Child-custody fugitive's trial opens on Maui
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — A former Maui resident went on trial yesterday for taking her two children to Central America to keep them from their father.
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Mary Lou French, 56, is accused of two counts of custodial interference, which carries a potential penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Mary Lou French took her daughters out of the United States.
French was considered a federal fugitive for more than a year before her arrest in Panama in April 2000.
The FBI had tracked French to Costa Rica, where she allegedly evaded a Hawai'i family court order requiring her to share custody of the two girls, Emily, now 7, and Sarah, 6, with her then-husband, James French, former director of the Maui Symphony Orchestra.
The couple, now divorced, had adopted the girls from China.
In an interview following her arrest, Mary Lou French said she left the United States to save her children from abuse by their father.
Her allegations prompted a Costa Rican judge to release her from jail in March 2000 and return the two girls to her, even though officials there knew the FBI considered her an abductor.
James French, who lives in California with his daughters, said the claims of abuse were invented by his ex-wife only after she lost custody of the children.
The allegations did not arise in divorce and custody proceedings, he said.
Federal charges against Mary Lou French were dismissed to allow prosecution on the state level.
The trial opened yesterday afternoon in Maui Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza's courtroom after a day and a half of jury selection.
