Whitelaw Abduction Case : Father Barred From Calling Daughters

A former real estate developer who took his two daughters from his ex-wife’s Valencia home and hid them for more than seven years before his arrest in August may not contact the girls, who have been returned to their mother, a San Fernando Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Ronald Whitelaw is charged with two counts of child stealing for abducting his daughters, then 3 and 6 years old, from his former wife, Faith Canutt, in 1978. Canutt searched for her daughters until Whitelaw finally was arrested on Aug. 26 in Oregon.

Judge Howard J. Schwab denied Whitelaw’s request to talk to his daughters on the telephone because a child psychiatrist recommended that they have “a period of stabilization, psychologically and socially, to allow the children to get to know their mother again.”

The psychiatrist, Marvin G. Mathews of Maui, Hawaii, also recommended that the girls not be called as witnesses at their father’s trial to minimize the “loyalty conflict” they might experience between their parents. The girls are living with Canutt in Maui.

Schwab also denied Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Barshop’s request that he forbid participants in the criminal case from talking to reporters.

Additional motions in the case, including one by defense attorney Harland Braun to dismiss charges against Whitelaw because the girls were not made available as witnesses at the preliminary hearing last month, are scheduled to be heard Friday. No date has been set for trial.