Mother Fleeing Snarled Custody Case Arrested

A Thousand Oaks woman on the run with her 5-year-old child because of an unusual custody case was arrested Friday morning in Pittsburgh, Pa., police and prosecutors said, and the legal father immediately flew there to retrieve the girl.

But fugitive mother Catherine F. Thomas won a last-minute, temporary stay from a local judge, who ordered that the child remain with her, at least through the weekend, police said.

Thomas and her daughter Courtney were seized at a train station after another traveler recognized them from a television show about their case that aired nationally just the night before.

In a brief telephone interview from a Pittsburgh Police Department station, a weeping Thomas said she fled July 29 because she believed that Courtney’s legal father was about to seek an end to her visitation rights after having won custody of the child.

“I just panicked,” sobbed Thomas, a single mother of three. “That’s my baby.”

Her arrest under a California warrant for felony child abduction was the latest twist in a bitter custody battle with Kevin Thomas of Van Nuys, a former friend who has no biological ties to Courtney.

Catherine Thomas and Kevin Thomas--who legally changed his surname from McCain after Courtney’s birth in 1988--were never married, never lived together and never had sexual relations.

Yet Kevin Thomas, who is openly gay, persuaded a Los Angeles Superior Court judge last summer that he had played a significant enough role in Courtney’s life to be legally recognized as her father. He then persuaded Judge Martha Goldin that he was the better care-giver and should be awarded sole custody.

The court records in the complicated case are sealed.

In repeated interviews, Kevin Thomas, 43, has said that he and Catherine informally agreed to raise Courtney together when the child was conceived out of wedlock. He says he more than shared in Courtney’s daily care, schooling and medical treatment for a rare congenital condition that left her mildly retarded.

Thomas says he went to court seeking formal recognition of the father-daughter relationship after he and Catherine had a falling out and she stopped allowing him to see Courtney, who he says knew him as “Daddy.”

But Catherine Thomas, 46, denies agreeing to raise Courtney with Kevin Thomas and says he has greatly exaggerated his role as a frequent baby-sitter and once-generous friend. She says he became obsessed with Courtney because he had no children of his own and that she finally moved from North Hills to Thousand Oaks in an effort to put distance between them.

She has described him as an extremely aggressive, manipulative man who has twisted facts in the case several times--including telling Canadian authorities he is Courtney’s biological father and that he is not gay. He managed to wrest Courtney away, Catherine Thomas has said, because he had the money to hire Glen H. Schwartz, a prominent Encino attorney who specializes in paternity-rights cases.

Kevin Thomas, who manages a bill-collecting agency, has said he has spent at least $100,000 in legal fees in the case. He could not be reached for comment Friday because he was on his way to Pennsylvania, police said. Schwartz could not be reached for comment either.

Meanwhile, a criminal defense attorney for Catherine Thomas said steps are being taken to show that Courtney had been in good hands with her mother. The child was being examined by a physician and a psychologist in Pittsburgh to preclude allegations of abuse or neglect, said Van Nuys attorney David S. Kestenbaum.

If convicted of the felony charge against her, Catherine Thomas could face a maximum of three years in state prison and a $10,000 fine, said a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Kestenbaum said no decision had been made on whether to fight extradition to California, but that his client was eager to clear her name and regain custody of her daughter.

“She is anxious to basically try and prevail on the bottom-line, parental-rights issue here in California,” he said.

Earlier this year, Catherine Thomas was convicted of misdemeanor child stealing and placed on three years’ probation after she fled with Courtney to her native Vancouver.

The pair went to Canada in September of last year, after Kevin Thomas filed suit, won temporary visitation rights and Catherine Thomas--in her own words--panicked. They were eventually traced and returned to Los Angeles in February.

In June, after a five-day closed hearing, Goldin awarded Kevin Thomas full paternity rights and sole custody of Courtney. Catherine Thomas was granted visits on weekends and evenings, to be monitored by Kevin Thomas’ longtime companion.

During one of those visits on July 29, she disappeared again with Courtney, shortly before the child was to be returned to Thomas. According to witnesses, the mother and daughter casually walked out of Catherine Thomas’ Thousand Oaks apartment, as if going for a quick stroll to the pool, and did not return.

As a result, her visitation rights were revoked and she was declared in violation of her probation, a misdemeanor charge that could lead to a year in County Jail and a $1,000 fine.

Catherine Thomas said Friday that after she and Courtney fled, they lived in an apartment in Las Vegas. They were traveling to New Hampshire by Amtrak when they were caught at the Pittsburgh station--seen by someone who had watched Thursday night’s installment of CBS’ “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung.” The news-feature program included a segment on their case, with a previously taped interview with Catherine Thomas and photos of Courtney.

Catherine said she had been traveling under an alias she would not disclose and was carrying fake identification when the police found her. But during a search, officers discovered a bank cash card with her real name, another source said.

Pittsburgh police said they were sympathetic but bound by court order to take the mother and child into custody. Late in the day, however, a local Juvenile Court judge ordered that Courtney stay put until he could schedule a hearing on the matter, Detective Joe Figura said. Arrangements were being made to house Catherine and Courtney Thomas together at a shelter, Figura and Kestenbaum said.

Earier, as they waited for Kevin Thomas to arrive to pick up Courtney, Figura and Police Cmdr. Gwen Elliott said they were dumbfounded by the case and were doing as much as possible to make Catherine and her daughter comfortable in the police station.

“How do you take a child away from a biological mother and turn it over to someone not even related?” Figura asked.

“We can’t believe stuff like this goes on in California.”