French Activist’s Flight Yields Child-Abduction Charges

The Los Angeles County district attorney filed felony child-abduction charges Thursday against a prominent member of Los Angeles’ French community, alleging that the man took his three American-born children to France to escape a custody battle.

An arrest warrant was issued in Los Angeles Municipal Court for Sherman Oaks businessman Jean-Yves Prate, 38, an American resident for 20 years and Los Angeles president of Union Francais e Etranger e, a social and political organization of French citizens.

In a bizarre tangle of international law, politics and domestic strife, Prate fled with the children only two weeks before an election in California in which he hoped to win one of two seats on a worldwide council that represents French nationals living abroad.

Investigators said Prate flew to Paris May 4 with his two sons and daughter. At the time, a court order was in effect prohibiting the removal of the children from the county, they said.

Prate and his former wife, Sandra, who divorced him last year, were scheduled to appear in court in July for a hearing to decide who would get custody of the children. Sandra Prate had temporary custody of their sons Michael, 5, and Jean-Yves Tristan, 7. Prate had temporary custody of their daughter, Galia Anne-Marie, 17.

Prate was part of a conservative ticket in an election to be held Sunday in Los Angeles and San Francisco for seats representing the West Coast on the Conseil Superieur des Francais a l’Etranger . The 137-member council convenes annually in France to advise the country’s National Assembly on the affairs of its citizens abroad. It also elects 12 members to the French Senate.

Opponents of the conservative ticket said they were surprised by Prate’s sudden departure just before an election that some view as a prelude to the country’s legislative elections next year in which conservatives hope to erode the influence of French Socialist President Francois Mitterand.

As the election drew near, however, Prate abandoned his political life for his personal one.

Through his former attorney in Los Angeles, Prate said this week that he left because he was exhausted by the custody fight. Attorney Frank Garfield said Prate called from Marseille to say that he does not intend to return to the United States.

In a memo disclosed during the current case, Garfield reported that Prate told him, “I was driven by the system and the war. I will not be bullied and I reached the point of mental exhaustion that this was the best solution.”

Since last year, Prate has been representing himself in all court proceedings.

Sandra Prate’s attorney, Peter Gardner, described Prate, the owner of a technical translation service, as a “brilliant and resourceful” man who made no attempt to hide his disdain for the American court system.

Local authorities were unimpressed. They consider Prate just one of an apparently growing number of people using international borders to settle marital disputes.

Although precise statistics do not exist, Linda Tussey, head of the district attorney’s child-abduction unit, said about half a dozen of her 40 active child-abduction cases deal with removal of the children from the United States. There are probably many more cases that do not result in criminal charges, she said.

“Particularly, we have a problem of children returning to Mexico,” Tussey said.

Prate’s flight to his homeland may present a more difficult legal problem. Because France and the United States do not have an extradition treaty, Prate cannot be arrested unless he tries to return, authorities said.

An expert in international child-custody matters said the only chance for return of the children rests with a petition on behalf of Sandra Prate in French civil court.

France Recognizes U.S. Act

Gloria DeHart, deputy U.S. attorney in San Francisco, said France has recognized the American Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. The act asserts that foreign governments should defer to the local jurisdiction of primary residence in custody matters.

Because the Prates married and had all their children in the United States, French courts would be expected to defer to the Los Angeles County court and order the return of the children, DeHart said.

To do so, Sandra Prate would have to hire a French lawyer to present her case, DeHart said.

Her attorney, Gardner, said he is exploring all legal remedies but declined to detail his plans.

Touchy Questions

No matter how the legal part of the case winds up, Prate’s departure has left behind some touchy questions for the estimated 100,000 French nationals living on the West Coast.

One is how Prate managed to get his children on an airplane bound for France without passports.

Suspecting her husband’s intentions, Sandra Prate squirreled away the children’s passports, she said. She showed them to a reporter Thursday in the Sherman Oaks office she once shared with her husband.

A spokeswoman for Air France said the airline requires all passengers to show proof of national identity or a valid visa before boarding a flight to France. One of Prate’s opponents in Sunday’s election said the French consul general in San Francisco had asked for an inquiry into whether Prate obtained some form of official help in his departure.

Declines Comment

French Consul General Jean Francois Mouton declined comment on the case.

Observers of French-American politics also declined to speculate on what effect Prate’s departure would have on the nearly 10,000 French citizens who are expected to vote Sunday at French consulates in the two California cities.

A spokesman for Prate’s ticket said his name would still appear on the ballot but that someone else would take his place should the ticket win both seats.

A candidate for the rival Association Democratique des Francais a L’Etranger said he was saddened by the turn of events. Still, he used the opportunity to take a jab at the opposition, comparing the conservative slate to the American Republican Party.

“They are more interested in themselves than in helping people out,” liberal candidate Claud Girault said.