Michigan House Judiciary Committee passes laws that would allow Daniel Quinn to see his daughter; bills now move to house floor

Michigan House Judiciary Committee passes laws that would allow Daniel Quinn to see his daughter; bills now move to house floor

File | THE FLINT JOURNALDaniel Quinn of Fenton is fighting battling the state parenting act for custody of his daughter, Maeleigh, 6, who is currently in foster care.

FENTON, Michigan -- The House Judiciary Committee passed a package of bills that would allow a former Fenton man to see his daughter for the first time in more than three years, according to his family.

Daniel Quinn, now of Hartland, is trying to  get his parental rights for his daughter, Maeleigh, 6. Quinn has no parental rights because of a 1956 law that says the husband of the mother is the legal father. Quinn and Candace Beckwith had the child when she was separated from her husband.

Quinn, who's DNA test proved he was the biological father, cared for his daughter for the first three years of her life before Beckwith took the child to another state.

Quinn testified in front of the committee in Lansing on Thursday.

The law passed unanimously in the committee, and could be up for a full vote in the house next week,  according to WILX in Lansing.

"She deserves to have her dad and her aunt and uncle. She deserves to have her family," said Quinn, according to the TV station.