Lawyers for state Sen. Julia Boseman's former partner have asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider a Court of Appeals ruling in the couple's adoption custody case.

Boseman, a Wilmington Democrat, and Melissa Jarrell, were in court over whether Boseman's adoptoin of Jarrell's child was legal. Jarrell, a former softball coach at UNC-Wilmington, had claimed that the adoption was invalid because gays and lesbians should not be permitted to adopt in North Carolina.

A three-judge panel unanimously ruled that Boseman's adoption was legal. Jarrell's lawyers have asked the state's high court to reconsider on several grounds. Because the appeals court was unanimous, Jarrell has not right to appeal and must convince the Supreme Court to hear the case. Such petitions are rarely granted.

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The state Court of Appeals has upheld Sen. Julia Boseman's adoption of her former domestic partner's child.

A three-judge panel of the court unanimously agreed that Boseman's 2005 adoption of Melissa Jarrell's child cannot be undone. State law creates a nearly impossible hurdle for reversing completed adoptions, and to nullify the adoption and deny Boseman joint custody, Jarrell had challenged whether state law even allowed gay or lesbian parents to adopt.

"While [state law] does not specifically address same-sex adoptions, these statutes do make clear that a wide range of adoptions are contemplated and permitted, so long as they protect the minor’s 'needs, interests, and rights,'" Judge Wanda Bryant wrote in the opinion.

Bryant wrote that the court would have reached the same conclusion if the couple in question were heterosexual.

State law governing adoption does not specifically mention adoption by same-sex couples. Jim Lea, a domestic law specialist in Wilmington and one of Boseman's attorneys said that such adoptions have already been occurring. But the court opinion affirms the right of gay and lesbian couples to adopt.

"Now I think it's very clear that if a couple chooses to go out and adopt the child and execute the necessary waivers, that homosexual couples can adopt children," Lea said. "To say that a couple should not be able to adopt a child because they're gay, on that reason alone is just plain wrong."

Efforts to reach Jarrell's attorney Tuesday failed.

North Carolina has a citizen legislature, and Sen. Julia Boseman, a Wilmington Democrat, seems to be putting her personal experience to work with a bill banning private investigators from peeping into windows.

Boseman introduced a bill Wednesday that would make private investigators subject to the peeping tom law, which prohibits secretly looking into a room occupied by another person. The law currently allows exemptions for "private protective services."

Boseman has been embroiled in a contentious custody dispute with her ex-partner, Melissa Jarrell, over the custody of a son to whom Jarrell gave birth when the two were together.

During the course of the dispute, Jarrell hired a private investigator who recorded on video when Boseman hired a babysitter to watch the child, which violated the child custody agreement between the two women, according to WWAY TV, in Wilmington.

The investigator, Marc Benson, was later reprimanded by the state board that regulates private investigators for not having the proper license.

State Sen. Julia Boseman's house has been foreclosed on.

The Wilmington Democrat and her former domestic partner defaulted on a $1.3 million mortgage on a house near the Intracoastal Waterway, the Wlimington Star-News reports.

The house will now likely be sold at a public auction later this month.

Boseman and Melissa Jarrell, the head softball coach at UNC-Wilmington, failed to make $7,156 worth of payments on the house since Aug. 1, 2007.

According to property records, the couple purchased the house together in June of 2005, but Boseman transferred the property title to Jarrell in April, removing her name from the title.

"It is my ex-partner's house, and I haven't lived there in over two years," Boseman told the newspaper.