Source:http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jan/01192003/utah/21603.asp
Michael Gulbraa, holding photographs of Christopher, left, and Michael, has recently seen the boys while on a visit to Japan in December. , Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake TribuneMichael Gulbraa has kept the room his sons lived in the same since his ex-wife took 13-year-old Michael and 12-year-old Christopher and returned to her native Japan. Gulbraa has been told that authorities there do not believe a crime has been committed. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune) |
BY ASHLEY BROUGHTON
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
January 19, 2003
Two
Christmases have come and gone, but the one thing Michael Gulbraa
really wants remains out of reach, thousands of miles away.
A downstairs room in his South Jordan home
remains ready for his sons, 13-year-old Michael and 12-year-old
Christopher. Presents from holidays past sit unopened, waiting to be
claimed. The boys' faces can be seen on Web sites, their names on lists
of missing children.
But Michael and Christopher were not snatched
by a stranger, police say. Their abductor was their own mother,
Gulbraa's ex-wife, who returned with them to her native Japan in
November 2001, violating a temporary restraining order requiring her to
stay in Utah.
Although that restraining order was dissolved,
Etsuko Tanizaki Allred and her husband, Daren Allred, have refused to
return Michael and Christopher despite orders from judges, a lawsuit
and even the filing of state and federal charges against them. Her
defense attorney did not comment Friday.
"I just want this to be over," said Gulbraa, who was awarded custody of his sons in April.
Law enforcement has historically viewed parental
abductions as a private family matter. It has only been in recent years
-- the past decade, perhaps -- that attitudes have begun changing and
more attention is has been paid to such cases, even as the number of
abductions decline.
In 1988, according to the 1990 U.S. Department
of Justice's National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway
and Thrownaway Children (NISMART), there were as many as 354,100 family
abductions. In the second NISMART report, released in October, an
estimated 203,900 children were abducted by family members in 1999.
Scant Attention: A December 2001 report released
by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
which analyzed 1992 data and visited several areas, including Salt Lake
County, showed "a criminal justice system paying relatively scant
attention to the crime of parental abduction." In 1992, only 30,500
police reports were registered on parental abduction, and only 4,500
people were arrested, despite the fact that parental abduction is a
crime in all 50 states.
Often lost, researchers say, is "the focus on
the child as victim," rather than the parent left behind. The lost
contact with one parent is detrimental to children, they point out, but
even if the child is returned, he or she may experience difficulty
adjusting, be confused by conflicting stories or suffer if taken from
the abducting parents and placed with a parent he or she does not know
well.
'Sticky Points': Authorities generally agree
parental-abduction cases now are being taken more seriously, possibly
in tandem with other formerly "private family" crimes, such as incest
or domestic violence. But circumstances can cloud the issue for state
and federal investigators.
"Part of the problem we run into in the
parental kidnappings is if there's joint custody," said George
Dougherty, spokesman for the FBI's Salt Lake City field office. "If a
couple are having problems in their marriage, and the dad takes the
kids and moves to Saudi Arabia . . . what do you do? There's so many
sticky points to all that."
For state officials, prosecuting such cases can
be expensive and time-consuming. And even if a conviction on custodial
interference, a third-degree felony, is obtained, a judge is likely to
sentence the offending parent to time already served or possibly a
short jail term.
Gulbraa said the Farmington police were among
the few local officials who cooperated in his case from the beginning.
The department has no set policy for parental
abductions, other than "we definitely get on it and investigate it,"
said Lt. Shane Whittaker. Since child abductions have gained attention
in recent years, and tools such as the Rachel Alert have been
developed, police have had more success gathering and disseminating
information.
Couple Charged: Gulbraa said when he approached
county prosecutors about the case, he was told the office was loath to
get involved because "it was a lot of money for nothing." But he
pressed on, and eventually Etsuko Allred and Daren Allred were each
charged in September 2002 with two third-degree felony counts of
custodial interference.
A federal complaint, also filed in September,
charges the Allreds with international parental kidnapping and aiding
and abetting a fugitive -- presumably, each other. Gulbraa has high
praise for federal authorities. "The FBI, boy, they jumped all over
it," he said, with one agent telling him, "If it were my kids, I'd be
going nuts."
Where the children are headed can make a large
difference, authorities said, particularly if, like Michael and
Christopher Gulbraa, they are taken overseas. Whether the United States
has an extradition agreement with their country of destination can
become a major issue, snarling investigators in red tape, Dougherty,
the FBI spokesman, said.
At the Hague Conference on Private
International Law in 1976, 23 nations agreed to draft a treaty to deter
abductions. Currently, the United States and 50 other countries have
signed the Hague Convention, agreeing to return abducted children.
Japan, however, is not a signee of the Hague
Convention. In fact, Gulbraa has been told, authorities there do not
believe a parent can abduct a child, and so do not believe a crime has
been committed.
Even if a country's government will allow it,
most law enforcement agencies lack the funding and staff to send
officers overseas to retrieve the children.
Will Not Let Up: Gulbraa has recently seen the
boys, spending about six hours with them over two days in December
while on a visit to Japan. But their mother required chaperones to
accompany the three and has refused to hand over their passports, and
Gulbraa knows he cannot take the boys back home without travel
documents.
Gulbraa says he will not let up in pressuring
authorities to return his sons, and some agencies' reluctance to get
involved in such cases makes him angry. "If anybody deserves protection
for anything, it's the children," he said.
aebroughton@sltrib.com