In 1985 Washington, DC
plastic surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Morgan accused her ex-husband, dentist Dr. Eric Foretich, of sexually abusing their daughter Hilary, then two years old. Morgan, who had primary custody of the child, then attempted to have Foretich's visitation rights revoked. After a police investigation was unable to substantiate Morgan's claims, a judge ordered her to allow the child to visit her father without supervision. When Morgan refused to do so, she was held in contempt of court and was indefinitely detained in August 1987. While in jail, Morgan refused to reveal the whereabouts of her daughter, who was living with Morgan's parents in
New Zealand. In 1989, Representative
Frank Wolf of Virginia introduced the bill that became the District of Columbia Civil Contempt Imprisonment Limitation Act (, ). That legislation removed the provision of District of Columbia law that permitted indefinite detention for
civil contempt. While the bill did not mention Morgan or Foretich by name, its authors admitted that it was specifically intended to free Morgan from jail. The law was
moot and had no practical effect on the daughter, who was by then 21 and could choose for herself whether or not to see her father. ==See also==