Ingrid Ronan Johnson
© Emily MichotJustin Johnson, 36, and his Miccosukee girlfriend, Rebecca Sanders, 28, display pictures of newborn Ingrid Ronan Johnson
A smiling baby with a thick head of black hair, Ingrid Ronan Johnson was born to a Miccosukee mother and a white father, inside Baptist Hospital in Kendall.

Two days later, police detectives arrived at the hospital acting on a court order to remove the baby from the new parents.

The order was not signed by a Florida judge, but by a tribal court judge on a reservation 32 miles away in the heart of the Everglades. The cops were from the Miccosukee police force, a department whose jurisdiction covers mainly the reservation and properties owned by the tribe.

The hospital on Sunday allowed the baby to be taken away.

The parents, Rebecca Sanders and Justin Johnson, are now heartbroken and outraged - filing complaints this week with Miami-Dade police, state prosecutors and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. They told the Miami Herald that the tribal court order was a sham, concocted by the baby's angry maternal grandmother, Betty Osceola, who simply did not want a white father to be a part of the child's life.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around how this has happened," Johnson, 36, said tearfully. "I can't even begin to explain how hard this has been. I don't see how people of the Miccosukee tribe can look me in the face and tell me this is OK."

Said Sanders, 28, a tribal member: "I feel like I have no rights. I thought the tribe was to protect its people, not use its own rulings to control its people."

Exactly what happened at the hospital - and whether Miccosukee police acted lawfully in executing an order from a tribal court on county land - is now under review by state authorities. Miami-Dade detectives also have begun an investigation.

The incident is the latest test of the legal authority of the court and police department with the sovereign Miccosukee tribe, which has clashed with state authorities for years over jurisdiction. Investigators and the child's parents also have questions for Baptist hospital, which allowed tribal police to remove the baby from her birth mother.

A hospital spokesman, Dori Alvarez, declined to comment on specifics because of federal patient privacy laws. In a statement on Wednesday, she stressed that Miami-Dade police officers also accompanied tribal police to "enforce a court order" that day.

"We obeyed law enforcement. It is our hospital's policy to cooperate with Miami-Dade law enforcement as they enforce court orders," the statement said.

Miami-Dade police acknowledged they had officers present but suggested they were misled. A tribal police sergeant, according to a statement, called the Kendall district requesting backup while they executed a "federal court order" at Baptist hospital, claiming the baby's father might show up and pose a threat. Two uniformed officers were dispatched "solely in the role of keeping the peace," according to Miami-Dade Capt. Sergio Alvarez.

There was no order from a U.S. federal court judge. The spotlight on the case grew bigger late Wednesday when U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, of Miami, tweeted that the tribe had used its court to "kidnap" the baby. "They don't have any jurisdiction outside reservation. I'm in contact with fed officials & this won't end well for tribe if they don't return child asap," Rubio tweeted.

The tribe's legal adviser, Jeanine Bennett, did not respond to an email seeking comment. "Jeanine said the tribe has no comment on pending tribal court matters," said an employee who answered the phone at the Miccosukee's legal department.

Calls to the office of Miccosukee chairman Billy Cypress went unanswered. Osceola, who owns the Buffalo Tiger Airboat Tours, did not answer repeated calls to her cellphone. Her lawyer said Wednesday that the tribal court ruling was no different than what state courts do to protect child welfare, removing a child from possible endangerment with the biological parents.

"My understanding is that she is healthy and happy," attorney Spence West said of baby Ingrid.

The tribal order granted Osceola custody of the baby, but their exact whereabouts are unknown. Her daughter said she lives off the reservation, in Collier County. If the baby is on the Miccosukee reservation itself, the state has no power - only federal authorities have jurisdiction there.

"It's horrific," said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, whose office received a complaint from Johnson on Tuesday. "We don't really know what the recourse is at this point, but we will continue to review it and talk to other agencies."

A lawyer representing Sanders said the baby is missing out on crucial bonding time and breast feeding with her natural mother. "We don't know the health of the baby. We don't know if she is receiving proper care," said Fort Lauderdale attorney Bradford Cohen.

The Miccosukee tribe has about 600 members and owns a gambling resort at the corner of Krome Avenue and Tamiami Trail. Child custody disputes between Indians and non-Indians are not unusual in states with large Native American populations.

But they are rare in Florida, where the tribal population is less than 10,000. Under the state's child custody enforcement act, foreign countries are treated the same as other states when it comes to custody battles between parents.

In 2014, the Florida Supreme Court sided with a Miami man who alleged the Miccosukee court had no jurisdiction over a child-custody dispute involving his baby's mother, who is a tribal member. The local state courts ruled that the tribal court's procedures - which did not allow the father to testify or even have his lawyer inside court to watch - were legally substandard.

This case is markedly unique. The birth parents are on the same side. And the baby is not yet a tribal member and may never be - Ingrid does not have enough Miccosukee blood to qualify, according to the parents.

[...]

Former Miccosukee Police Chief Dave Ward, who is not involved in the case, said tribal court orders are not valid outside the reservation.

"In my opinion, the Miccosukee officers needed to present the tribal order to a state or federal judge in Dade, who would review it and issue an order allowing Miami-Dade police to follow through with removing the baby."

Ward also said he believed the hospital opened itself up to liability by allowing the child to be removed.