12/2/2009
A mother in Texas witnessed the kidnapping of her 10-year-old son in a strange case of what San Antonio attorney Miguel Ortiz calls "government-assisted kidnapping." Five years prior, the woman, Berenice Diaz, had been awarded full custody of her son, Jean Paul. On october 16 however, her husband convinced the court otherwise with misleading Mexican judicial documents. The next day, he arrived with a police escort to collect Jean Paul and they have not been since or heard from since. In an article from the Associated Press, Professor Marsha Garrison, who is also secretary-general of the International Society of Family Law, commented on the matter. "I'd guess that it's pretty uncommon for an abductor to trick a court," she said. "It seems odd that the officials handed over the child without a hearing on the matter at which the other parent was allowed to present evidence, but I don't know what kind of evidence was offered by the father."