Idaho authorities will retain custody of 10-month-old Meridian boy, family says

Authorities will not return a 10-month-old Meridian child — who has been at the focal point of protests this week — to his parents for the time being, the family said.

The decision comes after a two-day shelter care custody hearing concluded Wednesday. Meridian police said authorities took custody of the boy late Friday night after determining the baby was in imminent danger of serious harm due to weight loss.

“They are giving custody of (the baby) to the state,” Diego Rodriguez, the child’s grandfather, told the Idaho Statesman.

Under Idaho law, a child is supposed to remain in shelter care for up to 48 hours (excluding weekends), unless a court finds there is reasonable cause to believe that a child was neglected, and that remaining in shelter care is in its best interest.

The custody decision follows multiple days of turmoil over the case. Far-right activist Ammon Bundy, who’s running for governor, was arrested early Saturday morning at St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center after he “demanded” that the boy be released. Rodriguez is a friend and campaign consultant of Bundy’s.

Since Saturday, protesters have gathered daily at the St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center in objection to the boy being taken from his parents. The baby’s family said the parents were working with a nurse practitioner on finding a diet that the baby could digest when the boy’s mother, Marissa Anderson, canceled a doctor’s appointment on Friday because she wasn’t feeling well.

Later that day, the parents did not take the boy to a welfare appointment that an Idaho social worker requested they go to, the boy’s aunt, Miranda Chavoya, told the Statesman. She said the parents attempted to reschedule a doctor’s appointment for a later date, and that the baby had not lost a substantial amount of weight.

Late Friday night, Treasure Valley police stopped the family at a Garden City gas station and took custody of the child.

The incident has since garnered widespread attention from right-wing figures in Idaho.

Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin has asked the governor to intervene in the case. She was at an evening protest Monday, Rodriguez said. Rep. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, was seen at Saturday’s protest. Since his arrest, Bundy has been at protests at the hospital on multiple days. His father, Cliven Bundy, a far-right activist from Nevada known for an armed standoff with federal law enforcement tied to his ranching, was seen at a protest Tuesday evening.

About 50 protesters were outside the Ada County Courthouse early Wednesday afternoon.

In a courtroom a few hundred feet from the custody hearing, Bundy was convicted Wednesday of one count of misdemeanor trespassing and one count of resisting or obstructing officers. The conviction stems from April 2021 incidents in which Bundy was arrested, twice in one day, for entering the Idaho Capitol. He was under a one-year ban from the building that was imposed after his August 2020 arrest for refusing to leave an auditorium at the Capitol.

A spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, which handles child welfare cases, could not immediately be reached.

Days of protests, hospital lockdown

For consecutive days following the custody incident, supporters of the family have gathered at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center to protest the custody issue.

Tuesday afternoon, St. Luke’s placed its Boise facility on lockdown “in response to growing safety concerns after a large group of protesters” gathered outside the building, according to a Wednesday news release.

The hospital paused emergency department services during the one-hour lockdown, when at least four patients were transported elsewhere by ambulance due to the divert, St. Luke’s said.

In an interview with the Statesman, Chavoya said Tuesday’s protest was not intended to disrupt the hospital.

“Nobody was ordered to enter the hospital or threaten the hospital,” she said. “Obviously we understand that it’s a working hospital, people need access.”