Father Pleads Not Guilty to Child Stealing, Calls It a Rescue

Ronald Whitelaw, claiming he had rescued his children from a dangerous ex-wife when he took them from their home in the Santa Clarita Valley 7 1/2 years ago, Friday pleaded not guilty to a charge of child stealing.

Whitelaw was arrested in Oregon on Monday. He allegedly took the two young daughters from his wife, Faith Canutt, who had been awarded custody after their 1978 divorce.

The children were returned to their mother Thursday night.

At the arraignment in Newhall Municipal Court, Judge H. Keith Byram refused to lower Whitelaw’s $200,000 bail after his attorney, Harlan Braun, told the court that his client had told him he “would do it again.”

Alleged Threat

Braun later said he did not mean to suggest that Whitelaw had plans to steal the children again.

Elaborating on a brief statement he had made to reporters Thursday, Whitelaw told Byram that he took his daughters, Alisa, now 14, and Kristin, now 11, after Canutt, during divorce proceedings, allegedly “threatened to either steal or kill the children if she didn’t get custody.”

“I decided wasn’t going to wait for that to happen,” Whitelaw said.

Braun portrayed Whitelaw as an upstanding citizen who broke the law for “moral” reasons. Since moving his children to Lebanon, Ore., Whitelaw became a member of the local school board, while his children had become honor roll students, Braun said.

Wife Appeared on TV

“I can’t believe that a jury with common sense would convict this man” of child stealing, Braun added.

Canutt, 35, has appeared on numerous television shows in an effort to get her children back. In 1984, in what was called the country’s first civil case involving parental child stealing, Canutt won a $1.5-million judgment against her former husband and his current wife. Whitelaw, then living in Oregon under an assumed name, could not be found by the court at the time.

Whitelaw and his two daughters were returned to California after a bus driver told the FBI that he recognized them from pictures shown on a TV show about missing children. The sisters are now staying with Canutt’s parents in Canyon Country.

At the arraignment, Whitelaw said he realized long ago that he would be discovered eventually. But, he said, he continued to hide from authorities because he “wanted to keep the children from the negative influence of my former wife.”

After rejecting the plea for a reduction in bail, Byram set a preliminary hearing for Sept. 12 in Newhall Municipal Court. If convicted, Whitelaw faces a maximum three-year prison term and $10,000 fine.

Neither Canutt nor her lawyer, Stephen Kolodny, appeared at the arraignment. In a telephone interview after the court proceedings, Kolodny said he didn’t believe that Canutt, who now lives in Hawaii, had threatened anyone.

“They’re trying to make up a story,” he said. “They’re trying to find something to scream about (in order to) get off.”