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FinalCall.com News
National News
'Guardian angel' charged with stealing Black children
By Ana Ley
Updated Aug 21, 2008 - 11:10:00 AM
HOUSTON - Five young Hurricane Katrina survivors who were taken from their mother by a woman they had been living with for nearly three years are being interviewed by Child Protective Services about allegations that their mother abused them.
Rhonda Tavey, who met the children’s mother while Ms. Tavey worked as a one-time American Red Cross volunteer during the Katrina aftermath, gave up the unharmed children Aug. 7. Ms. Tavey has been charged with five counts of kidnapping.
CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin said the children will be held by CPS officers until they are able to determine whether it is safe for them to return to their mother. Investigators will also look into Ms. Tavey’s claims that their mother, Erica Alphonse, mistreated them.
“Because there have been allegations made of possible abuse in that home, that the children would be in danger if they returned to the home, we really just have to check it out,” Ms. Olguin said. “There has to be some significant evidence that there might be abuse in their home. We can’t just take them because someone thinks they can be a better parent than the other.”
Dick DeGeurin, the attorney for the 44-year-old Ms. Tavey, confirmed she was arrested by the FBI while on her way to his office to turn herself in to authorities. She was being taken to Harris County Jail. Officials said the children, ages 3 to 8, appeared to be in good health.
The Harris County District Attorney’s office said Ms. Tavey could face 2-10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine if convicted.
Ms. Tavey, who had been caring for the children the past two years while their mother resettled in New Orleans, claims in various media interviews that she took the kids July 11 because she feared for their safety and because their mother threatened Ms. Tavey.
Ms. Tavey had refused to give them back to Ms. Alphonse, and authorities issued the Amber Alert Aug. 6 after almost a month of negotiations failed to convince her to bring the children back. Later that day, Ms. Tavey told newspapers and TV stations that she was in Dallas and that she planned to surrender.
Ms. Tavey said she also took the children because their mother was abusive — allegations the mother denies.
“When I confronted her with that, she pulled a knife and threatened to kill me. That’s when I made arrangements to get the kids out,” Ms. Tavey said Aug. 7 in an online edition of the Houston Chronicle.
Phone calls to Ms. Alphonse were unanswered Aug. 7.
The children had been living in Houston with Ms. Tavey under an agreement Ms. Tavey reached with their mother. Ms. Tavey, who has two teenage daughters, was to care for the two boys and three girls while their mother sought to become self-sufficient in New Orleans.
They reached the agreement after meeting in Reliant Park, where Ms. Tavey had been volunteering after thousands of displaced Louisiana residents poured into the state after the 2005 hurricane.
Ms. Alphonse, calling Ms. Tavey her family’s “guardian angel” after Katrina’s devastation, said she told Ms. Tavey she wanted to move the family back to New Orleans eventually. Their arrangement turned sour when Ms. Tavey refused to return the children July 11.
“I had gotten her a job, a car, set her up in an apartment,” Ms. Tavey told the Chronicle. “I’d helped her do all that when she decided she needed to go back.”
—Associated Press
