ISAAC and REBECCA SAVOIE - 8 and 6 yo - Williamson County TN

A Middle Tennessee man stands at the center of another heartbreaking, international parental abduction. In this case, his ex-wife ignored a judge's order and took their two children back to her home in Japan. Now, the Williamson County father is working with the FBI and the U.S. State Department to try to get his children back. But he knows there's very little hope. Still, he tells our chief investigative reporter Phil Williams that the judge could have stopped her.
For Christopher Savoie and wife Amy, family photos are a reminder of how
good life once was -- life with his 8-year-old son Isaac, and
6-year-old daughter Rebecca.

"I can't sleep -- it's horrible," Christopher Savoie told Williams. But
life for their big, happy family -- his kids and her kids -- was
shattered back in August when Christopher's kids were abducted by his
ex-wife. "Everywhere I look, there's a picture," he said,
choking back his emotions. "I can't go in his bedroom because, I'm
like, he'll never sleep in his bed again." For Amy's son, it's been like losing a brother. "Isaac
throws his clothes like in a ball on the floor and Christopher felt
like, if I put it in the hamper, it would be like throwing away Isaac,"
she said, as her eyes teared up. Isaac and Rebecca were caught in the middle when Christopher and his first wife, Noriko, divorced.
The Japanese native had agreed to live in Franklin with the children, returning only to Japan for summer vacations. But Isaac and Rebecca's school called on the first day of classes. The children were missing. "I got very concerned," Christopher remembered. "I kept calling, calling.
The school kept calling. Nobody could get through to her." Fearing something tragic, Christopher finally reached his ex-wife's father in Japan, who told him not to worry. "I said, 'What do you mean -- don't worry? They weren't at school.' Oh,
don't worry, they are here. I said, 'They are what, they are what, they
are in Japan?'" Amy added, "He yelled, 'They're in Japan, they're in Japan.' Then, he came in here and he had this disbelieving
look in his eyes. He was standing right over there near the dishwasher
and he said, 'Let me talk to my son, let me talk to my son.'" Christopher had little time. "I
just said, 'I love you Isaac. I love you. Remember that I love you and
I want you back. You should be here. You should be in school. You should be with your daddy.'" But even more tragic is this: Christopher's ex-wife knew that Japan doesn't recognize family court orders from the U.S. In fact, Noriko Savoie had repeatedly threatened to take the kids and run. Still, Williamson County Judge Jim Martin ordered that Isaac and Rebecca's
passports be released to their mother so they could go on vacation. That despite an email sent to Christopher in which Noriko Savoie suggested she might have more than just vacation on her mind. "I am on the edge of a cliff," she had written. "I am having more
difficulty staying here. It's very hard to watch [the] kids becoming
American and losing [their] Japanese identity." Christopher
took it seriously. "If she's still saying in that letter that that she
wants to move, that she doesn't like it here in Middle Tennessee, maybe
we ought to take that seriously." But the judge told Christopher that he needed to accept that life was full of risks, that
he had signed the divorce agreement that allowed her to take the children to Japan. In fact, Noriko took the children for vacation where she made living arrangements for them. She returned to the U.S. briefly, then -- with their passports in hand -- disappeared. "He had the power, he had the power to keep those kids in my life, and he didn't care," Christopher added. Christopher's new wife, Amy, said the smallest reminders -- like spotting Isaac's toothbrush -- can make a day difficult. "The toothbrush is up there and I don't what to do with it," Amy said. "Is he coming back? I don't think he is." And the nights are even worse. "It's hard to have quiet moments because my kids' words haunt me in those quiet times," Christopher added. Still, he hopes his children never forget what he told Isaac in that first phone call to Japan. "Please
remember that I love you. Get yourself to an embassy some day. Remember
those words. I know you don't maybe understand them yet. But, remember,
get yourself to an embassy. I love you and I want you here. I do love
you." As with a lot of divorces, this one's also complicated.
Christopher and Noriko had joint custody, but Noriko's lawyer doesn't have much nice to say about him. Still, she admits her client should not have taken the kids. Another judge has now given him legal custody of the children, and Franklin police have issued a warrant for her arrest. The problem is that there's very little they can do to enforce it in Japan. Judge Martin wouldn't talk about the case. But there are serious questions about whether he should have heard the case at all.

There are serious questions about a Williamson County
judge's involvement in a child custody case -- a case that ended up
with two children being abducted to Japan. The judge insists he didn't violate any rules. But the father of the two children says the judge made a messy case even messier.The judge
himself had worried about whether he should be making the calls. "It
is like field of dreams -- you expect a ghost to show up," said
Christopher Savoie, sitting at a local baseball park where he says he
is haunted by what he's lost. He pulled a Little League baseball cap out of a bag. "There's his hat right there. I just miss him." What he's lost is time with his 8-year-old, baseball-loving son Isaac and 6-year-old daughter Rebecca. "This is her little Dora ball," Christopher said, pulling out a smaller,
multi-colored ball and glove. "She always wanted to do like big
brother. She was saying, 'Well, I want to play baseball too.'" And
despite all that Christopher had tried to teach his kids about
respecting the umpires, he believes a bad call by a Williamson County
judge let his ex-wife, Noriko Savoie, abduct them to Japan, out of the
reach of American law. "I'll never be on the ball field again,"
he said, fighting back tears. "You know, the one thing that you can't
ever get back. You know, they could give me money. They could give me
anything. But they can't take back time." That judge, Jim Martin, refused Christopher's emergency request to keep Noriko from taking the children out of the country. That
despite the fact that a transcript from the hearing shows Noriko had
balked when social workers asked her, "Are you planning on moving to
Japan with the children this summer?" "It was a direct
question: "Do you intend to live here, do you want to live here in
Tennessee?'" Christopher remembered. "Her answer was, it was deflected.
I remember she said, 'I think that the kids will be happy if I'm
happy.' She couldn't answer yes or no." Judge Martin dismissed Noriko's threats as just being the outbursts of an emotionally stressed woman. But get this: Martin was not even the judge assigned to the Savoies' case. As a private lawyer, Martin had helped work out the divorce agreement
during hours and hours of private negotiations between Christopher and
Noriko. So, when the judge assigned to their case got tied up with
another matter, Martin volunteered to hear the dispute. "To some extent, the judge is compromised if somebody judges after being a mediator," said Vanderbilt law professor Susan Kay. Kay
couldn't comment on the Savoie case, but she says there's a good reason
that mediators are discouraged from later serving as judges on cases
they've helped negotiate. "The mediator asks the parties to
tell the mediator information that may or may not be admissible in a
court, that they may or may not want the other side to know." Christopher Savoie said that concerned him too. "Mediation is not done under oath," he explained. "I have no idea what she was
telling him in that other room. It wasn't under oath. It wasn't in
writing. I have no idea what he thinks of me." In fact, the transcript shows that Martin himself first said he didn't know the "ethical constraints" of his judging the case. But
later he added, "This is highlighting why the Court shouldn't
necessarily try cases [in which] it was a mediator -- because I bring
to this case a huge bank of knowledge regarding the background of both
of these parties." Susan Kay said, "Much of the rules of ethics
are based upon the idea that there should be not only fairness, but the
appearance of fairness." Back at the baseball park, Christopher found a comparison between his case and the baseball games his children played. "If you have a really bad flu and a headache, you probably shouldn't be behind the plate calling balls and strikes -- that's the way I view
it," he said. "And he was?" Williams asked. "And he was." At the time, his attorney had not objected to Martin's involvement. But after Christopher hired a new lawyer, Martin agreed to step
aside. Still, he left intact his order that eventually allowed Noriko
to take the children to Japan. "Next week, I won't be playing
ball with them," Christopher said. "I won't be playing catch with him.
Just won't. That week will never happen again." Now, Christopher can only wonder what would have happened if, by his way of thinking, the judge himself had played by the rules. "I may never see my kids again. He was playing with my kids lives." In the judge's order, he specifically said that -- despite her threats -- Noriko Savoie would be allowed to take the children to Japan for
vacation. She went, came back briefly and then, with their passports still in hand, she abducted them back to Japan. The ex-wife's lawyer argues that Christopher shares some responsibility
here. She says he had the chance to object to Judge Martin's
involvement. But his new lawyer says, under the rules for mediators, Martin should never have put the Savoies in that situation. The ex-wife's lawyer also says Christopher gave up fighting to keep Noriko from leaving the country. But he says he was told by another mediator that he'd already lost that battle before Judge Martin.

A U.S. man is in jail in Japan charged with trying to kidnap his
children, while his ex-wife faces a similar charge in Tennessee,
officials say.
Christopher Savoie and his ex-wife, Noriko, agreed when they
divorced that she would continue to live in Franklin, a Nashville
suburb, CNN reported. But Savoie learned on the first day of school
that his children were not there and then found out, when he called his
former father-in-law, that they were in Fukuoka, Japan.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Tuesday there appears to be little officials can do to help Savoie.
"Japan is an important partner and friend of the U.S. but on this
issue, our points of view differ," a statement said. "Our two nations
approach divorce and child-rearing differently. Parental child
abduction is not considered a crime in Japan."
Savoie obtained a temporary restraining order in March that barred
his ex-wife from taking the children, Isaac, 8, and Rebecca, 6, out of
the country. But a judge refused to grant a permanent order, finding
that under the divorce agreement his ex-wife would lose alimony and
child support if she did not return to Tennessee.

A friend says Noriko Savoie felt trapped — she was a Japanese
citizen new to the U.S. whose American husband had just served her
divorce papers.Her disintegrating marriage likely would have
ended with little notice had she not fled to Japan, where her
ex-husband was arrested this week trying to get the children she took
with her into the diplomatic protection of a U.S. consulate.Noriko
Savoie did not have court permission to bring the children to the
country where they had spent most of their lives, and Christopher
Savoie says he didn't do anything wrong when he tried to get them back.Court
records and conversations with a friend, Miiko Crafton, make it clear
that Noriko Savoie was hurt and angry from the divorce and chafing at
the cultural differences.She had no income when she moved to the
U.S. in June 2008, divorce court filings show, and appears to have been
totally dependent on Christopher Savoie, who was still legally her
husband but was involved with another woman.Crafton, a native of
Japan who befriended Noriko Savoie during her short time in Tennessee,
said her friend tried to get a divorce while the couple still lived in
Japan, but her husband had refused and later persuaded her to move to
the U.S. with the children."Everything was provided so she could
begin a new lifestyle, but right after that he gave her divorce
papers," Crafton said. "So basically she was trapped."Although
financially stable — she was awarded close to $800,000 in cash as well
as other support in the divorce — Noriko Savoie was not free to return
to Japan. She was given primary custody of the children, but her
ex-husband was also awarded time with them.She felt mistreated by the courts and emotionally abused by her ex-husband, Crafton said.In
court, she accused Christopher Savoie of threatening to have her father
jailed over a disagreement stemming from the sale of a car.In a
hostile e-mail from Christopher Savoie that was entered into the court
record, he called her an "idiot" and accused her of "poisoning the
children against me." He complained about the large cash payout she got
and monthly support payments.But Crafton said Noriko Savoie was trying to settle into life in Tennessee. For example, she tried to enroll in college."She was very positive, but she always looked sad," Crafton said. "It was a really, really sad situation."Meanwhile,
Christopher Savoie complained that she refused to let him see the
children during appointed times, screened his calls with them and
insulted him and argued with him in front of them.And, according
to court records, he had an overriding fear that she would take the
children to Japan, where he thought he would have little legal recourse
and might never be able to see them again.In Japan, if a couple
gets divorced, one parent, almost always the mother, often gets sole
custody. Divorced fathers typically have little access.Christopher
Savoie remarried in the month following the divorce, and Noriko Savoie
wrote him an e-mail soon after, asking him to keep his new wife and her
children away and stop criticizing their marriage."These things are effecting my life a lot," she wrote. "I need to stay healthy in order to stay here."That
e-mail became a key piece of evidence when Christopher Savoie
unsuccessfully tried to convince the courts not to allow her to take
the children to Japan on vacation.She returned on July 30 as planned, but went back with the children just two weeks later.Christopher
Savoie was arrested by Japanese police on Monday as he tried to enter a
U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Fukuoka with the 6- and
8-year-old children after snatching them away from their mother as they
walked to school.Local police said they received permission from the court to keep Savoie in custody for 10 days.He told CNN in an interview that he wants his children to know he loves them."I
didn't do anything wrong," he said. "Children have the right to see
both parents. It's very important for my children to know both parents."Christopher
Savoie had been granted full custody of the children by an American
court after Noriko Savoie abducted them, and the courts here issued a
warrant for her arrest on charges of custodial interference.Crafton said she felt sorry for Christopher Savoie but did not approve of his actions."If
he's really thinking of the kids, he shouldn't be doing some dramatic
movie-type thing like snatching the kids," Crafton said. "He could have
made other arrangements. He speaks Japanese very well and has Japanese
citizenship."

Japanese police said Friday that they are keeping an American man in
custody for 10 more days before authorities decide whether to press
charges against him for snatching his children from his ex-wife.Christopher
Savoie, of Franklin, Tenn., was arrested Sept. 28 after allegedly
grabbing his two children, ages 8 and 6, from his Japanese ex-wife as
they walked to school. He will remain held in city of Yanagawa where he
was arrested, on the southern island of Kyushu, police official
Kiyonori Tanaka said.Savoie's Japanese lawyer, Tadashi Yoshino, was not immediately available for comment."Obviously
it's a huge disappointment," Savoie's current wife, Amy Savoie, told
The Associated Press in a phone interview. "It's a court system over
there unlike what we have here, there's no due process at all."Amy
Savoie, who remains in Tennessee, said she considers the extra jail
time to be a delay tactic on the part of Japanese authorities."They
enable the children to reside with the Japanese native as long as
possible, so they can say 'Well, the children are here now and they
have adjusted, so it would be disruptive to return them,'" she said.
"So this is a delay tactic in order to keep the children in that
country."The case is among a growing number of international
custody disputes in Japan, which allows only one parent to be a
custodian — almost always the mother. That leaves many divorced fathers
without access to their children until they are grown up.That
stance has begun to raise concern abroad, following a recent spate of
incidents involving Japanese mothers bringing their children back to
their native land and refusing to let their foreign ex-husbands visit
them.The United States, Canada, Britain and France have urged
Japan to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child
Abduction. The convention, signed by 80 countries, seeks to ensure that
custody decisions are made by the appropriate courts and that the
rights of access of both parents are protected.Tokyo has argued
that signing the convention may not protect Japanese women and their
children from abusive foreign husbands, but this week Foreign Minister
Katsuya Okada said officials were reviewing the matter.Tanaka
said that Savoie's Japanese ex-wife, Noriko Savoie, is staying with her
Japanese parents in Yanagawa with the children, but they have refused
to talk to the media.The family lived in Japan beginning in 2001
and moved to the U.S. in 2008. The couple was divorced in Tennessee in
January 2009. In August, Noriko secretly brought the children to Japan.Savoie
could face up to five years in prison if convicted of the crime of
kidnapping minors. Tanaka said Savoie has told investigators that he
was aware what he did was in violation to Japanese law.U.S.
Consulate spokeswoman Tracy Taylor said Thursday that American
officials have visited Savoie regularly since his arrest, and that he
appeared "OK physically."Amy Savoie said she's only been able to
communicate with her husband through letters and U.S. consular
officials, but that she has resisted the urge to go to Japan."I've
thought about going, but I think right now I can do more good here,"
she said. "The story is not just about Christopher. There are other
families contacting me stating that Japan has treated them
horrifically, too."

He's finally been released from a Japanese jail, but Christopher Savoie says he's still not celebrating. Savoie
landed himself behind bars in Japan more than two weeks ago after he
grabbed the children who had been abducted from him.
Thursday, prosecutors set him free. NewsChannel 5 chief investigative reporter Phil Williams was at Savoie's house in Franklin when he called home. Williams said he heard a man who was at once relieved, but still very sad. Even
though Tennessee courts gave Savoie full custody of the children,
Japanese prosecutors essentially agreed not to pursue charges against
him -- if he'd go home without those children. "Oh, my God -- it's so good to hear your voice," his wife Amy said, as she chatted with him about mid-morning Thursday. For her, the first call from her husband came around 4 a.m. As
news broke of Christopher Savoie's release from a Japanese jail, she
once again became the voice of the man caught in the international
child-custody controversy. Finally, out of jail, he caught his first glimpse of her in more than two weeks on a television tuned to CNN in Japan. "He was surprised to turn on the TV and see his wife on TV," she said. "Did he realize what an advocate you had been?" Williams asked. "I don't think it has really sunk in with him yet," Amy said. Savoie, who spoke to NewsChannel 5 Investigates before his trip to Japan, was arrested after he grabbed his children, Isaac and Rebecca, as they walked to school. His ex-wife, Noriko, abducted the children from Tennessee back in August. "I'm coming home and my kids aren't," Savoie told Amy over the phone. In
fact, the frustration could clearly be heard in his voice, frustration
that his flesh and blood must remain 7,000 miles behind him in Japan. "What are his emotions right now?" Williams asked Amy. "Oh,
he's all over the map. I can't even speculate. He's exhausted,
traumatized, despondent, very sad about Isaac and Rebecca not coming
home with him," Amy said. Even though he now has his freedom,
he knows he's probably lost something just as precious. He told Amy,
"It's just a very, very sad moment for me to get on a plane and not
have my children." So rather than celebrating, Christopher
Savoie comes back to face the reality that his once-big, happy family
-- his kids and her kids -- may never be together again. "Rather
than a man who is going to be happy to be released from jail, he's in a
grieving process," Amy said. "He really wants people to understand that
and respect that he's in the midst of a grieving process that he's not
going to see his kids again." We're not exactly sure where
Christopher Savoie is. His wife said he needs to take a few days, out
of the public eye, to grieve and recuperate before he decides what's
next for him and his family. He had been held for 17 days, then Japanese prosecutors suddenly released him and said they won't pursue charges. By
all accounts, it was the result of public pressure and diplomatic
pressure. This case had become a big source of contention between the
U.S. and Japan, and both governments wanted to find a way out.

Former Rhode Islander Christopher Savoie has returned to his home in Tennessee after a failed attempt to get his children back.

Savoie says his ex-wife abducted his son and daughter and took them to her native Japan.

In the United States, Savoie has legal custody of the children, ages
9 and 6. But he was arrested in Japan when he picked up his children
as they walked to school with their mother.

Savoie said he tried to run into the U.S. consulate, but he said Japanese police were outside waiting for him.

“I did run with my daughter in my arms to the consulate door because
there was a whole riot gear of police running after me with shields and
batons,“ Savoie told WTVF in Nashville.

Savoie was freed from 17 days in Japanese custody last week and
allowed to return to the U.S. with the stipulation that he leave
without his children.

“Basically, I’m not allowed to see them. I’m not even allowed to
call them. I’m not even allowed to send them birthday presents,“ Savoie
said.

Japan does not honor foreign custody agreements, but Japanese
authorities said he can pursue custody of his children through Japanese
courts.