Hilary's Trial.

• Author: Riedy, Marian K.

Hilary's Trial. Jonathan Groner. Simon & Schuster, 21.45. Like everybody else in Washington, I knew something about the custody dispute over Hilary Foretich before reading Hilary's Trial. Now I know a lot.

Hilary was born a few months after Elizabeth Morgan and Eric Foretich were married and a few days after Elizabeth moved out of their house. The estranged (and soon divorced) couple began sparring over Hilary; Elizabeth got custody. But Eric got substantial visitation rights, which caused the subsequent knock-down, drag-out fight. Elizabeth went to great lengths to stop Eric from seeing Hilary, because she came to believe he was sexually abusing his daughter.

For seven years, various courts dealt with the case. Groner uses his facility with the law-he is a lawyer-to defuse some of the legal issues that the public found so explosive. For example, in August 1987 the court made a key decision that propelled Hilary into hiding and Elizabeth into jail. The court denied Elizabeth's motion to stop an impending overnight visitation, finding that the evidence of past sexual abuse was "in equipoise." Groner quotes one outraged reaction to this finding: "How would you like equipoise for your daughter? Let's say she brings a note home from girl scouts. Dear mommy, can I go on a campout with the girl scouts? It will be supervised by people who may rape us. But they may not rape us. The chances are about 50-50.' Would you send your daughter on that camping trip with the equipoise?"

Groner notes that the court's decision was "technically correct," in that Elizabeth had to prove abuse had occurred to stop the visits, and if the evidence was evenly balanced, she had not met her burden of proof. But the court also relied...