Thursday, September 02, 2010

Local boy causes international diplomacy crisis

The local newspaper report:
SANTA CRUZ -- A judge signed a $50,000 arrest warrant Tuesday for a Greek mother who disobeyed a federal court order in June when she failed to return her son to his father, a Watsonville native, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office reported.

Despina Asvesta is wanted for kidnapping Andoni Petroutsas, 5, according to Assistant District Attorney Bill Atkinson.

George Petroutsas, the boy's father and Asvesta's ex-husband, has been locked in a legal battle with Asvesta over custody of the boy since he was a few months old. In April, a judge awarded full custody to the father, but granted Asvesta a final six-week stint with her son at her home in Greece, according to court documents.
I commented on this case before, as one of Judge Kelsay's many screw-ups.

If these judges were trying to cause as much chaos as possible, then I don't know how they could do more damage. The textbooks should call this the Kelsay method -- give sole custody to one parent, and then let the other parent take the kid out of the country. Wait for the parents to do the obvious. Then let the federal judges, prosecutors, ambassadors, and state department officials on two continents try to figure out why the family court did what it did.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

copied from sentinel topix

the mother

This is the first time I'm speaking in a forum. I'm not going to badmouth anybody, especially the father of my child, as I believe one say he will read all this and form his own opinion. What I would like to state here though, is the fact that the reporter of this article has never called to hear my side of story. She has never initiated a proper reseach, nor has bothered to read facts. When I saw the article, I sent her an email, which you will see attached. Her reply was that they can not make international calls. Then, two days ago, at two o' clock in the morning she called to ask me whether I knew about my arrest warrant. I asked her "what arrest wharrent" and asked her to call me at proper hours to talk. She has never done so. This is malpractise on her behalf and this is my email to prove it, as for the rest, everything is public record:
From: "despina asvesta" Add sender to ContactsTo: jsquires@santacruzsentinel.com Cc: dmiller@santacruzsentinel.com, jcopeland@santacruzsentinel.co mBcc:
Dear Ms. Squires,
I read your article with great surprise. Apparently, you have chosen to not do your full research with regard to Mr. Petroutsas' claims about our son.
Did Mr. Petroutsas mention how he set up me and filed for divorce without me knowing while I was in Greece visiting family? While he was suing me, I was planning his grandfather's funeral and expecting him to come to Greece, as he told me he would, for the Christmas holiday.
Did he mention that he played the courts on two continents, and followed only the orders that he preferred? I obtained a legal divorce and custody order in Greece - by the way, George Petroutsas attended and participated in all of those hearings in Greece.
Did he mention that he paid international child abductors to take his child without any concern for the safety of his child? While those men were leaving the meeting, they were arrested in London for another such abduction (look up Roy Van Reekum) and have been serving criminal time?
Did he mention there are criminal charges against him for domestic violence, credit card fraud and possession of illegal arms?
Or the $3.5 million case against him for fraud, racketeering, and embezzlement?
Perhaps he did not mention that he committed perjury on federal documents? Why don't you look that up in the federal documents and transcript of our Hague hearing in the US?
Or perhaps you'd like to do a little research in the Santa Cruz court case and see that he had suspicious parental behaviour that caused the court to ORDER him to mediation with me and our son, which he REFUSED to do, instead he abducted our son. There is no proof of how they crossed from Canada into the United States, but I know he refused to let me talk to my son for months.
As for his ended communication now - I have never kept him from speaking to his son. Mr. Petroutsas STOPPED CALLING. There is a Greek court order for visitation, Mr. Petroutsas simply chooses to not take advantage of it.
Everything I have stated here is a matter of public record - check the court documents - but it appears you chose to take Mr. Petroutsas' word for truth. If you are interested in really learning more about this matter and the fact that George Petroutsas is a dangerous man, please feel free to call me at (number). I would expect that the least a credible journalist would do.
Sincerely,
Despina Asvesta

George said...

I thought that the Greek mom left a comment here, but it seems to be gone.

I am not taking sides here, except to say that the courts have made a mess of it.

Anonymous said...

she did left a comment but as it seems somebody did not like it and removed it.
the other side of the story has to be hidden.

no comments.....

Anonymous said...

if you receive emails for your comments then it is not really 'gone' it is just not currently visible on this site.