By the time Debby Guthrie gained legal custody of her grandson, she’d already been in jail for abducting the child.
Guthrie, a local advocate for military veterans who runs the nonprofit Veterans Challenge at the Vernon Park Mall, her daughter Charity Hilderbrand Smith and Lansing Raymond Allen were arrested in the early morning hours Thursday in Washington, N.C. Local police detained the three suspects until detectives with the Kinston Department of Public Safety could show up on the scene.
“The victim reported her mother and her sister kept her son and didn’t return him — her 3-year-old son,” KDPS Cmdr. Jennifer Canady said. “He was supposed to stay the night, and after the day had passed, she tried to make contact to take back possession of her child. She could not make contact.”
The child fell out of a second-floor window at an apartment at The Willows apartment complex earlier in the week, suffering injuries to the head and neck. Guthrie said she, with his mother’s consent, let him stay with her after hospital staff released him.
Believing the child to have suffered from neglect, Guthrie said she filed a complaint with Lenoir County Department of Social Services and had a document drawn up to place the boy in her legal custody. Guthrie said her attorney told her a judge wasn’t able to see and sign off on the request until Thursday morning.
By then, she — along with Smith and Allen — was already charged with a felony. The trio was charged with one felony count each of child abduction and jailed under $50,000 bonds.
“We’re in jail, we’re facing five years in prison, handcuffed, shackles, the whole fun stuff,” Guthrie said. “The whole processing thing, that’s not fun. Locked up, the whole bit. Then as we sit down in the courtroom, the attorney’s there. He said, ‘I’ve got it. Signed it this morning, 9 o’clock.’ ”
Guthrie said Lenoir County District Court Judge Brian DeSoto told her since she was charged with a felony she could not take custody of the child, and rescinded the order. However, Guthrie, Smith and Allen had their $50,000 bonds waived and were released from jail.
The child was placed back into custody of his mother and father.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.