Orange County father desperate to get 2-year-old son home from Ukraine

Russia was massing troops on the border with Ukraine when an more and more determined Cesar Quintana went to the U.S. embassy in Kyiv in December to plead for a passport for his toddler son, who had been kidnapped from their Southern California house a yr earlier by his Ukrainian-American mom.

Quintana received a U.S. court docket order exhibiting he had sole authorized custody of 2-year-old Alexander. He was granted the passport, purchased aircraft tickets and some days later headed to the airport for a flight house.

However they by no means boarded the aircraft. Police who he stated had been summoned by Alexander’s Ukrainian grandmother — the mom of Quintana’s estranged spouse — ordered the boy be turned over to her.

Now, three months later, Ukraine is ravaged by conflict. The town of Mariupol the place Alexander has been residing along with his mom at his grandmother’s house is underneath siege. Quintana, who’s again within the U.S., has misplaced contact with them and is so distraught he’s contemplating going into the conflict zone to search out his son.

“I’m prepared to do the whole lot and something,” Quintana advised The Related Press. “I simply need my son to be again.”

Quintana, 35, stated he final spoke with Alexander over FaceTime on March 2. He stated he despatched cash to his estranged spouse, Antonina Aslanova, for provides however by no means heard again.

Communications have been disrupted throughout Mariupol due to the Russian bombardment, which this week included an airstrike that blew aside a theater getting used as a bomb shelter by a whole bunch of civilians. Tens of 1000’s have fled town, and an unknown quantity have been killed.

Efforts by the AP to succeed in Aslanova weren’t profitable. E mail and LinkedIn messages weren’t returned. She at present doesn’t have a lawyer within the baby custody case in California, and a U.S. telephone quantity she supplied the court docket wasn’t working. A message was left on one other telephone listed underneath her identify.

Andrew Klausner, who was Aslanova’s divorce lawyer when she beforehand sought and was denied a restraining order towards Quintana, stated he hadn’t had contact together with her for the reason that fall of 2020 and didn’t know she had left the nation.

Quintana has arrange an internet site about his plight and traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to attempt to get members of Congress to assist and to ask Ukrainian diplomats within the nation’s capital for permission to enter their nation.

The State Division declined to touch upon the case, however wrote in a Feb. 15 letter to California U.S. Rep. Lou Correa’s workplace that when Quintana tried to take his son again to his Orange County house in December he didn’t have the consent of the boy’s mom, nor approval from Ukrainian authorities overseeing the custody battle there.

“Though a left-behind dad or mum in the USA could have custody or visitation rights pursuant to a U.S. custody order, that order might not be legitimate and enforceable within the nation during which the kid is positioned,” wrote April Conway, the division’s department chief for the workplace of kids’s points.

The letter additionally stated State Division officers had been asking Ukrainian officers why a important February court docket listening to on the boy’s case was delayed till late March.

Worldwide parental baby abduction circumstances are advanced, and advocates say comparatively few of the kids taken from their international locations of residence are returned. However the points are much more difficult for Quintana’s son for the reason that embassy in Kyiv is closed due to the conflict and the State Division has stated it might probably help Americans with consular companies as soon as they go away Ukraine and get to a different nation.

Noelle Hunter, co-founder of the iStand Mother or father Community, stated her group desires to attract consideration to Quintana’s case so U.S. authorities officers and nonprofit teams can step in rapidly as soon as the preventing subsides. Hunter’s daughter was taken to war-torn Mali, and he or she was in a position to deliver her house with assist from U.S. officers in 2014.

Most of the particulars of Alexander’s case are spelled out in a September letter from Orange County deputy district lawyer Tamara Jacobs to Ukrainian officers.

Alexander was kidnapped in December 2020 as Quintana and Aslanova had been divorcing, based on the letter. Quintana was granted custody of Alexander after she was arrested for investigation of driving underneath the affect.

Quintana stated he allowed Aslanova to go to their son at his house as Quintana recovered from gall bladder surgical procedure. He stated he fell asleep and when he woke within the afternoon she and Alexander had been gone.

Quintana texted Aslanova and stated she wasn’t allowed to go away with the boy; she responded they had been at a retailer. Quintana referred to as police, who the subsequent day advised him Aslanova and Alexander had gotten on a flight to Turkey after which to Ukraine, based on the district lawyer’s workplace, which charged her with baby abduction.

In March 2021, a California household regulation decide ordered that Alexander be returned. “The court docket dominated that there have been no exigent circumstances for mom to have taken the kid and the taking was wrongful,” Jacobs wrote within the letter.

The identical month, Aslanova filed a declaration with the court docket in her DUI case saying she had no plans to return to the USA.

Meantime, Quintana obtained a visa and traveled to Ukraine, the place he employed a lawyer to attempt to get his son returned. Quintana stated he had remained in contact with Aslanova, supplied monetary assist to her household and as soon as in Ukraine was allowed visits with the boy.

Quintana stated he tried to persuade Aslanova to let him take their son again to California and that she also needs to return to face her authorized points. He stated throughout a November telephone name she lastly consented and advised him that her mom, who had been caring for his or her son, would deliver Alexander to him at his Mariupol lodge.

As quickly as he had the boy, they left in a automotive for Kyiv. Quintana stated he was stopped by police twice on the 14-hour journey. Authorities confirmed he was the boy’s father and allowed them to proceed however took their American passports.

In Kyiv, Quintana went to the U.S. embassy to get new passports. He stated officers there demanded greater than a short lived custody order to challenge a passport for the boy, so he wrote to the household court docket in California searching for an order for the doc. He stated he was nervous a couple of attainable Russian invasion.

“If this occurs, I’m fearful Alexander and I cannot be secure and American flights to Ukraine will likely be cancelled for an unknown time period,” Quintana wrote. An order was made and the passport issued.

He and Alexander spent Christmas collectively and made plans to fly again to the USA earlier than the brand new yr. He stated he spoke with Aslanova by telephone and he or she requested him to not go away her behind.

However Aslanova’s mom, he stated, didn’t need the boy to go and filed a grievance towards Quintana with Mariupol police. He stated she accompanied police after they stopped him on the Kyiv airport. Police confirmed him a doc written in Ukrainian — which he doesn’t perceive — and threatened to arrest him if he didn’t flip over the kid, Quintana stated. His son turned distraught, Quintana stated, so he gave him to his grandmother to keep away from additional stress on the boy.

Quintana supplied a replica of the police doc to the AP, which enlisted a translator to learn it. The doc alleged Quintana took the boy from his Mariupol lodge in late November with out permission from the kid’s mom and referred to as for an investigation to find out whether or not Quintana was legally allowed to take the boy.

As he turned over his son, Quintana stated he kissed Alexander and advised him: “Bye for now, son, however I received’t hand over. I’ll deliver you house.”

Quintana stated his Ukrainian lawyer advised him the doc was a pretense to dam him from leaving. He stated he remained in Ukraine till late January however left when he was denied a visa extension. He stated he had hoped to get his son again after a world parental baby abduction listening to scheduled for February however it was postponed to March.

Then conflict broke out. Quintana’s Ukranian lawyer now could be within the navy preventing the Russians.

Quintana stated he’s prepared to do something to deliver Alexander to the U.S. He stated he advised Aslanova he’d assist her with a lawyer for her DUI case if she returns. He stated he’d even assist sponsor her household — together with her mom — so they might be a part of her in America.

He plans to purchase a ticket to Poland subsequent week and will attempt to enter Ukraine from that neighboring nation.

“I’m not actually positive what I’m going to do, however I simply wish to be there shut if a chance presents itself for him to go away the nation,” he stated.