ANGELINA MONTES - 2 yo (2/2011) - Miami-Dade FL

Miami-Dade Police want the public's help in locating a missing man and his 2-year-old daughter.Authorities
believe 2-year-old Angelina Montes is being hidden by her father,
21-year-old Samuel Montes, who does not have custody of her. They have
been missing since Feb. 28.Police say Montes is part of an open investigation by the Department of Children and Families regarding the child.


Investigators say Montes may be trying to leave the country with Angelina.Anyone with information about Montes or his daughter should call Miami-Dade Police at 305-418-7200.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/31/2142806/fla-police-searching-for-missing.html#ixzz1IBsHvUaH

Miami-Dade police looking for missing girl, 2, and father

March 31, 2011|By Diana Moskovitz, The Miami Herald

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Poster distributed by Miami Dade Police Department
Miami-Dade police are asking for help to find a missing 2-year-old girl and her father.
Angelina
Montes, 2, has been missing since Feb. 28, police said. They believe
she is being hidden by her father, Samuel Montes, 21, who does not have
custody of her.
He also is part of an open abuse investigation by the Department of Children & Families regarding Angelina.Investigators believe that Montes is trying to leave the country with Angelina.
A DCF spokeswoman declined to give more information about the abuse investigation because it is an open case.Anyone
with information about Angelina or Samuel Montes is asked to call
Miami-Dade police's missing persons unit at 305-418-7200 or
305-476-5423.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-03-31/news/mh-missing-girl-father-20110331_1_miami-dade-father-abuse-investigation

MIAMI -
The search continues for a 3-year-old girl last seen in February 2011, after police track down a man claiming to be her father in Pensacola.

Police said they believe Samuel Montes took the then-2-year-old girl, Angelina Montes, on Feb. 28, 2011. Authorities have been searching for Montes and the child ever since.

Officers pulled over Samuel Montes in Pensacola for a traffic stop and realized there was a warrant out for his arrest. He was taken into custody and sent to Miami, where he appeared in bond court Friday morning.

In court, it was revealed that Angelina's mother tried to leave Montes last year amid domestic abuse allegations, but Montes' mother would not let her take Angelina with her. The woman left on her own and returned with agents from the Department of Children and Families to pick up Angelina, but when they arrived, Montes and Angelina were gone, according to investigators.

Although police have found Montes, the search for Angelina continues.

Montes is being held without bond.

http://www.local10.com/news/Child-remains-missing-for-one-year/-/1717324/8628114/-/yewi38z/-/

The mystery of a three-year-old who’s been missing for nearly a year surfaced inside a Miami courtroom on Monday.

The state is fighting to keep the father held without bond after his arrest last week inPensacola. He had been the subject of a nearly year-long search after the father disappeared with the little girl last March.

That girl, Angelina Montes, has not been seen since. And no one is saying where she is.

Circuit Judge Bronwyn Miller ruled that there were not enough circumstances to have the father, 22-year-old Samuel Montes, held without bond. She said she would set a bond on Tuesday.

Montes’s attorney Michael Grieco expected that the bond would be reasonable, allowing Montes to be able to get out of jail.

Grieco also said it was unfair for Montes to be held without bond in this case.

“I think the state is trying told my client without bond in order to get information,” said Grieco. He told CBS4’s Peter D’Oench that, “He is entitled to pre-trial release.”
Grieco told D’Oench that he thought Angelina was safe and “not in any danger.”

In court, Assistant State Attorney Jacci Seskin said that Montes was a flight risk. “He has no ties to the community, no ties to family. He is a ghost.”

An affidavit in support of an arrest warrant for Montes stated that Montes and Vamesa Churon were the mother and father of the child that was born in Los Angeles,California.

They had lived in Southwest Miami-Dade until February 28^th of 2011 when Churon fled the home due to “physical and emotional abuse.”

In court, Detective Marlene Caceras of the Miami-Dade Police Dept. testified that Churon was the victim of domestic violence and she suspected that Samuel Montes could not properly care for the child because she said he “manhandled her” and there was bruising on her body.

Caceras also painted a grim picture of the household, saying that if Churon was sometimes not allowed to leave the home to get food.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/02/13/mystery-of-missing-toddler-emerges-in-miami-courtroom/

The custody battle over a 3-year-old girl who was reported missing nearly a year ago took another twist Friday, when the girl was brought to a Miami-Dade courtroom by her paternal grandparents and her grandmother was arrested.

Angelina Montes, who was reported missing on March 7, 2011, was brought in In grandmother Zoraida Miller's arms for a hearing at Miami-Dade Juvenile court.

The girl was immediately taken for evaluation by the Department of Children and Families. Miller was taken into custody by Miami-Dade Police.

Michael Grieco, the attorney for Miller and the girl's father, Samuel Montes, said Miller was arrested on a charge of interfering with a custody order. He expected the child to be able to stay with her grandfather, Jose Montes.

"Very bad, very bad, because the people you need to catch you never catch them, it's in Venezuela," Jose Montes said after the hearing.

Samuel Montes, 22, is being held in jail on $250,000 bond and a hold for immigration in the disappearance of his daughter. He was also sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court for not helping the Department of Children and Families find her.

Grieco, said the paternal grandparents have been taking care of the child, and that she was never in any danger and was not harmed. During Friday's hearing, Grieco said the grandparents did the right thing by bringing the child in and called it a "setup."

"These people came in to present the child as they were asked to and they were rewarded with handcuffs," Grieco said after the hearing.

The charge against Montes was filed eight days after his daughter was reported missing, and he was arrested recently in Pensacola on a warrant.

According to the warrant for Montes’ arrest, Montes twice told a Department of Children and Families investigator that he would deliver the daughter to the agency, but both times failed to do so, a Miami-Dade Police detective wrote.

The girl's mother, Vanessa Churon, is in Venezuela. Montes and Churon lived in southwest Miami-Dade County with their young daughter until Churon left in February 2011 due to physical and emotional abuse from Montes, police said.

But though Churon has custody of the daughter, Montes’ mother prevented her from taking her with her, Miami-Dade Police said.

Grieco said the Montes family feared the child would be taken back to Venezuela and said the issue stems from a clash of cultures. He said both parents are of Gypsy descent.

"These families, within the Gypsy community, have a different way of doing things, and they are scared, and there's a cultural divide there that I am trying to act almost as the middleman between the government and the state of Florida and the families," Grieco said.

Churon's uncle, Lewis Evans, who also attended Friday's hearing, said his niece went against Gypsy laws.

"All the Gypsies are different, we have our own laws, we have everything together and when they separate, the first child always goes to the father," Evans said. "What she did, big mistake even though she's my niece, I'll tell you something, she's wacko."

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Father-of-Missing-Girl-at-Center-of-Custody-Case-Due-in-Court-141168883.html

Well that was a strange case. So glad that Angelina was returned unharmed. Wouldn't you have thought that during a year's time someone would have thought to BOLO the grandparents - after all it was the grandmother that "wouldn't let" the baby go with her mother (I don't get that either ).

There’s a new development in an international custody battle
involving a 3-year-old girl who has been living with her paternal
grandparents.
And for those grandparents, it’s the first step in their battle for
custody of Angelina. Her mother, Vanessa Churson, currently has custody.
But she is in Venezuela. And her father,

Samuel Montes, is in jail.
At the Children’s Courthouse and Juvenile Justice Center in Miami on
Monday afternoon, the Department of Children and Families announced it
was withdrawing its petition for dependency, after a DCF Child
Protection team visited the grandparents’ home.

A representative of DCF told Judge Cindy Lederman that the team
evaluated the child and found “no evidence of abuse” and found “no
environmental hazards” in the home and found that “the child is happy
there.” DCF announced it had “no grounds” for dependency.

“We’re just happy that the right decision was made by DCF and the
courts,” said the family’s attorney Michael Grieco. “It means we longer
have to go back to this courthouse, that DCF is taking no further
action. They have determined that this child is happy and is safe and we
can go further to the next step of custody.”

“It’s an absolute relief for my clients and I hope we have the same
results in family court and criminal court as well,” Grieco told CBS4’s
Peter D’Oench.




The DCF decision was announced as Angelina’s father, Samuel, came to
court in an orange jump suit and in shackles. He is on an immigration
hold and is also being held on $250,000 bond for interfering with
custody. That is the same charge filed against Angelina’s 47-year-old
paternal grandmother, Zoraida Miller, on March 2^nd.

Miller is now back with her husband and Angelina at their home. She
was accused of stopping Angelina’s mother from taking Angelina from her
home after the mother and father separated in February of last year.

Angelina has been with the paternal grandparents. Samuel Montes was
arrested last month in Pensacola and brought back to Miami-Dade.

Angelina’s paternal grandfather told D’Oench he was grateful for the DCF decision.

“Now the situation can go clear ahead with my attorney and we can get my son out of jail,” said the grandfather, Jose Montes.

“I feel good that she is home with me, 100 per cent,” he said. “For
me she is my heart. She is everything to me. I want to get custody. I
want to take care of this little girl.”

It’s not known when Angelina’s mother Vanessa Churon will return from Venezuela.

Grieco says she still has custody.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/03/12/grandparents-in-missing-girl-case-granted-temporary-custody/