Mother Freed on Child Stealing Charge

SAN DIEGO — A Superior Court judge has dismissed a felony child stealing charge against a fundamentalist Christian woman, ruling that she was a victim of double jeopardy.

Betty Batey, 40, had been scheduled to stand trial on the felony charge, three months after she was convicted of civil contempt for spiriting her 13-year-old son out of California in September, 1982, and hiding him for 20 months. The boy had been in the custody of Mrs. Batey’s ex-husband, Frank Batey, a homosexual. Mrs. Batey was convicted of contempt for violating a court order that prohibited her from taking the boy out of Southern California without either court approval or her ex-husband’s consent.

Judge Earl H. Maas Jr. ruled Monday that the felony charges against Mrs. Batey put her in double jeopardy because the elements of the civil and felony cases were identical.

Sentencing on her contempt conviction was set for Feb. 15.