finally out in the open."

"There's no words to describe the anxiety and the pain that I feel from that," he said.

Goldman's lawyer told the judges about reports by three court-appointed psychologists who found Sean was suffering.

Let's not forget that it was the mother who basically kidnapped Sean, took him to a strange land with people who speak another language, probably poisoned his mind about his father and relatives in the state, put him in the hands of a gangster stepfather who couldn't possibly care about this kid anywhere near as much as his father.

In 2004, Sean's mother, Bruna Bianchi, took him for a two-week vacation to her native Brazil and never returned. She divorced David Goldman in Brazil and married Rio de Janeiro lawyer Joao Paulo Lins e Silva.

She died last year, and a Rio state court granted Lins e Silva temporary custody of Sean.

Earlier this month, a lower court in Brazil later ruled that Sean Goldman be returned to the U.S., but that decision was suspended after a petition was filed arguing that removing Sean from his current family environment would hurt the boy.

Last week, Brazil's Supreme Court rebuffed the petition, instead ruling the decision on the boy's fate must be made by a federal court.

What a mess. I can only imagine the anguish this man, David Goldman, has had to endure for five years now. If there is a hell, she's there, if you ask me.

Sources: The Associated Press, USA Today
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