Liberty University cut from years-long same-sex custody case

LYNCHBURG, Va. – The private Christian university founded by Jerry Falwell has been dismissed from a long-running lawsuit over an international kidnapping that followed the dissolution of a same-sex civil union.

The News & Advance reports a Vermont-based judge dismissed Liberty University from Judith Jenkins’ lawsuit Aug. 29. Jenkins filed the lawsuit in 2012 against a number of people and organizations she said helped her former partner, Lisa Miller, to kidnap their daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, in 2009. Miller and Isabella are believed to have fled to a Mennonite community in Nicaragua.

Liberty was named as a defendant through its employment of one of Miller’s lawyers, and its loose connection to another involved law firm. Judge William Jenkins wrote that Liberty supported Miller’s position in litigation, but wasn’t involved in conspiring to kidnap Isabella.

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Information from: The News & Advance, http://www.newsadvance.com/