February 29, 2008
WOMAN SENTENCED FOR INTERNATIONAL PARENTAL KIDNAPING
The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that on February 28, 2008, Michelle Favreau, 39, a.k.a., Michelle Miller, of Omerville, Quebec, Canada, and formerly of Shaftsbury, Vermont, was sentenced to 26 months of imprisonment for international parental kidnaping. Favreau was convicted on July 12, 2007 after a two-day trial. Sentencing took place in United States District Court in Burlington, Vermont before the Honorable William K. Sessions, III. Favreau was given credit for time she has already served while being held in contempt and was released to begin a one-year period of supervised release. She also paid a $100 special assessment.
According to court records, Favreau, who was divorced from the boy's father in 1997, prevented the father from exercising his visitation rights beginning in July 2000. Despite two state court orders granting visitation, including an order from the Bennington Family Court, the defendant disappeared in the Spring of 2001, with their son and took the then six-year-old boy across the border to Omerville, Quebec.
In December 2002, Favreau was indicted by a federal grand jury in Rutland for international parental kidnaping. In August, 2003, the United States began seeking Favreau's extradition from Canada. In January 2006, after opposing her extradition for nearly two and a half years, Favreau returned to the United States to face these charges. She continued to refuse to allow the boy's father to exercise his visitation rights or disclose the location of the child and was subsequently held in civil contempt by the Bennington Family Court and jailed. Civil contempt is designed to compel a person to comply with a lawful court order. Once the order is complied with, the person is released from custody. Favreau remained jailed for civil contempt until earlier this month when she disclosed the location of the child to the Bennington Family Court.
During the trial, the father testified about the many activities he and his son had engaged in and the strong bond he had with his son. He also testified that he had not seen his son in seven years. While the defendant made claims that she had been in an abusive marriage, she admitted that there were neither police reports nor medical reports that substantiated her allegations. The father and several witnesses denied the allegations of abuse. According to testimony in trial, the child, now almost 14 years old, remains in Canada.
In imposing sentence, the Court determined that the defendant had substantially interfered with the administration of justice, that she had obstructed justice, and that she had failed to accept responsibility for her actions. These findings served to lengthen the applicable sentencing range as determined under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which called for a sentence of between 24 and 30 months. Judge Sessions sentenced Favreau to 26 months in prison and then gave her credit for the time she was held in custody by the Bennington Family Court (26 months). The United States opposed any credit for time served while Favreau was being held in civil contempt arguing that such credit was not appropriate because the defendant would have been released if she had simply complied with the Bennington Family Court's order that she reveal the location of the child. As a result, she was not serving a criminal sentence, but instead was willfully violating a civil court order, which should not have been rewarded by a reduced sentence.
Favreau was released after the sentencing hearing to begin serving her one-year period of federal supervised release. As part of her supervised release, the Court required the defendant to reside in Vermont, to seek mental health counseling, and provide to the Court within 60 days a report regarding her efforts to reunite the son with both of his parents.
United States Attorney Thomas D. Anderson thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the case. He also thanked the Vermont State Police and the Bennington Police Department, both of which provided assistance at trial. Federal Public Defender Michael Desautels represented the defendant. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth C. Woodcock prosecuted the case for the government.
