(Part 4 of 4 parts) Reuniting a family

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."