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Allison Quets Sentenced

December 18, 2007 permalink

Allison Quets has been sentenced. Her story would be rejected for publication as fiction, because it is too absurd. To summarize:

  • Allison Quets became pregnant through expensive in vitro fertilization.
  • She had life-threatening problems during pregnancy, but gave birth to healthy twins.
  • She was cajoled or coerced into consenting to adoption.
  • After regaining her health she tried to reclaim her children.
  • Lawyers purportedly representing her took a half a million dollars in fees without getting her children back.
  • On a visit with her children, she fled with them to Canada.
  • She and her children were forcibly returned to the United States.
  • She was incarcerated in North Carolina indefinitely until pleading guilty.
  • She pleaded guilty as her only means of getting out of jail.
  • She has been sentenced to five years probation, with severe restrictions on contact with the family that has taken her children.
  • As a convicted felon, she will have no prospect of regaining her children ever, or resuming her high-paying career.

For earlier stories on this case, refer to December 29 2006, January 4, 2007, April 14 and Sept 15

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Biological mom gets five years for kidnapping twins

OTTAWA -- Allison Quets was sentenced to five years probation on Tuesday afternoon for kidnapping her biological twins and crossing the border to Ottawa in December 2006, according to North Carolina media reports.

A federal court judge in Raleigh also ordered the 50-year-old to stay away from two-year-old Holly and Tyler and their adoptive parents without state court approval and a parole officer present. Quets was fined $15,000 and must also pay travel expenses to Kevin and Denise Needham, the reports said.

She must also surrender her U.S. passport.

Quets pleaded guilty on Sept. 14 to two counts of international parental kidnapping, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

She was released after eight months in jail and prosecutors pledged to recommend a penalty at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines.

On Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bowler accused Quets of harassing the Needhams with her continued efforts to regain custody, according to the News & Observer of Raleigh.

Her case gained notoriety once she drove north in her white minivan, arriving in Ontario on Dec. 23 and spending Christmas at a Kingston, Ont. bed-and-breakfast before renting a city townhouse.

Ottawa police arrested Quets on Dec. 29, and the twins were returned to the Needhams.

Federal authorities argued she planned the cross-border trip months in advance, which included obtaining passports for the children and contacting a Canadian immigration lawyer.

The complicated story began when Quets undertook a pregnancy by in-vitro fertilization at the age of 47, while living in Orlando, Fla.

Holly and Tyler were born in July 2005.

Quets has argued she was in medical distress and never intended to give up the babies one month later to a North Carolina couple, Kevin and Denise Needham.

She has fought to regain custody ever since.

Ottawa Citizen

Source: National Post

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