Spring Valley

A Spring Valley woman was sentenced Monday to a year in jail for taking a 3-year-old boy from his parents’ home, where the woman also lived.

In addition, Audrey Renee Jensen, 31, was ordered by San Diego Superior Court Judge J. Richard Haden to abstain from alcohol during three years’ probation.

Jensen pleaded no contest Sept. 22 to child stealing in a June 9 incident in which Jason Radi was taken from his home by Jensen. She had permission from the boy’s parents to take him to the store, but she never returned.

The boy was found unharmed the next day at the Hitching Post Motel in La Mesa after KGTV (Channel 10) broadcast appeals for Jensen to return the boy to his parents, Kenneth Radi and Judy Keys.

“This was really a weird chain of events. It was a situation that snowballed, escalated. I don’t believe Miss Jensen had a desire to steal the boy or the vehicle,” argued her attorney, Michael Butler. He said Jensen stopped at several bars after leaving the home and “time just kept on slipping away.”

“She contacted the news media. She’d been promised over the telephone . . . that authorities would not be contacted. I think the news media . . . took it and blew it out of proportion.”

KGTV reporter Mark Matthews refused to answer two questions posed by Butler during Jensen’s preliminary hearing July 24, and he was found in contempt of court. His sentencing was delayed so he could appeal.

Haden ordered Jensen to talk to a county psychiatrist, and he set a review date for Dec. 4.

The parents of the boy are on probation for welfare fraud and have been ordered to pay the county $5,273 in restitution.