Mexican mom regains custody of her child after alleged kidnapping

Sandy Thompson

Friday, July 21, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

There were plenty of tears this week when a woman traveled from her native Mexico to Las Vegas to be reunited with the 8-year-old daughter she hadn't seen since the girl was 9 months old.

Not all were tears of joy.

Late Wednesday night, Melina Chavez, with the help of the Nevada Attorney General's Missing Children's Clearinghouse unit and a local attorney, hugged her smiling daughter, Mellisa, for the first time since 1993. The next morning, she returned to Mexico with the girl.

For Chavez, it was a happy ending to a seven-year arduous search for her daughter under the Hague Convention, an agreement among some nations that they will honor each others' child custody and abduction laws.

For Mark Mills, the Henderson man Chavez says is Mellisa's father and the one who she says kidnapped the girl, it is the beginning of an uphill fight to regain custody of the girl.

As of this morning, Mills had not been charged in connection with the case.

A convicted felon, Mills has served jail time for Internet fraud and related crimes. While he readily admits his criminal past, he said he did not kidnap Mellisa.

Mills said he met Chavez in the early 1990s when he went to Mexico "to blow off steam" because he was having problems with his then-wife, Iona, who stayed in New Jersey with their two daughters. While in Mexico, Mills had an affair with Chavez, who became pregnant. Mills said he did not know she was pregnant when he decided to return to New Jersey to reconcile with his wife.

In statements filed with the Mexican Central Authority for Child Abduction, Chavez said Mills had abandoned her.

A year and a half later, Mills said, Chavez sent him a letter with a picture of the baby. After he and Iona discussed raising the baby, Mills said he returned to Mexico to talk to Chavez about it.

Chavez, in written statements, said she thought he was going to marry her and take her and the baby to the United States. So she agreed to let him register the baby in Mexico, which is akin to recording the birth. A few days later, Chavez said, she awoke to find Mills and the baby gone.

Mills said he has a handwritten note signed by Chavez that allowed him to take the baby. Although the note is in Spanish and is not notarized, Mills said the U.S. Embassy in Mexico accepted it as "documentation" needed to bring the baby into the United States.

Mills and Iona then began raising Mellisa along with their two daughters.

A short time after the family moved to Las Vegas five years ago, Iona filed for divorce. She and Mills waged a bitter custody battle for the three girls. There were charges of abuse on both sides.

A Family Court judge initially gave custody to Iona, which outraged Mills. He continued to fight the ruling and later regained custody.

While the custody case was raging in Family Court, the kidnapping case was being investigated by the attorney general's Missing Children's Clearinghouse unit. Neither apparently knew of the other's interest in Mellisa.

The unit was notified about the kidnapping case in late 1998 or early 1999.

On April 27, Las Vegas attorney Lillian Sondgeroth, who performs pro bono work for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, was asked to represent Chavez. She and legal assistant James Kimsey worked with Henderson Police and Child Protective Services to pick up Mellisa from her day care center June 29. She then was placed in protective custody at Child Haven.

Family Court Hearing Master Fred Fisher ordered Mellisa returned to Mexico.

Opposing the move, Mills asked Family Court Judge Dianne Steel, who had presided over several hearings in his custody dispute, to stay the order. On July 12, Steel ruled that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter since Melissa was listed as an abducted child. She also stated that the court had been "misled."

Sondgeroth, in a written statement, said, "The court system reacted strongly and positively in ordering the return of the child. ... This story is a positive example of what can be achieved by the cooperative efforts of private volunteers and government agencies."

Mills has filed a new motion seeking custody of Mellisa.

"It's not over yet. It's just the beginning," said Mills' attorney, Nick Del Vecchio.

Del Vecchio, who is running for Family Court judge, contends the court does have jurisdiction over Mellisa because she resided in Nevada for more than six months.

Maria Emeterio, an investigator with the Attorney General's Missing Children's Clearinghouse, says this has been a complicated, drawn-out case, primarily because of the difficulties in working with another country.

Emeterio has six other cases involving children who are in Mexico but aren't being returned to the United States. One of the cases has been going on for 15 years.

Although Chavez said she sought legal help in early 1993 to have her daughter returned, there appears to have been no movement in the case until 1998 when the Mexican Central Authority for Child Abduction sent a letter to the National Center for Missing Exploited Children in Arlington, Va., about her plight.

Now that Mellisa has been returned to her mother, Emeterio said, the file is closed.

William Potter, the attorney who represented Iona in her custody dispute with Mills, said the true victim here is Mellisa, who has been "shortchanged" by being reunited so quickly with her mother. She needed more time to get to know Chavez.

Iona said she never hid the fact that Chavez was Mellisa's birth mother.

"Missy has known all along about her mother," she said, adding that the girl called Iona "Mom" and referred to Chavez as "Mama."

Sondgeroth, whose office paid Chavez' travel expenses, said Mellisa kept a picture of Chavez by her bed, "always hoping her mother would come to take her home."