“It is simply inappropriate and unacceptable for any parent to hide their children and keep them from the custodial parent in violation of a court order for any amount of time,”
“The almost two and a half years that these children were hidden led to significant trauma to her daughters and caused significant adverse impacts to the rest of her family. We are pleased with the jury’s decision in this matter.”
— Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom
Editor’s Note:
On behalf of the Missing Children’s Community, we applaud the efforts of Dakota County Assistant Prosecutor Kathryn Keena for her efforts in this case. Family Abduction or Deprivation of Custody Cases Criminal Trials with the Affirmative Defense are not prosecuted as frequently as they should be. This guilty verdict should send an important message to Family Court Custody Litigants, Critics and the Protective Parent Community that there are always other legal alternatives to kidnapping a child. It should help to deter this criminal act and any supporters from assisting in this crime.
We also applaud the Judge in this case. In many of these trials, the defense attorneys are allowed to re-litigate the divorce and custody case which provides another forum for the defendant as well as the cause.
The victim parent was fortunate to have the supportive efforts of a law enforcement team in his community that were able to locate and recover these children. The investigate efforts that this law enforcement team used were progressive and should be evaluated for use in other family abduction cases.
We hope the media will provide this family and especially the children with privacy so that they can move forward with their lives.
Finally, we applaud the efforts of this father who found his children, has done everything possible to protect them during this trial and can finally move forward in raising his children. It’s not time for the media and others to allow this family the privacy they rightfully deserve.
