MATUSIEWICZ Children - Newark DE

A once-prominent Newark optometrist accused of kidnapping his three
young daughters and taking them to Central America for nearly 19 months
pleaded guilty Thursday to parental kidnapping and bank fraud in
federal court Thursday morning.David
T. Matusiewicz, 42, who has been in federal custody since his capture
in Nicaragua in March, faces up to three years on the international
parental kidnapping charge and 30 years on the bank fraud charge. As a
first offender who has waived a trial and pleaded guilty. however,
under federal sentencing guidelines he could get a much lighter
sentence.His
crimes and the fate of his three blonde little girls drew widespread
media attention. The case was spotlighted on the television crime
series "America's Most Wanted" and by the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children.During
Thursday's 30-minute hearing in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, the
burly, bespectacled defendant with close-cropped blonde hair quietly
admitted his crimes. When Chief Judge Gregory M. Sleet, who addressed
him as "Dr. Matusiewicz,'' asked a series of questions about his guilt,
Matusiewicz replied "Yes,'' or "Yes, sir,'' in a barely audible voice.He
did not explain why he abducted the girls, but in 2006 Family Court
papers during a custody battle, a judge noted that Matusiewicz thought
his former wife Christine Belford was an unfit mother, an accusation
she has vehemently denied. The two divorced in 2006 after nearly five
years of marriage. Before he fled, the two were sharing custody of the
girls, who lived near Middletown with Matusiewicz.In
August 2007, Matusiewicz and his mother, Lenore, took the children on
what he said was to be a two-week trip to Disney World. Instead, the
two fled the country in an $80,000 motor home Lenore Matusiewicz had
recently purchased.While
an international manhunt focused on their whereabouts, they spent time
in Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, where authorities found
them in March, living in the motor home in a small village near
Managua. His mother was charged with felony interference with custody
and other offenses in Delaware Superior Court. Her trial is scheduled
for Sept. 22.
Matusiewicz, who is being held in an unidentified prison in New
Jersey, will remain in custody while awaiting sentencing, which was set
for Dec. 10. In April, a federal magistrate had denied his request for
bail after prosecutor Christopher J. Burke called him the
"quintessential flight risk.''Matusiewicz's
attorney, Herbierto Medrano, said in court that sentencing guidelines
might allow his client to be freed at sentencing after what would have
been at least nine months of "time served.'' But Burke said the
guidelines would likely call for a sentence of from one to three years,
and that he would seek a sentence that keeps Matusiewicz behind bars.Burke said Matusiewicz's prosecution should send a signal to other parents thinking of fleeing."Our office hopes that cases like these have a deterrent effect,'' Burke said.The
girls -- Laura, 7; Leigh, who has autism and turns 6 Saturday; and
Karen, 4 -- are now living with Belford in her Pike Creek home."They're
all in school and doing well,'' said Belford, who was accompanied in
court Thursday by her attorney, her boyfriend and a federal victims'
advocate.Belford
said she was satisfied with the plea. The girls still ask about their
father, and the two younger ones want to spend time with him."I tell them he's in time out,'' Belford said.Laura does not want to see her father, Belford said, because he had told her and the other girls that their mother was dead.The
fraud charge stemmed from a $249,000 home equity line of credit he
obtained from the Wilmington Savings Fund Society in August 2007, days
before he fled.The
loan was on the four-bedroom brick home on Norva Drive near Middletown
where the Matusiewiczes lived before their divorce. Because the home
had not yet been sold and Belford's name was still on the title, the
bank's loan officer -- who was unaware of the divorce 10 months earlier
-- told Matusiewicz her signature was needed on the loan papers, Burke
said in court.The
officer went to Matusiewicz's business, Vision Center of Delaware, to
close the deal. When it was time for her signature, Matusiewicz said
she was in another room, walked out and returned after forging the name
"Christine Matusiewicz."
(Belford said she learned of the forgery three months later, when
she was buying her current home in Pike Creek and asked WSFS how much
was owed on the Middletown home.)After
taking out the WSFS loan, Matusiewicz also sold his optometry business
for $445,000 more than he paid for it, county property records show.
Authorities have said he had more than $1 million in cash when he fled,
and had wired more than $500,000 into an offshore account.Matusiewicz
sent the $249,000 from WSFS to a bank in New Zealand, Burke said. After
the FBI contacted that bank, officials returned the same amount of
money to WSFS.Before Matusiewicz fled, he also obtained several false identification cards and a fake Social Security card, Burke said.While
they were on the run, the Matusiewiczes spent time in Costa Rica before
making their way to Altos del Terreon in Cerro Azul, Panama, a gated
community about an hour's drive from Panama City. The community, which
has 24-hour security, a pool and tennis courts, is surrounded by
forests filled with exotic birds and wildlife unique to Panama.He
paid $175,000 cash for a home there, and while it was being renovated,
lived in the motor home on the real estate agent's property.After
his arrest, neighbor Rachel Smith told The News Journal that
Matusiewicz, who went by the name Thomas Manischewitz, claimed he was
from Canada, that his wife was staying in British Columbia to sell
their home and that he had retired after striking it rich.Smith
said neighbors later compared notes about their new neighbor and found
he told different stories about his family. Smith and others became
suspicious, and privately called him the "child kidnapper.''In
Nicaragua, where he used the name Tomas Blanco, Matusiewicz and his
family stayed in the 33-foot motor home on a barren lot in a rural
village. By then, his financial resources were dwindling and he was
selling his family's personal items on a street near Managua.When
he was arrested, police said, he had less than $100 in his pocket.
Burke said authorities have not been able to account for much of the
the money Matusiewicz possessed.The
girls were not physically harmed, and after a period of adjustment to
life back in America, they are healthy and happy, Belford said Thursday."It's very surreal, but I think justice has been served,'' Belford said. "Somebody's watching out for us.''