ST. LOUIS — A military member claims his attorney ex-wife illegally stripped him of his parental rights during his deployment, including the custody of two frozen embryos.
Justin R. Gadberry filed a complaint October 17 in federal court against Jalesia Franklina McQueen-Kuenzel and Anthony Aloysius Kuenzel III alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress and other claims.
According to Gadberry's complaint, he and Jalesia McQueen-Kuenzel were married in September 2005 and had two children prior to their divorce in April 2015. Gadberry claims he and Jalesia were awarded joint custody of the children as well as joint custody of two frozen embryos being stored by Fairfax Cryobank. He further claims his ex-wife and Anthony Kuenzel are trying to unconstitutionally deprive him of his rights and interest to obtain the embryos. Gadberry alleges the defendants, who are attorneys, fraudulently are using the family court system to adopt his children and strip him of all of his parental rights.
Gadberry also alleges the defendants failed to disclose to the court of his deployed active military duty, that he was current in his child support obligations and that his custodial rights were being withheld which resulted in the court terminating his parental rights based on false information.
He seeks compensatory damages of more than $500,000 and other relief. He is represented by Nathan Cohen of The Law Office of Nathan S Cohen in St. Louis.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri Eastern Division case number 4:23-CV-01311-HEA