Kidnap Victim Reunited with Daughter
Baoping, a Chinese national, met, married and had a child with a US citizen in her hometown in China. Six months after the baby’s birth her husband convinced her to come to the United States to visit his family in the San Joaquin Valley.
What was supposed to be a family bonding trip quickly turned into a nightmare. Soon after their arrival, Baoping’s husband locked her in his parents’ garage, a room with no ventilation in the middle of summer. He beat her, raped her, withheld food and worst of all to her, she couldn’t breast feed her baby because he didn’t allow her to see her, telling her that she would never see her again. When the date for the family’s return to China finally came, her husband and some of his family members took her to the San Francisco Airport for her trip back to China– alone and without her baby.
As they were walking to the security lines at the airport, our client was able to get away; she was determined not to leave her baby behind. After spending the night at the airport, at daybreak she spotted Officer Louie of the San Francisco Police Department who listened to her story and took immediate steps to help her to safety, beginning with a ride to Gum Moon, a local women’s shelter.
The folks at Gum Moon put Baoping in touch with BayLegal’s Legal Advice Line. One of BayLegal’s attorneys, assured Baoping, in her own language, that we would help and immediately connected her to another of BayLegal’s family law attorneys, also a domestic violence and child custody expert.
Without representation, Baoping would no doubt have lost custody of her baby.
Baoping’s attorney soon learned that apart from all of the abuse Baoping suffered at the hands of her husband, the Stanislaus Superior Court had granted temporary custody of the baby to the husband based on his lie that Baoping was about to take the baby back to China illegally. BayLegal also learned that the custody hearing in Stanislaus County was only three days away.
Dropping everything else, Baoping’s attorney filed a brief arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction over Baoping’s daughter because the evidence showed that the visit to California was only to be temporary as both parents had their home and jobs in China, that China is the child’s home and therefore only a Chinese court has the jurisdiction to determine custody. At the hearing, the judge agreed and ordered the husband to return the baby and her passport immediately to her mother.
Without representation, Baoping would no doubt have lost custody of her baby. Indeed, the court had already assumed jurisdiction when it granted temporary custody to the husband. Within hours after the hearing, our client and her daughter were reunited and both are now safe and sound with their family in China.
In September 2011, at its celebration honoring the founding of the Peoples’ Republic of China, the Chinese Consulate honored Baoping’s attorney and Bay Area Legal Aid for stepping in to help Baoping and her baby at a moments notice and for having the language capacity and legal expertise to do so.
