Judge Absolves Mother Who Took Son From Gay Father

Betty Lou Batey, the Pentecostalist who disappeared with her son for 19 months rather than allow him to live with his homosexual father, left court a free woman Monday, cleared by a judge of charges of felony child stealing.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Douglas Woodworth, throwing out the charges against Batey before they could be considered by a jury, ruled that she had her son’s well-being at heart when she took him underground, rather than any criminal intent, and so could not be found guilty of a crime.

The latest court action had no bearing on the issue of custody, and the son, now 16, remains with his father.

Woodworth’s ruling drew shouts of “Hallelujah!” and “Praise the Lord!” from Batey’s supporters in the courtroom.

Frank and Betty Lou Batey were married in 1969, when both were members of a Pentecostal Church in San Diego. When they divorced in 1975, she won custody of their son, Brian.

But after she refused to allow Brian to visit his father, who had moved to Palm Springs, where he began living with his homosexual lover, a San Diego judge granted custody to the child’s father.

Betty Batey stole away with Brian in August, 1982. She surfaced with the boy in Denver nearly two years later, and spent two weeks in jail on civil contempt charges for defying the custody order.

In a weeklong trial before Woodworth, however, every significant ruling went against the prosecution.

Basis for Defense

Over Deputy San Diego Dist. Atty. Robert Boles’ objections, Woodworth allowed Betty Batey’s lawyers--supplied by the Concerned Women for America, a lobbying group headed by fundamentalist activist Beverly LaHaye--to mount a defense based on the assertion that her concerns for Brian’s welfare justified her violation of the law.

The decision, Boles acknowledged, allowed Batey’s lawyers to turn the focus of the trial away from her admissions that she had spirited the boy away.

Instead, the proceedings centered on Frank Batey’s homosexual life style and on his ex-wife’s concern for Brian’s well-being. She claimed that Brian told her he was exposed to alcohol, drugs and homosexual activities at his father’s home in Palm Springs--allegations Frank Batey denied.

Judge Woodworth, in his ruling, drew no conclusions about whether the events had actually occurred, but said Betty Batey had a reasonable basis for her fears--and her resulting actions.

The two parents were the only witnesses in the case, and their charges and countercharges were the same ones that have fueled years of custody hearings that followed their divorce.

Son Won’t Testify

Brian refused to testify, telling Woodworth in a closed-door hearing that he did not want to harm either parent. Although Frank Batey has custody of the teen-ager, Brian regularly visits his mother and plans to spend this summer with her.

When the trial ended Monday, Brian told his mother he loved her and left the courthouse with his father--but only after stepping between his parents, his arms outstretched, to keep them apart when they began to quarrel in a hallway outside the court.

“I was hoping this would happen, in all honesty,” he said of the judge’s decision clearing his mother of all charges. “I was just hoping to get it over with.”

“This is a great day,” Betty Batey said. “I have been sustained by my faith. I would not have been able to go through what I have. God is my defense.”

Frank Batey emerged from the courtroom angry. “Parents need some protections,” he said. “If we have recently enacted child-stealing laws that are unenforceable, it’s bad news for our society.”