Conference turris::womannotes-v2

1050.0. "Judge McCallister arrested in Holland" by HOO78C::VISSERS (Dutch Comfort) Mon Mar 26 1990 06:47

    I don't plan to do much discussion on this subject myself basically
    because I don't know too much of the background of this but this
    seems a news item of interest (Mods please feel free to move it
    if you think another topic is more appropriate).
    
    Friday evening one of the semi-newsreel programs on Dutch television
    had an interview with an American woman currently imprisoned in the
    Bijlmer prison in Amsterdam. Her name is McAllister, and she used
    to be a judge in Oklahoma (if I remember correctly).
    
    Her story is, to say the least disturbing. After she found out her
    husband had sexually abused her then 3-year old daughter, she divorced
    from him and had him arrested for incest. In the pre-trial
    investigations it was proved that the incest had actually taken place.
    In spite of the man being found guilty he was not imprisoned, and
    worse, he was not prohibited from seeing his daughter after the
    divorce. In fact in a further court hearing about this it was ruled
    that he would be allowed to see his daughter without supervision. 
    
    Concerned about this, she fled with her daughter, who at that time was
    in her custody, to Hawaii, where she stayed for a couple of months
    until she learned that her husband had gone to court and succeeded in
    getting custody over the child and also had a high-priority APB (?) on
    her (I don't know the exact US legal terms but it's the kind of APB
    that only gets granted when there is immediate danger for the life of
    the child). She fled from Hawaii to different countries, and has been
    staying for a year in each country since 1987. In this time her
    daughter went to private schools. Last november she was stopped
    in Amsterdam for driving through a red traffic light, and when her
    identity was checked she was arrested. The girl was immediately
    put under supervision of the American authorities and I have understood
    she's currently back in the USA with her father. Mrs. McAllister
    is still in Holland, and the decision whether she'll be extradited
    to the USA will be next tuesday (and she probably will be extradited,
    as far as I can see Holland has no legal means not to do this).
    
    The program makers have also contacted the father of the child,
    who denies the alleged incest and said it was proven this had not
    taken place. He accused the mother of kidnapping the child.
    
    Mrs. McAllister has meanwhile support from a couple of Dutch women's
    organisations and is contacting people in Holland and USA to make
    her case known. She plans on further legal action once she gets
    back to the States.
    
    Unfortunately this is all the details I have on the case right now,
    and this is how it was presented in the TV program. I would expect
    some news footage on the US side this week, so you might want to
    check into that. If I get to know more, I'll enter it here. This
    case seems to be a strange way of justice and it made a disturbing
    impression on me. Since I found no reference to it in =wn=, I thought
    it was good to report about it.
    
    Ad

    Thank you, Ad, for entering this information.  It's the first I'd seen
    it.  By the way, APB stands for "All Points Bulletin", and sets in
    motion a wide sweep for someone within the criminal justice network.
    
    regards,
    Marge

    Court ruled yesterday that, considering the current agreements with
    the United States, Mrs. McAllister has to be extradited.
    However, the Ministery of Justice overruled the court order and
    decided that for humanitary reasons, Mrs. McAllistar will be allowed
    to stay in Holland.
    
    Charles

    Thanks Charles. I found an article in today's paper which I'll toss in
    here. Not any more main news but maybe a bit more detail. 
    
    Ad
    
    
    Kosto refuses extradition of McCallister
    ========================================

    Amsterdam - Holland will not extradite the American Elizabeth L.
    McCallister (40), a former judge in the state of Oklahoma, to the
    United States. This decision is made by the Parliamentary Secretary of
    Justice, Kosto. 

    The United States had asked for extradition of McCallister who is
    accused of withdrawing her seven year old daughter from the custody of
    her ex-husband. The woman had fled abroad with the child because
    according to her it had become apparent that the man was sexually
    abusing the child. 

    Kosto has refused the extradition request on "humanitary grounds". In
    his opinion there are personal circumstances that - "measured to Dutch
    standards and conceptions" - make it plausible that McCallister had
    taken the child due to the intense psychological pressure she
    experienced. 

    In the end of February the Amsterdam court had ruled that extradition
    of the American was admissible. McCallister has been imprisoned since
    end of November. She had been arrested for a traffic violation. Tuesday
    she has been released from the Bijlmerbajes in Amsterdam. 

    McCallister expects according to her counsel van Bennekom to
    voluntarily return to the United States on a date determined by
    herself. She will try to regain custody over the child in Oklahoma.
    Once there she will also have to answer to the charges of kidnapping
    her child to abroad. 

    McCallister was given custody over the then three year old Stephanie at
    the time of the divorce in 1983. When she suspected the father of
    sexually abusing the child when seeing her, she kidnapped the child to
    Hawaii. The man then had her custody removed which made her flee to
    Europe with the child. 

    De Volkskrant 28 march 1990 - translation best try, Ad