Jennifer Watkins seeks release from Florida jail - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

Jennifer Watkins on Thursday filed a court motion in Florida asking that she be released from jail.

The order was expected, since a judge last month set a deadline of Thursday for Watkins to file paperwork or face return to Illinois, where she is wanted for civil contempt of court and misdemeanor visitation interference for not allowing visits between her daughter Sidney and the child’s paternal grandparents.

Watkins has fought extradition since her arrest in Tampa on March 15.

“We are not surprised that she filed the petition,” said Michael Metnick, attorney for Sidney’s paternal grandparents. “I have not reviewed the petition at this point and have no idea whether there is substantive value to her allegations.”

Stephen Romine, Watkins’ attorney in Florida, could not be reached for comment.

In addition to asking that she be freed, Watkins has asked that the visitation order be registered with a Florida court. A lawyer for Dale and Penny Watkins, Sidney’s paternal grandparents, said that’s an attempt to dodge the visitation order issued by Circuit Judge Robert Hardwick Jr.

“The State of Florida does not recognize grandparental visitation,” Richard D. West, a Florida attorney retained by Dale and Penny Watkins, wrote in a motion filed Monday. “Jennifer Watkins is trying to register the Illinois order to strip away visitation rights awarded to Dale and Penny Watkins based on Florida law.”

Ophelia Bernal-Mora, a Florida lawyer who filed the motion to register the visitation order in Florida, could not be reached for comment.

Gov. Pat Quinn and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida have signed paperwork directing that Jennifer Watkins be returned to Illinois, but their gubernatorial authority has been stayed pending action by the courts.

Steven Watkins, Sidney’s father and Jennifer Watkins’ estranged husband, was gunned down from behind in 2008 when he went to pick up Sidney for a court-ordered visit. He died in an Ashland home that Jennifer Watkins shared with her extended family, including her grandmother Shirley Skinner, who was convicted of murder last year and is serving a 70-year sentence.

Dale and Penny Watkins, parents of Steven Watkins, won the right to visit their granddaughter last September, but the visits ceased in November, when Jennifer Watkins stopped them.

Jennifer Watkins’ lawyers have argued that she is a resident of Florida, and courts there, not in Illinois, should decide her fate and the outcome of the visitation case.

Sidney will turn 4 in June.