WOMAN PICKS JAIL, KEEPS KIDS FROM FATHER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 31, 1993                   TAG: 9301310076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                LENGTH: Short
WOMAN PICKS JAIL, KEEPS KIDS FROM FATHER
A woman went to jail rather than follow a court order that she allow her three daughters to have contact with their father, who is charged with sexually abusing one of them.
The Portsmouth woman, 26, turned herself over to jailers after withdrawing an appeal of a contempt finding that Juvenile Court Judge Von Piersall made against her in December. She had been sentenced to 10 days in jail on that charge.
"They're not going to go back," said the woman, whose name was being withheld to protect the children's identity. "They'll be safe. If I send them back, they won't be safe. Keeping my children safe is worth going to jail."
She dropped the appeal minutes after a Friday court appearance in which Circuit Judge L. Cleaves Manning also found her in contempt.
The judge ruled that she violated his Jan. 7 order for the children to spend time with their father's parents every other weekend. The judge imposed a 90-day suspended term pending the woman's compliance with the order beginning today.
"I don't know anything else to do," Manning said. "These people are not going to let their grandchildren be molested. I have no concern about the children's welfare in the presence of the grandparents."
The woman said she does not have a problem with the children visiting their grandparents. But she has refused to comply with court orders because her estranged husband is not prohibited from being at the grandparents' house. - Associated Press
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB