After 8-Year Battle, Whitelaw Wins Custody of His Daughters

Ronald Whitelaw celebrated Sunday by taking the daughters he once was accused of stealing to a baseball game.

“It’s great, this is where they wanted to be,” Whitelaw said in a telephone interview from Lebanon, the small Oregon town where, for seven years, the girls lived under assumed names with their father and his wife, Sandy. “We’re all very happy.”

Whitelaw, 39, was awarded custody of Kristin, 14, and Alisa, 11, Friday in Santa Barbara Superior Court. The court agreement ended a custody battle that started in April, 1978, when Whitelaw failed to return his daughters to the Valencia home of his former wife, Faith Canutt.

Canutt agreed to give Whitelaw custody of their daughters because she feels it is best for the girls, Whitelaw said. He is due back in court July 11 on a contempt of court charge for non-payment of child support.

Canutt, 36, who was unavailable for comment, conducted a seven-year search for her daughters after their disappearance.

In 1984, she won what was regarded as the nation’s first civil damage suit for parental child abduction when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered Whitelaw, who was still being sought, to pay her $1.5 million. Whitelaw is appealing that judgment.

Whitelaw, who was living under the name Ronald Johnson, was arrested for felony child stealing in August after a bus driver recognized pictures of the girls that were shown on national television and contacted Oregon authorities.

A San Fernando Superior Court jury acquitted Whitelaw of the charge in December. During the trial, Whitelaw maintained that he abducted the children because his ex-wife, claiming she heard demonic voices, had threatened him and the girls.

The girls lived with their mother in Orlando, Fla., after their father’s arrest but Canutt allowed them to return to Whitelaw’s temporary care in March.

Under the court settlement, the girls will spend three weeks with their mother every summer. Whitelaw said Canutt also will be allowed to see her daughters every other weekend if she gives the Whitelaws advance notice.

Whitelaw said he and his ex-wife reached the custody agreement because the girls wanted to live with him and his wife in Oregon.

“They have roots here,” he said. “This is their home.”

Whitelaw said he believes the court would have awarded him custody of the children without Canutt’s consent.

“It was obvious to us where they belonged and I’m sure it was obvious to the court,” he said.