Child Custody Case : Whitelaw Can See, Talk With His Daughters

Ronald Whitelaw, who was acquitted Dec. 2 of felony child stealing, may communicate with his two daughters for the first time since his arrest in August, a Santa Barbara Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Whitelaw took the girls from his ex-wife in 1978 and kept them hidden from her for seven years.

He will be allowed to write, telephone and visit the girls until a March 14 custody hearing, Superior Court Judge William L. Gordon said.

Gordon will also decide at the March hearing whether to hold Whitelaw in contempt of court for disappearing with the children in violation of a custody order.

Father Seeking Custody

Whitelaw is seeking to take the children from his ex-wife, Faith Canutt, who now lives in Orlando, Fla., with the girls, Alisa, 14, and Kristin, 11. Whitelaw, 38, who had been a wealthy Santa Barbara real estate developer, gave Canutt custody of the children in Santa Barbara County in 1978. He fled with the girls three months later.

Under Friday’s order, Whitelaw may speak on the telephone with his daughters for 15 minutes each three nights a week. He will also be able to visit the children, Gordon said. The times and intervals of the visits were not specified.

Whitelaw is not to go within a mile of Canutt’s home without her permission and may not discuss the case, and neither parent is to make derogatory comments about the other, Gordon said.

Details of the agreement were worked out in a closed session attended by Diane Krieger, a Santa Barbara County family custody evaluator, and attorneys for Whitelaw and Canutt. Krieger will investigate and advise the court on a final custody settlement.

Mother in Courthouse

Canutt was in the Santa Barbara County Courthouse but, to avoid reporters, did not go into the courtroom during the hearing, said her attorney, Stephen Kolodny. She could not be reached for comment Friday.

Whitelaw said he was disappointed that he would not be able to have the children for a two-week visit during the Christmas holiday. Not being able to see the children “hurts very deeply,” he said.

During her seven-year search for her children, Canutt has estimated, she spent $300,000 for private detectives, cross-country travel and psychics who she hoped would help her find the girls. She said in a recent interview that the search exhausted her funds.

Canutt became a leader in the movement to find missing children and enact stricter penalties against parents who steal them.

Whitelaw, meanwhile, was living with the children and his second wife, Sandy, under assumed names in a large turn-of-the-century farmhouse on the outskirts of Lebanon, Ore., a small town 75 miles south of Portland. They used the name Johnson and were thought by neighbors and friends to be perfect parents, active in school affairs and local sporting events.

Arrested in Oregon

On Aug. 26, Whitelaw was arrested by Oregon police officers after he was turned in by a school-bus driver and a neighbor who saw photographs of the girls on a television program about missing children.

Expressing fear that Whitelaw might again attempt to steal the children, Kolodny asked that a physically imposing person be present during the court-approved visits to “restrain Mr. Whitelaw to ensure he doesn’t do what he did the last time.”

Whitelaw and his wife sighed and exchanged frowns across the courtroom after hearing that remark.

Gordon merely ordered that a neutral party, agreed upon by both sides, be present.

Last year, Canutt won what was regarded as the nation’s first civil damage case for parental child abduction. A judge ruled that she was entitled to $1.5 million from Whitelaw. Whitelaw’s attorneys are trying to have that judgment reversed. A hearing on the matter is scheduled Jan. 8 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Whitelaw said Friday, as he has all along, that he fled with the children because Canutt was having psychological problems and he feared she would harm him and the children in retaliation for his efforts to get custody.

Testimony to that effect was heard during Whitelaw’s trial. Canutt has denied the allegations. A San Fernando Superior Court jury acquitted Whitelaw on the child-stealing charge after three hours of deliberations.

Gordon refused a request by Kolodny to hold Whitelaw in contempt of court for failing to make child-support payments since his arrest. Whitelaw said he would make the payments of $400 a month to Kolodny.

Times Staff Writer Thomas Omestad contributed to this story.