August 13 2003
James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
With a not-guilty plea on Tuesday, Sonia Galindo set in motion a trial she hopes will justify her actions in the hearts of her boys, if not in eyes of the law.
Galindo is accused of abducting her two sons, Bryan and Sean, and fleeing to Mexico in violation of a custody decree. She is charged with two counts of felony child abduction.
For two years she was an FBI fugitive with four felony warrants out for her arrest. With her Mexican citizenship, a right also transferred to her sons, she remained beyond the grasp of U.S. law enforcement. In April, with promises of leniency, Galindo brought her sons back to the United States.
She's regretted it ever since.
According to Galindo, leniency comes with the price of selling out her sons. She said authorities pitched two years of supervision and 200 hours of community service in exchange for her guilty plea and a statement saying she fabricated charges of abuse against their father, Don Anderson. She would also have to admit that she took the boys against their will and rat out the people who helped her escape the country.
The price is simply too high, she said, and she intends to reject the deal.
"My boys didn't lie, and I didn't lie either," Galindo said while choking through tears in a phone interview. "I'm not going to lie now. I'm not going to pin something on my sons. I'd rather spend the rest of my life in jail."
Galindo, 48, faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Those charges stem from a series of incidents starting with the divorce of Galindo and Anderson in 1996. The couple initially shared custody of the boys, but court documents show Galindo didn't live up to her end of the deal.
Bryan and Sean missed appointments, school and church. Fed up by the violations of the divorce decree, Anderson took Galindo back to court and won sole custody.
That's when Galindo filed charges against Anderson, alleging that he physically abused Bryan and Sean. But Galindo's changing accounts of the abuse combined with what police describe as "spoon-fed" testimony from Bryan that his father beat him on several occasions made authorities suspicious. The stories never matched, and there was never any physical evidence, according to police. The court dismissed all the charges against Anderson.
In defeat, Galindo took the boys on her visitation weekend and bolted across the border.
Galindo stands by her abuse allegations.
"If he had been a good father, I never would have taken them out of the country," Galindo said. "The reason I took them was because they were going to kill themselves. They were going to throw themselves in front of a train.
"I know taking them out of the country was wrong," she said. "I just felt like I needed to do it. My boys are alive today because of me. The boys know why I did it."
Anderson said Galindo's outcry is a ploy for public sympathy with no basis in fact.
He said that when the boys returned from Mexico in April, they were in poor health. They lacked basic immunizations, dental care and were so distraught they were taking anti-depressants. Visits to the doctor and dentist corrected the health issues, and they are no longer taking medication.
Now, Anderson reports, Bryan and Sean are in summer school to get a head start on their fall classes.
Bryan, 13, will enter eighth grade at Daniel Wright Junior High School in Lincolnshire-Prairie View Elementary District 103. Anderson said Bryan has found a love for language and hopes to study French, Spanish and Italian. Sean, 15, will be a sophomore at Stevenson High School, having earned high B's in biology over the summer.
Galindo is barred from any contact with Anderson or her sons.. It's a brutal reality for her as she awaits the outcome of her case while living with her sister in Vernon Hills, barely a mile from where Anderson lives with the boys. Future contact will depend largely on the outcome of her trial.
Galindo said she fears for her sons' safety but doesn't think Anderson would hurt them while the case is in the spotlight.
Anderson said he refuses to get into a slander competition with Galindo. He just wants it all to be over.
That process begins Sept. 22, with the start of Galindo's trial. First, she'll have a status hearing on Sept. 10.
Galindo is already convinced she'll go to prison. She said law officers and Anderson duped her into coming back to the United States with false promises. She said she wasn't given an attorney or read her rights when initially taken into custody by the FBI and Buffalo Grove police.
Galindo has little money and said the public defense attorneys appointed to her have shown little interest in her case. With help from her family, she has now hired her own attorney, Steven Messner of Wilmette. Galindo still isn't convinced she'll receive adequate representation at the trial.
Messner said he was unaware of Galindo's comments to the press, but he was still investigating the facts of the case.
"I think the facts go further than what's apparent," Messner said, but would not elaborate.
Buffalo Grove police did not return phone requests for interviews Tuesday.
Galindo said she's not concerned about the consequences of her public comments or how people perceive her. She said she's ready to face whatever happens as long as she can hold onto the possibility that someday, Bryan and Sean will be back in her life.
"I know what I am," Galindo said. "I'm not perfect. I've made mistakes, but I'm a good mother. I don't want my sons to ever think I used them to bargain with. I know someday, when they're older, they'll come back to me."
Tuesday
(Part 3 of 4 parts) Reuniting a family
April 25 2003
James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
The worst nightmare for all parents is to have their children stolen from them and not be able to do anything about it. Every thought, every dream that follows is about getting them back.
On Thursday night, Don Anderson's nightmare ended and all the dreams became reality. His sons were back home in Vernon Hills.
"It just shows if you keep plugging along and pray and have faith, the system does work," Anderson tearfully said earlier Thursday. "Right now, they start life all over again and I get to do what I do best. Being a dad, that's what I do best in life."
Bryan was 10 and Sean was 12 when they were kidnapped by their mother, Sonia Galindo, and taken to Mexico.
The kidnapping followed a calamitous divorce in 1996. Galindo and Anderson initially shared custody, but Galindo couldn't live up to her end of the agreement. The boys missed appointments, school and church, and her violations of the divorce decree stockpiled. The courts eventually awarded Anderson sole custody, citing Galindo's documented history of poor parenting skills and erratic behavior.
That's when authorities say Galindo began an intricate slander campaign against Anderson, going so far as to file false abuse charges against him. Galindo's ever-changing accounts of the abuse met with seemingly spoon-fed testimony from Bryan, and all the charges were dropped. In defeat, Galindo kidnapped the boys and bolted to Mexico.
With the Mexican government viewing them as citizens because of Galindo's dual-citizen status, it seemed like Anderson would never get his boys back. Only 4 percent of U.S. children abducted and taken to Mexico ever return.
After 2 1/2 years and more than $200,000 of Anderson's money spent for private investigators and legal translations, and endless lobbying of foreign governments and negotiating through police and the FBI, Galindo surrendered to agents at 1 p.m. Thursday at O'Hare International Airport.
Police had agreed to lobby the courts for no jail time in exchange for Galindo's return. She faced four felony warrants for the abduction.
Now may be the beginning of a happy ending.
Galindo, a former Buffalo Grove resident, will have to go through a court process in order to see her sons again. Prosecutors will push for psychiatric counseling and supervised visitation. In the meantime, she'll live with family in Vernon Hills while out on bond.
Buffalo Grove police also will decide whether to go after the people who helped Galindo kidnap the boys and assist her while she was in Mexico.
As for the boys, now 13 and 14, their road back is longest of all. A recent conversation the boys had with their father revealed some negative feelings for him. Psychologists say they and their father must work through any falsehoods Galindo fed them while they were away. Beyond that, they have to get to know their father all over again.
Anderson said he's ready for the challenge.
He's spent the past few days shopping for all the things they love like snacks, ice cream and Fruity Pebbles. He set up the trampoline in the yard again. Their rooms are ready. The basement he converted into a recreation room specifically for their return will finally be used.
All the photos of the good times they had are on the walls. Family and old friends from their days at Daniel Wright Junior High in Lincolnshire-Prairie View District 103 are on standby for when Bryan and Sean are ready to see them.
Anderson wants the boys to be able to see their mother again when she's ready and the boys fully understand what happened to them.
It will take a lot of counseling and quality time with their father before that understanding develops.
"It's been such a horrific two and a half years," Anderson said before meeting up with his sons again. "When I see them, I'm just going to want to hug them. I realize I might not get that right away. They might call me names. They might scream and yell, but that's OK. When they walk in that door, I'm here for them.
"I've got my sights set on tomorrow, the next day and six months from now," he continued. "I'm dealing with the heat of the day now, but I know it's going to be a beautiful night."
James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
The worst nightmare for all parents is to have their children stolen from them and not be able to do anything about it. Every thought, every dream that follows is about getting them back.
On Thursday night, Don Anderson's nightmare ended and all the dreams became reality. His sons were back home in Vernon Hills.
"It just shows if you keep plugging along and pray and have faith, the system does work," Anderson tearfully said earlier Thursday. "Right now, they start life all over again and I get to do what I do best. Being a dad, that's what I do best in life."
Bryan was 10 and Sean was 12 when they were kidnapped by their mother, Sonia Galindo, and taken to Mexico.
The kidnapping followed a calamitous divorce in 1996. Galindo and Anderson initially shared custody, but Galindo couldn't live up to her end of the agreement. The boys missed appointments, school and church, and her violations of the divorce decree stockpiled. The courts eventually awarded Anderson sole custody, citing Galindo's documented history of poor parenting skills and erratic behavior.
That's when authorities say Galindo began an intricate slander campaign against Anderson, going so far as to file false abuse charges against him. Galindo's ever-changing accounts of the abuse met with seemingly spoon-fed testimony from Bryan, and all the charges were dropped. In defeat, Galindo kidnapped the boys and bolted to Mexico.
With the Mexican government viewing them as citizens because of Galindo's dual-citizen status, it seemed like Anderson would never get his boys back. Only 4 percent of U.S. children abducted and taken to Mexico ever return.
After 2 1/2 years and more than $200,000 of Anderson's money spent for private investigators and legal translations, and endless lobbying of foreign governments and negotiating through police and the FBI, Galindo surrendered to agents at 1 p.m. Thursday at O'Hare International Airport.
Police had agreed to lobby the courts for no jail time in exchange for Galindo's return. She faced four felony warrants for the abduction.
Now may be the beginning of a happy ending.
Galindo, a former Buffalo Grove resident, will have to go through a court process in order to see her sons again. Prosecutors will push for psychiatric counseling and supervised visitation. In the meantime, she'll live with family in Vernon Hills while out on bond.
Buffalo Grove police also will decide whether to go after the people who helped Galindo kidnap the boys and assist her while she was in Mexico.
As for the boys, now 13 and 14, their road back is longest of all. A recent conversation the boys had with their father revealed some negative feelings for him. Psychologists say they and their father must work through any falsehoods Galindo fed them while they were away. Beyond that, they have to get to know their father all over again.
Anderson said he's ready for the challenge.
He's spent the past few days shopping for all the things they love like snacks, ice cream and Fruity Pebbles. He set up the trampoline in the yard again. Their rooms are ready. The basement he converted into a recreation room specifically for their return will finally be used.
All the photos of the good times they had are on the walls. Family and old friends from their days at Daniel Wright Junior High in Lincolnshire-Prairie View District 103 are on standby for when Bryan and Sean are ready to see them.
Anderson wants the boys to be able to see their mother again when she's ready and the boys fully understand what happened to them.
It will take a lot of counseling and quality time with their father before that understanding develops.
"It's been such a horrific two and a half years," Anderson said before meeting up with his sons again. "When I see them, I'm just going to want to hug them. I realize I might not get that right away. They might call me names. They might scream and yell, but that's OK. When they walk in that door, I'm here for them.
"I've got my sights set on tomorrow, the next day and six months from now," he continued. "I'm dealing with the heat of the day now, but I know it's going to be a beautiful night."
(Part 2 of 4 parts) Reuniting a family
April 06 2003
James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
After two years of living with no more than memories of his missing children, Don Anderson finally received a taste of all he's prayed for. Yet even the pleasure of hearing his sons' voices came with pain.
On the heels of a Daily Herald report about Anderson's quest for his kidnapped boys, he received two phone calls from the woman who took them. Anderson said his ex-wife Sonia Galindo called from Mexico to tell him she made a mistake in taking Bryan and Sean. She wants to come back to the United States with the boys.
The former students in Lincolnshire-Prairie View District 103 are now 13 and 14 years old. They were 10 and 12 when Galindo kidnapped them.
It's everything Anderson wants and works for, a dream come true. Perhaps too good to be true.
To come back, Galindo, a former Buffalo Grove resident, wants all charges against her dropped. She faces four felony warrants as an FBI fugitive. She also wants her job as a teacher in the Chicago Public School system back. To cap it off, she wants money from Anderson to make the return trip.
"It was a two-sided feeling hearing from her," Anderson said. "There is a consideration that she'll make a deal and we'll get them back. But at the same time, it's psychological warfare going on. I think her dealing is really a scam."
If it is, Anderson and police handling the case said it won't be the first time she's duped those around her.
Galindo didn't have legal or even joint custody of the boys when she abducted them. To even get near them, she filed charges against Anderson, claiming he had abused Sean and Bryan at his Vernon Hills home. Courts dismissed all the charges and police believe those charges were lies Galindo developed with help from at least two people with intimate knowledge of the law and its loopholes.
Police now are building a case against those two individuals and hope to bring charges soon.
As far as Galindo, Buffalo Grove Police Officer John Heidersheidt said the goal is to get her communicating and work out a way to have Sean and Bryan returned to the United States.
Heidersheidt said he wants to make the transition as painless as possible for Galindo and the boys to come back. That's why he'll push for her to stay out of jail if she returns.
"We don't want to create a negative impact on the children," he said. "We want to bring her back to the United States and help her get her life back in order so her children can have a normal life. You can't have that with mom in jail."
The last contact with Galindo was several weeks ago. As of that conversation, police halted investigations against her accomplices in the kidnapping because they believed the goal of bringing her and the boys back was near. Charges against those accomplices would not be necessary if Sonia and the boys returned voluntarily, Heidersheidt said.
Now that Galindo is back in hiding, the march toward prosecuting the accomplices will continue.
"It's incredibly frustrating," Heidersheidt said. "Her outright refusal to talk is certainly not looking very positive in her light.
"These warrants will never go away," he continued. "They will be there when the boys are 18 and can go and do whatever they want. Authorities will catch up to her sooner or later, with or without the boys. If she doesn't turn herself in and law enforcement finds her, there's going to be nothing but a bad outcome for her and a bad impact on those boys."
Police encourage local people with information on Bryan and Sean's whereabouts to come forward with information.
Anderson remains hopeful he'll see Bryan and Sean again.
"The setting they are in is almost like hostages," Anderson said. "Talking to them was great, but it was also horrible. At least they heard my voice and they know that I love them and miss them."
How to help ...
If you have information on the Anderson case contact:
Buffalo Grove police officer John Heidersheidt at (847) 459-2560.
James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
After two years of living with no more than memories of his missing children, Don Anderson finally received a taste of all he's prayed for. Yet even the pleasure of hearing his sons' voices came with pain.
On the heels of a Daily Herald report about Anderson's quest for his kidnapped boys, he received two phone calls from the woman who took them. Anderson said his ex-wife Sonia Galindo called from Mexico to tell him she made a mistake in taking Bryan and Sean. She wants to come back to the United States with the boys.
The former students in Lincolnshire-Prairie View District 103 are now 13 and 14 years old. They were 10 and 12 when Galindo kidnapped them.
It's everything Anderson wants and works for, a dream come true. Perhaps too good to be true.
To come back, Galindo, a former Buffalo Grove resident, wants all charges against her dropped. She faces four felony warrants as an FBI fugitive. She also wants her job as a teacher in the Chicago Public School system back. To cap it off, she wants money from Anderson to make the return trip.
"It was a two-sided feeling hearing from her," Anderson said. "There is a consideration that she'll make a deal and we'll get them back. But at the same time, it's psychological warfare going on. I think her dealing is really a scam."
If it is, Anderson and police handling the case said it won't be the first time she's duped those around her.
Galindo didn't have legal or even joint custody of the boys when she abducted them. To even get near them, she filed charges against Anderson, claiming he had abused Sean and Bryan at his Vernon Hills home. Courts dismissed all the charges and police believe those charges were lies Galindo developed with help from at least two people with intimate knowledge of the law and its loopholes.
Police now are building a case against those two individuals and hope to bring charges soon.
As far as Galindo, Buffalo Grove Police Officer John Heidersheidt said the goal is to get her communicating and work out a way to have Sean and Bryan returned to the United States.
Heidersheidt said he wants to make the transition as painless as possible for Galindo and the boys to come back. That's why he'll push for her to stay out of jail if she returns.
"We don't want to create a negative impact on the children," he said. "We want to bring her back to the United States and help her get her life back in order so her children can have a normal life. You can't have that with mom in jail."
The last contact with Galindo was several weeks ago. As of that conversation, police halted investigations against her accomplices in the kidnapping because they believed the goal of bringing her and the boys back was near. Charges against those accomplices would not be necessary if Sonia and the boys returned voluntarily, Heidersheidt said.
Now that Galindo is back in hiding, the march toward prosecuting the accomplices will continue.
"It's incredibly frustrating," Heidersheidt said. "Her outright refusal to talk is certainly not looking very positive in her light.
"These warrants will never go away," he continued. "They will be there when the boys are 18 and can go and do whatever they want. Authorities will catch up to her sooner or later, with or without the boys. If she doesn't turn herself in and law enforcement finds her, there's going to be nothing but a bad outcome for her and a bad impact on those boys."
Police encourage local people with information on Bryan and Sean's whereabouts to come forward with information.
Anderson remains hopeful he'll see Bryan and Sean again.
"The setting they are in is almost like hostages," Anderson said. "Talking to them was great, but it was also horrible. At least they heard my voice and they know that I love them and miss them."
How to help ...
If you have information on the Anderson case contact:
Buffalo Grove police officer John Heidersheidt at (847) 459-2560.
(Part 1 of 4 parts) Reuniting a family
February 10 2003
James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
Cold sweat soaks Don Anderson's sheets. Then the nightly dream of lost time and uncertainty jars him awake. Anderson's heart pounds as his mind revisits the same torturous possibilities as yesterday and all the days before and still winds up with the same non-answers.
It's 4 a.m. Time to find his children.
His life is wrought with coping and hoping, seeking and finding just enough to torment and prolong.
"You can't talk to your kids," Anderson said of the not knowing. "You can't see them. You don't even know what they look like. You hang on to all their stuff, hoping they're going to be back, but you don't know."
They were 10 and 12 the last time he saw them, at their Vernon Hills home. Now Bryan and Sean are 13 and 14. He's spent $200,000 and at least four hours a day over the course of those missed birthdays trying to bring them home. Anderson has spent more than a year traipsing through Mexico and the halls of Congress, yet Bryan and Sean remain ghosts to him. But they didn't disappear on their own.
This is what happens when your children are stolen.
Divorce, disappearance
After a divorce in 1996, Anderson and his ex-wife, Sonia Galindo, shared custody of Sean and Bryan. But Galindo, who had moved to Buffalo Grove, couldn't live up to her end of the bargain. The boys missed appointments, school and church. Her violations of a divorce deal stockpiled, resulting in court-appointed mediation. Both the mediator and a conciliator recommended Anderson receive sole custody of the children because of Galindo's behavior problems and lack of parenting skills.
By 1999, Anderson had sole custody of the boys in Vernon Hills. Galindo had visitation with child support obligations.
The war began.
Police and Anderson believe that's when Galindo decided Sean and Bryan would be with her no matter what.
"She started to blame me because the kids weren't with her," Anderson said. "It didn't look good for her image. People thought something was wrong with her, and she didn't want anybody to think something was wrong. Without the kids, she was nobody. I was threatening that piece of her."
On the last day of Sean and Bryan's 2000 summer vacation from Daniel Wright Junior High in Lincolnshire-Prairie View, Anderson waited for a return that never came. Just a few months before, police accused Galindo of taking Sean and Bryan out of the state during Anderson's designated custody time and without his permission.
Anderson thought Galindo had snatched them again. Until the police called.
Galindo had filed police reports saying Anderson physically and sexually abused Bryan. The report alone necessitated an investigation, and Galindo secured an order of protection against Anderson to keep him from Sean and Bryan.
Police said the charges against Anderson quickly unraveled through lack of evidence. Anderson said Galindo's ever-changing accounts of the abuse met with seemingly spoon-fed testimony against Anderson from Bryan.
Anderson received visitation while the investigation continued. But police say Galindo took the boys and bolted to Mexico. Galindo is now an FBI fugitive with four felony warrants. Police say evidence shows she fabricated the abuse allegations.
A parent's nightmare
It's a similar story for thousands of parents in the United States each year. Various reports estimate the number of cases of parents abducting children from other parents in the United States ranges from 200 a day to 350,000 a year. In many of those, children are taken to foreign countries.
For those children, Mexico is often a black hole destination. More abducted children are taken to Mexico than any other country, according to a 2001 compliance report on the Hague Convention. The 1980 convention set in place international rules to follow in abduction cases. Nearly 25 years later, Mexico lacks full compliance.
The report shows the State Department taking as many as 36 separate actions to get a child back from Mexico to no avail.
Stuart Patt, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, said getting a child back depends mainly on the foreign country's receptiveness to the United States' view that a child living there was abducted.
"Ultimately, it's going to be the determination of that country's officials and courts as to what's going to happen," Patt said.
Guillermo Galarza of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said that reality can be a nightmare for desperate parents.
While 70 percent of Mexican children abducted to the United States are returned, only 3 to 4 percent of U.S. kids come back from Mexico, he said. Asked about that imbalance, Patt said the Mexican government is improving, but "there's still some work to do."
Working under the Hague Convention can be slow and frustrating in Mexico, said the National Center's Galarza.
Nothing Anderson has in place in the United States will necessarily help him. He has the added burden of Galindo's dual-nationality, a status conveyed to his sons by birth.
"To the Mexican government, these kids are from Mexico," Galarza said. "The custody decree doesn't mean anything in Mexico. It doesn't mean a nickel."
The Hague Convention itself can be an obstacle. For instance, the fact that criminal charges await Galindo in the United States can be a deterrent because the Mexican government might view her imprisonment as an emotional harm against Sean and Bryan.
Not only that, but as soon as the boys logged a full year in Mexico, returning them to America became a judge's discretionary matter, rather than an automatic. Foreign courts often believe a year spent in a new place creates ties that can be traumatic to undo for a child.
Police say abducting parents, including Galindo, often file a special appeal in Mexico called an "amparo" when a Hague order to return a child to the United States is issued. The appeal claims a violation of constitutional rights that must be examined, often dragging the case beyond the year time frame for automatic return of a child to the United States.
With all these roadblocks, cases that should only take a couple weeks to resolve in a perfect situation can take years.
That's when some parents lose patience and try to re-abduct their children from the original snatcher.
"We don't recommend parents do that," Galarza said. "You're breaking the laws in that other country. Not only that, there's the emotion of being abducted again. Usually the abducting parent has told the children many things about the other parent to create hatred. When a child has been told that their dad is evil and all of a sudden he takes them, that's very traumatic."
All that's left: memories
Don Anderson understands that trauma. He has some of his own.
Bryan and Sean's clothes, toys and rooms are untouched. He's converted his Vernon Hills basement into a teen recreation room for the boys. There will be something waiting to receive them when his sons return. If they return.
Anderson's children have never contacted him. Are they unable to? Have they been brainwashed? Do they hate him? Do they think he hates them?
It's a daily question roulette Anderson plays. He's done everything the laws and guidelines say he should do to bring his children back. No results.
Because the boys are believed to have been taken from Galindo's Buffalo Grove home, that town's police are in charge of the investigation. Even with 19 years on the force, Buffalo Grove officer John Heidersheidt said he's never had a case quite like Anderson's.
Galindo's family living in the area won't tell Heidersheidt anything. Her sister doesn't respond to interview requests. There is no local funding for Heidersheidt to follow leads in Texas. Now, he's not even sure where Galindo and the kids are.
"It's real tough," Heidersheidt said. "They could have changed their names, gotten false identification. She's basically kind of disappeared off the face of the earth. We need information desperately."
Anderson lives for that information. When he's angry, he builds information packets for congressmen. Basketball gives him an outlet for his aggression. He allows himself a set amount of time, no more than 15 minutes a day, to cry.
Anderson's mindset is even open to Galindo remaining in his sons' lives. All just to have them in his life rather than haunting it.
"If she comes back, I won't prosecute her," he said. "She's their mother. What she did was really wrong, illegal, horrible, but it's up to her to get help. It's not up to me to punish her. I just want to get the kids back so they can live a happy and healthy life."
If you have information on the Anderson case, call:
- Buffalo Grove Police Department: (847) 459-2560
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: (877) 446-2632
- Buffalo Grove Police Department: (847) 459-2560
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: (877) 446-2632
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