Wednesday Weirdness: Guatemala Kidnapping

Welcome to Wednesday Weirdness, a recurring theme where we post something truly weird and wacky in adoption or child welfare.

Today’s installment involves swift justice involving multiple US and Guatemalan departments in an unethical, bizarre and illegal circumstance involving a Guatemalan child who was not in legal custody of the prospective parent. It contrasts with the lack of Interpol’s response in Anyeli’s case in which DNA has revealed that Anyeli was kidnapped and adopted to the US, according to Guatemalan courts.

Sheena Flores, 34, of Manassas, Virginia, according to court documents, “was living in Guatemala in July of 2010 with a child under the age of two who was born in Guatemala. Flores did not have legal custody of the child, but had been taking care of the child in Guatemala while her husband was making arrangements to legally bring the child to the United States to live with him and Flores.

Flores contacted a family member in Manassas by telephone on July 6 2010 from Guatemala, and reported that she and the child had been kidnapped by three men and that the men wanted $5,000 in two hours or they were going to kill Flores and the child.

An FBI investigation found Flores knew she and the child had not been kidnapped and was attempting to extort money from her family with a hoax kidnapping and false threats. The family member called law enforcement authorities in Virginia upon learning of the kidnapping and believing it to be true.

FBI agents began investigating the kidnapping and members of the FBI’s Crisis Incident Response Group were dispatched to the family member’s house to monitor the situation and assist the family in negotiating with the kidnappers.

Flores’ husband, who was in Manassas, received numerous text messages from Flores’ cellular phone in Guatemala, which repeatedly threatened that Flores and the child would be killed if he did not pay $10,000 in ransom by the next day. ”

Woman Sentenced for Extortion, Kidnapping Scheme
[Manassas Patch 10/21/11 by Erin Gibson]

Flores’ husband wired $3,000. “Although a hoax, the plot was no joke, prosecutors say. Flores had enlisted the help of two members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a notoriously violent street gang. Prosecutors say that Flores even left the young girl — just under 2 years old — in the care of the gang members for at least three nights in a Guatemalan hotel.

Flores “exploited both the child and the love her husband had for the child in efforts to extract thousands of dollars from her husband and her parents,” prosecutors Rebecca Bellows and James Yoon wrote in court papers.

Although no one was harmed, the prosecutors added, Flores nevertheless “placed the child in danger in executing her hoax kidnapping.”

According to court papers, Flores had given up a solid job in Northern Virginia and moved to Guatemala in 2009 to help raise the girl, who was believed to be her husband’s child from an affair. Despite marital problems that developed while she was in Guatemala, Flores wanted to eventually raise the girl with her husband in the United States, court papers show.”

Bring on the Entitlement

“In court papers, Flores’s attorneys, Juliet Mazer-Schmidt and Joshua Paulson, wrote that Flores had developed a “deep emotional” attachment to the girl and “committed the offense out of desperation to obtain or maintain custody.”

They called Flores “a nurturing woman, tragically hampered by infertility, financial struggles, and a dysfunctional marriage.”

“Although her efforts were profoundly misguided,” they wrote, “her motive was born out of love.”

According to court filings, it appears that the husband was able to bring the child back to the United States.”

Judge sentences Manassas woman to 2 years in federal prison for kidnapping hoax
[Washington Post 10/21/11 by Del Quentin Wilbur]

Sentencing


“A Virginia woman was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for her role in an extortion scheme involving a staged kidnapping in Guatemala, announced U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Division.

Sheena Flores, 34, of Manassas, Va., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in the Eastern District of Virginia. Flores pleaded guilty in August 2011 to one count of transmitting in foreign commerce, with intent to extort money, a communication containing a threat to injure another person. Judge Lee also sentenced Flores to three years of supervised release to follow her prison term and ordered her to pay $3,000 in restitution.”

Massive Response…Too Bad Other Cases Don’t Get This Kind of Attention

“The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebeca H. Bellows for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney James S. Yoon of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Miami Division Extraterritorial Squad, with support from the FBI Legal Attaché Office in San Salvador, El Salvador, and the FBI Transnational Anti-Gang Task Force in Guatemala.”

Manassas Women Sentenced For Role In Extortion Scheme Involving Staged Kidnapping In Guatemala
[Alexandria News10/21/11]