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http://www.gazette.net/stories/0117...431_32374.shtml
Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008
by Sebastian Montes | Staff Writer
The Montgomery County State’s Attorney office has dropped its case against the mother charged with abducting her 3-year-old daughter last month.
Following a month-long manhunt that stretched from Silver Spring to New York to California, the girl’s mother Ashley Elizabeth Duffy, 27, was arrested Jan. 15 in Santa Monica by Los Angeles County police, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Web site.
The decision to drop the charges was confirmed Jan. 17, the day after the Montgomery County Circuit Court dismissed a Jan. 9 court order that gave Brian Transeau of Boyds emergency custody of his 3-year-old daughter Kaia.
“We are not proceeding with a criminal case,“ said Seth Zucker, spokesman for the State’s Attorney’s Office.
However, for procedural reasons, Duffy was still in a Los Angeles County jail as of early Thursday afternoon, said her Rockville lawyer, Cindy Callahan.
“She is presently in jail and we are working on getting her out,“ Callahan said.
She did not know if Kaia is with Transeau or Duffy’s mother, both of whom are in California.
The Montgomery County arrest warrant was based on the Jan. 9 emergency order giving Transeau sole custody. But in a Circuit Court hearing Jan. 16 — conducted jointly with the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County — Montgomery County Judge Michael Algeo dismissed the custody order following Duffy’s arrest.
Algeo also ordered that Duffy and Kaia will continue to live in California and that the California court will have “continuing, exclusive jurisdiction“ in the case.
Another hearing is set for Jan. 23 to begin resolution on a longer-term custody arrangement, Callahan said.
Calls to Transeau’s lawyers in Rockville and California were not returned.
“I don’t think that the authorities did anything that they were not supposed to do. Based on the information that they were given, and based on the fact that an order had been issued, they did what’s appropriate and frankly what is crucial for parents whose children have actually been abducted,“ Callahan said.
Transeau told Montgomery County Judge Terrence J. McGann — who granted the Jan. 9 order for emergency custody that precipitated the arrest warrant — that Duffy and Kaia had been missing since Dec. 19. With the emergency custody order secured, the Montgomery County District Court issued the warrant for Duffy’s arrest on charges of child abduction. Transeau also hired private investigators, who tracked her to Santa Monica.
Transeau is a well-known producer, composer and electronic musician known as “BT“. He wrote the musical score to the films “Monster“ and “The Fast and the Furious“ and has collaborated with the likes of David Bowie and Britney Spears, according to his Web site.
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Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does. |
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Someone needs to do it!
