This morning's Northwest Herald carried a top-right (most important) article about a mom who has fled to Mexico with two children. Well, she said she was "just" going on vacation. The kids' father (her ex-husband) suspected worse, because his ex-wife's lease was about to expire and she had liquidated property. But Judge Suzanne Mangiamele gave permission for Sonia Leon De Carol to take her 4- and 5-year-old children to Mexico for most of the month of June.
According to the paper, the mom presented a newly-signed one-year lease, contact number for her parents in Mexico and a printed itinerary. The lease was signed May 27 and presented in court on June 3.
OK, so what's the problem with that? Now they know that she canceled the lease on May 29. By June 5 the dad's lawyer knew the phone number was not working.
Here's what I wonder about. Why didn't someone contact the landlord just before court on June 3 to verify the lease? Did anyone ask the mom in court if the lease was still valid? Was she asked, and did she lie when she answered? Ding, ding, ding - Perjury! Did anyone call the phone number just before court?
Was the dad's lawyer ready to pounce in court, as soon as he knew the Mexico phone number was not working? This was a huge clue that something smelled. He should have gone straight to court, rather than calling the mom's attorney. Couldn't he have gotten to a judge for an emergency order preventing her departure and had cops at the airport to prevent her boarding the plane with the kids?
Judge Mangiamele has a distinctive name, and I recall news a while back about some court matter that "went south" (maybe not as literally as in this case). Anybody remember the details on that one?
The dad's saying "I told you so" isn't good enough now. How much will he spend to get his kids back to the U.S.?
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
1 comment:
A quick search on www.dailyherald.com found Judge Mangiamele's name. She was involved in a case involving Michael Connolly and Amy Leichtenberg, while it was going through the McHenry County court system. Judge Mangiamele protected the kids by allowing only supervised visitation.
Later the mother of the children moved to central Illinois and took the children with her. A judge there granted unsupervised visitation, and the father killed the two boys and committed suicide in March.
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