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Oldest Parental Kidnapping Case Finally Resolved

By Steven Rodriguez

The oldest parental kidnapping case in the country was finally resolved a year ago. In 1993, Mary Jane Byrd fled with her 4-year-old daughter shortly after a Washington D.C. judge ordered that the girl’s father be allowed visitation rights. The father, Charles Dodd, was subsequently awarded full custody of his daughter, but it took U.S. Marshalls 13 years to track her down. In 2006 they found Mary Byrd and her daughter living at the house of Byrd’s mother in Delaware. Charged with parental kidnapping, Byrd faced up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine if convicted. Pleading domestic violence and fear of abuse as her reasons for disappearing with her daughter, charges denied by Dodd, Byrd was acquitted by a jury just one year ago.  Every year more than 200,000 children are taken by a family member, usually a parent without legal custody...continue to full post

Full post as published by LA Criminal Defense Blog on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).