Jaliek Rainwalker book put on hold
Attorney for adoptive parents of missing boy calls the authors’ work “exploitative”
A book being written about a missing Greenwich boy has been halted — at least for now — by an attorney representing his adoptive parents.
Jeffrey McMorris sent a cease and desist letter on Jan. 31 to the book’s authors on behalf of Jocelyn McDonald and Stephen Kerr.
Their son, 12-year-old Jaliek Rainwalker, has been missing since Nov. 1. Police have referred to Kerr as a “person of interest” in his son’s disappearance because of inconsistent accounts he has given about his whereabouts on that night. Rainwalker was last seen with Kerr.
McMorris on Sunday called the book that was being worked on “exploitative” and said no one had sought permission to print the names of Kerr and McDonald’s minor children.
“The question we would ask of these people is ‘how it would lead to Jaliek coming home?’ ” McMorris said.
Kerr also filed notice on Friday that he will sue the Cambridge-Greenwich Police Department, claiming that officers “crusaded” against him and acted improperly when executing a search warrant.
The authors, Stephen Gnojewski and Alexander DeFazio of Jersey City, N.J., were writing a book tentatively titled “An Inconvenient Child.” They could not be reached for comment late Sunday.
The letter warned that Kerr and McDonald had not given their consent for the book. Proceeds from the book were to be used to provide post-adoptive services for Capital Region families and for services to children who have passed out of the foster care system. A Web site for the project has been disabled.
Elaine Person, Jaliek’s former foster mother and head of the Find Jaliek Task Force, said the authors decided they did not have the resources to fight Kerr and McDonald’s attorney. Still, she said the project would continue. She said she has been supplying the writers with notes for the book.
“The purpose of the book is not to agitate Steven (Kerr) but rather to show what a wonderful child Jaliek was,” Person said.
A local author has volunteered to continue the book project, she said, even though Kerr and McDonald say the writer does not have permission to use their son’s name in any published work.
“The ending has not been written yet,” Person said.
“We don’t want any other child to have to live the way he did.”
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