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Parental abductions not simple to judge or track.


Byline: SUSAN PALMER The Register-Guard

The number of children who go underground to avoid court-mandated custody decisions is almost impossible to determine.

The U.S. Justice Department hasn't has·n't  

Contraction of has not.


hasn't has not
hasn't have
 tried to count them in more than a decade because law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).  aren't aren't  

Contraction of are not. See Usage Note at ain't.


aren't are not
aren't be
 always contacted when parental abductions occur and because they happen under such a variety of circumstances CIRCUMSTANCES, evidence. The particulars which accompany a fact.
     2. The facts proved are either possible or impossible, ordinary and probable, or extraordinary and improbable, recent or ancient; they may have happened near us, or afar off; they are public or
 that it's often hard to tell whether a crime has been committed, a Justice Department employee said.

The only government-financed study of such cases occurred in 1990 and used previous missing children reports to estimate that 354,100 children had been abducted abducted Distal angulation of an extremity away from the midline of the body in a transverse plane and away from a sagittal plane passing through the proximal aspect of the foot or part, or away from some other specified reference point  by family members in 1988.

Since the late 1980s, several networks of sympathizers have sprung up to hide children and parents when family courts allow a parent suspected of abuse continued access to the child.

The best known and the one that helped Mandy Monet and her mother, April Curtis, was run by Faye Yager, an Atlanta woman who has helped keep hundreds of children away from custodial parents.

Yager's work has been criticized by some who say she doesn't adequately check the stories of the families she helps.

A wealthy Philadelphia banker, Bipin Shaw, filed a $100 million suit against her in 1998, when she helped his ex-wife disappear with his two daughters. That suit was dropped when his children were recovered in 1999, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 news accounts.

Yager is no longer involved in the Children of the Underground, said Curtis, who has stayed in touch with her over the years.

But the underground networks will continue to thrive, as long as courts require a preponderance of evidence A standard of proof that must be met by a plaintiff if he or she is to win a civil action.

In a civil case, the plaintiff has the burden of proving the facts and claims asserted in the complaint.
 against a parent before they'll protect a child, said Mandy's lawyer, Alan Rosenfeld.

That often puts children at a disadvantage when the only evidence is their word against a parent's word, he said.

"We have to come up with some other system. It may not be fair to an innocent father who loses contact, but how do you balance the harm to the child?" he said.
COPYRIGHT 2001 The Register Guard
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2001, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:Courts
Publication:The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
Date:Dec 21, 2001
Words:335
Previous Article:Setting it Straight.(Corrections)(Correction Notice)
Next Article:Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)



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