Girl in Child-Custody Case Hurt Seriously in Accident
A 12-year-old Oregon girl involved in a child-custody battle that drew national attention last year has been hospitalized in serious condition with head injuries suffered in a bicycle accident.
Kristin Whitelaw was riding her bicycle on U. S. 20 in Lebanon, Ore., on Saturday when it collided with a car, police said. Kristin is one of two daughters of Ronald Whitelaw, who was arrested last year and later acquitted in Los Angeles Superior Court on felony child-stealing charges.
He was accused of stealing the girls from their mother, Faith Canutt, in 1978, when he took the girls from their Valencia home and fled to Oregon, where he remarried and lived under the name of Ronald Johnson.
Canutt’s seven-year search for the children ended last year when a school bus driver in Lebanon recognized a photograph of one of the girls from a television program about missing children.
Whitelaw was acquitted after testifying that he took the children because he feared his ex-wife would harm them. He gained custody of the girls in June after reaching an agreement with Canutt in Santa Barbara.
Whitelaw is appealing a $1.5-million judgment obtained by his ex-wife in a lawsuit stemming from his flight with the children.
Kristin was being treated for head injuries at Salem Hospital’s neuro-intensive care unit, hospital spokeswoman Geri Hall said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
