[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 237 Introduced in House (IH)]
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 237
Expressing the sense of the Congress urging the Republic of Italy to
safely and immediately return Ludwig Maximilian Koons to the custody of
his father in New York.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 24, 2001
Mr. Lampson submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on International Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Congress urging the Republic of Italy to
safely and immediately return Ludwig Maximilian Koons to the custody of
his father in New York.
Whereas Jeffrey Lynn Koons and Anna Elena (Ilona) Staller were married and had a
son, Ludwig Maximilian, who was born in New York on October 29, 1992;
Whereas before the marriage, the spouses agreed that Mrs. Staller would no
longer engage in activities in the field of pornography and erotic
entertainment, in order to dedicate her time to the family in New York,
where Mr. Koons maintained his residence and primary business interests
as a sculptor;
Whereas both parents wanted Ludwig to be raised in the United States, and Mrs.
Staller liquidated her businesses in Rome, Italy, and applied for
permanent residency in the United States with the intention of becoming
a United States citizen;
Whereas Mrs. Staller, while residing in New York with her family, went on a
temporary visit with Ludwig to Rome on October 11, 1993, and
subsequently left him in Rome in the care of a stranger while she
traveled to Ecuador to participate in an erotic show, thereby breaching
her parental duties and breaking her promise to cease all activities as
an erotic performer;
Whereas following Mrs. Staller's refusal to return Ludwig to his habitual
residence in New York and in light of her resuming her activities as an
erotic performer, Mr. Koons initiated divorce proceedings against Mrs.
Staller before the Supreme Court of the State of New York on December
27, 1993;
Whereas the New York Supreme Court issued a temporary order on January 17, 1994,
which provided that Ludwig could not be removed from the State of New
York during the divorce proceeding, and that both parents would have
temporary joint custody of Ludwig;
Whereas Mrs. Staller returned to New York and on February 4, 1994, filed an
appearance in the divorce proceeding whereby she accepted the
jurisdiction of the New York Supreme Court to decide the parties'
divorce without contesting Mr. Koons' request to dissolve the marriage;
Whereas Mrs. Staller's petition to the New York Supreme Court for temporary
relief, including attorney's fees, costs of litigation, and the right to
live in the marital residence, was granted upon her assurances that she
would not remove Ludwig from the jurisdiction of the State of New York;
Whereas, while the proceeding was pending, Mrs. Staller eluded security guards
and border control officials and fled the United States with Ludwig on
June 9, 1994, thereby committing an international kidnapping through the
illegal transfer of a minor, for which she was indicted by the Rome
prosecutor's office;
Whereas Mr. Koons obtained a final divorce on December 9, 1994, from the New
York Supreme Court, which ruled that the fault of the breakdown of the
marriage was attributable exclusively to Mrs. Staller, and granted
custody of Ludwig to Mr. Koons;
Whereas following months of hiding, during which time Mr. Koons had no idea of
his son's well-being or whereabouts, Mrs. Staller commenced a separation
action against Mr. Koons before the Civil Tribunal of Rome in an effort
to overturn the decision of the New York Supreme Court awarding custody
to Mr. Koons, and to legitimize her abduction of the minor;
Whereas Mr. Koons moved to dismiss the separation action on the grounds that the
Civil Tribunal of Rome lacked jurisdiction since the parties had already
obtained a final divorce;
Whereas before reaching a final decision, the Civil Tribunal of Rome awarded
temporary custody of Ludwig to Mrs. Staller;
Whereas after almost 3 years of litigation, the Civil Tribunal of Rome finally
granted Mr. Koons' motion to dismiss the separation action on October 3,
1997, holding that the separation action was improper on the grounds
that the divorce judgment of the New York Supreme Court had already
dissolved the bonds of matrimony between the parties;
Whereas the unreasonable delay by the Civil Tribunal of Rome to grant Mr. Koons'
motion to dismiss the separation action made it possible for Mrs.
Staller to retain Ludwig illegitimately for several years in Italy,
despite her commission of a serious crime and her lack of fitness as a
custodial parent;
Whereas following the dismissal of the separation action, Mrs. Staller initiated
yet another action before the Civil Tribunal of Rome, contesting the
custody decision of the New York Supreme Court;
Whereas at the conclusion of a detailed psychiatric evaluation of the parties
and the child, both the court-appointed expert and the public prosecutor
recommended to the divorce judge the immediate return of Ludwig to Mr.
Koons in New York, citing the danger of further irreparable harm to the
child if he were to remain in the pornographic environment in which Mrs.
Staller had chosen to raise him;
Whereas, on February 13, 1998, the Civil Tribunal of Rome entered a judgment
affirming the divorce judgment of the New York Supreme Court on December
9, 1994, and its awarding of permanent custody of Ludwig to Mr. Koons in
his New York residence, while providing for visitation rights by Mrs.
Staller both in the United States and in Italy;
Whereas the New York Supreme Court subsequently granted a petition by Mr. Koons
to modify the divorce decree granted in December 1994, holding that it
was in Ludwig's best interest that all decisions regarding custody and
visitation in the United States be uniform and identical to those in
Italy in order to ensure that both parents could be afforded the further
protection of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International
Child Abduction;
Whereas following Mrs. Staller's appeal of the divorce action, on September 23,
1998, the Court of Appeals of Rome overturned the decision of the
Tribunal, and awarded custody of Ludwig to Mrs. Staller, while
prohibiting the child from leaving the Italian territory;
Whereas, in awarding custody of Ludwig to Mrs. Staller, the Court of Appeals of
Rome disregarded the recommendations of the American and Italian court-
appointed experts who were unanimously in favor of Mr. Koons, and based
its decision on the unsupported contention that the return of Ludwig to
New York and to the care Mr. Koons following years of residence in Italy
would cause him further trauma, and thus, would be contrary to his best
interest;
Whereas by setting aside the decision of the Civil Tribunal of Rome, the Court
of Appeals of Rome failed to consider that Ludwig had been up-rooted
from his family residence in New York and was only in Italy because Mrs.
Staller had committed an international kidnapping;
Whereas the decision of the Court of Appeals of Rome to prohibit Ludwig, a
United States citizen from birth, access to the United States
constitutes a serious breach by Italy of international treaties and
principles of law, including those contained in the European Convention
on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Hague Convention on the
Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, and the New York
Convention on Children's Rights, which laws protect the rights of minors
to move freely between the respective residences of their parents and
which give equal protection to parents of different nationalities;
Whereas for such violations of international law, Mr. Koons filed a petition
against the Republic of Italy with the European Court of Human Rights
and a preliminary decision regarding the admissibility of that petition
is expected by the Court in October 2001;
Whereas pursuant to Article 36 of the Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe, the United
States has a right to intervene in proceedings before the European Court
of Human Rights because its citizens are parties seeking relief from
human rights violations;
Whereas Mrs. Staller, in blatant disregard for the recommendations of the
experts, has violated Ludwig's right to privacy by involving him in
numerous interviews on television and in the press as part of a massive
defamatory media campaign against Mr. Koons, aimed at swaying public
opinion in her favor during the pending custody dispute in Italy;
Whereas after 7 years of proceedings in Rome on the charge of kidnapping, Mrs.
Staller was convicted by the Rome Court of Appeals on May 29, 2001, for
kidnapping her son from his habitual residence in New York in 1994, but
the Court of Appeals did not have the power to order the return of
Ludwig;
Whereas following a judgment of the Civil Tribunal of Rome dated May 31, 2001,
which held that Mrs. Staller was liable for repeatedly publishing
defamatory statements on television and in the press, Mr. Koons has
petitioned two Italian officials, the Commissioner of Privacy and the
Commissioner of Communications, to denounce the media companies who had
collaborated with Mrs. Staller to violate his son's right to privacy;
Whereas Ludwig has incurred substantial harm as a result of Italy's decision to
allow Mrs. Staller to keep Ludwig in her residence in Rome, which,
despite the warnings of the child psychiatrists, she continues to
utilize as the headquarters for her pornographic activities throughout
the world;
Whereas Ludwig's continued exposure to his mother's pornographic environment and
activities, and his unwilling participation in her defamatory media
campaign against Mr. Koons, have placed the child in grave danger of
irreparable psychological harm, as recently confirmed by experts who
have manifested concern for the minor's deteriorating condition if not
removed from his current environment without delay;
Whereas all courts, both in the United States and Italy, recognized that the
family residence was in New York; and
Whereas the Department of Justice has been unsuccessful in its attempts to bring
Ludwig back to the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That--
(1) the Congress urges the Republic of Italy to immediately
return Ludwig Maximilian Koons to the United States and to the
custody of his father, Jeffrey Koons, in accordance with the
divorce judgment of the New York Supreme Court on December 9,
1994;
(2) it is the sense of the Congress that, pursuant to
Article 36 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, the United States should intervene in
the proceeding pending before the European Court of Human
Rights, Jeffrey Lynn Koons v. Italy, case no. 68183/01, to
request the Republic of Italy to remedy the violations of
international law committed against Mr. Koons and his son,
Ludwig; and
(3) it is the sense of the Congress that, pending a final
decision by the Republic of Italy regarding the permanent
return of Ludwig to the United States, the United States should
request that the Republic of Italy authorize Ludwig to visit
his father in his New York residence on a temporary basis.
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