Photo By Graham Lienhart

Bob Finley

"Please Return My Grandchildren Now," says the sign that 72-year-old Bob Finley holds as he stands in front of the Kentucky Family Services office in Newport.

Finley has been protesting for months, demanding temporary custody of his three grandchildren.

Sitting in a diner, he starts to get a little choked up. He's recalling one of their visits, when he and two of the children had returned from the Alexandria Fair. The children's foster parents had come to pick them up on his front porch and he remembers his granddaughter's exact words: "Grandpa, don't let them take me. I love you."

He continues with the story of how he had to watch them take his grandchildren away as they drove off crying.

"I want to be the one there to take care of them," Finley says.

But his daughter, Robin Rotsart, says the story is much more complicated than a frustrated grandfather. In fact, she says a Campbell County judge issued a restraining order keeping Finley from seeing her or her children because of alleged domestic violence.

Finley protests for hours at a time on various busy streets in Newport and Highland Heights, carrying posters he makes. His goal is to get public support in obtaining temporary custody of his two grandsons, ages 9 and 13, and granddaughter, age 6. He says he also hopes to prevent situations such as his from happening to other grandparents.

Finley has been picketing since May 17, when he filed his first complaint with the Kentucky Cabinet for Human Services over the denial of his request for custody. His daughter asked the court take the children out of his Highland Heights home, where they had lived since last September, according to Finley. She acted after the Campbell County Family Court denied the children's stepfather any contact with them, Finley says.

His daughter's drug and alcohol problems render her unable to provide proper care for her three children, and their biological father isn't allowed to be with them because of a court case, Finley says.

But Rotsart says her father is lying. She says she takes pain medication because she has cancer, and she doesn't abuse drugs or alcohol. She says she did, in fact, oppose her father having custody, because during the children's two-week stay with him, they were mistreated. She also says the children's biological father is kept from seeing the children for good reasons.

The two youngest grandchildren were placed in foster care and the eldest sibling was placed in a boys' home.

Finley says his granddaughter's words still resonate: "Grandpa, make things better."

Finley says he is a fit candidate for custody. He is a Korean War veteran, a former Highland Heights city councilman who taught school in Mount Healthy for 30 years. In 1976 he appeared on Learning Can Be Fun on WCET (Channel 48). He is a member of Society's League Against Molestation of Children, and the Newport Baptist Church ordained him in 1956. While picketing, he distributes packets of articles and information about himself and his protest.

Rotsart says Society's League Against Molestation is no longer in existence.

Finley says he isn't alone; others have told him about similar situations. He says children are suffering emotional and psychological harm that could be avoided by placing them with grandparents.

"Every great movement started with one person," he says.

The U.S. Census estimates that, in 2005, 2.4 million grandparents in the United States are responsible for caring for their grandchildren.

Finley says the Human Services Cabinet won't give him an answer. He says the only information he's received is that there are three reasons why he can't be granted temporary custody -- but the reasons haven't been specified.

"It's time to investigate the Human Services Cabinet of Kentucky and find out what is going on," he says.

A lawyer once told him, "Bill, you're a nut," Finley says. He recounts his response.

"The great mighty oak of today was a nut that did not give ground yesterday," he says. "And I'm that nut that did not give ground. I'm not gonna give ground no matter what happens until I see my grandchildren back where they belong".

Angela Larricia, a caseworker with the Cabinet for Human Services, declined comment about the case. ©