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E-mail StoryProsecutor: Mother to take plea in child stealing case
| Tuesday, May 13 2008 6:15 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 14 2008 7:31 AM
A Kern County woman accused of abducting her children and hiding them in a remote mountain home for nearly three years has reached a plea agreement that will allow her to avoid a trial and possible jail time.
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Defense Attorney Paul Cadman stands with his client Tanya Brown during her arraignment on charges of child stealing, among others, at the Kern Superior Court. Mrs. Brown shielded her face from the media during her court appearance in this file photo.
Tanya Diane Brown pleaded no contest Tuesday to two counts of child abduction. As a result of the plea agreement, several other charges, including two counts of felony kidnapping, were dismissed, said Kern County Deputy District Attorney Ken Green.
“As part of a plea agreement, you have to accept that you did something wrong,” Green said. “Once she did that, I felt we had a chance with her.”
Brown’s attorney could not be reached late Tuesday afternoon.
Brown, who is pregnant and expecting her seventh child, will be sentenced in September to five years probation, Green said. She will be required to perform community service and must receive counseling.
A “stay away” order is still in effect regarding the five children she abducted in 2005, Green said. But it’s not out of the question that she might some day be granted visitation rights.
Two of the children are from a previous marriage to Chuck Brown, formerly of Taft, and three were from an earlier marriage to Matthew Densley, of Nevada.
Besides the baby due to be born in July, Tanya Brown has another child with a third father.
Green said neither of the affected fathers ever wanted to “go for the jugular” by pushing for a jail sentence.
“They were much less vindictive than she was,” Green said.
Tanya Brown and her family have alleged that the children had been subjected to sexual abuse. But those allegations have been fully investigated by multiple agencies and were found to be without merit, Green said.
All five children are now with their fathers, but the men have reported the kids are now one to three years behind in school.
“I think it was a good resolution,” Green said. “The kids are back with their fathers, they’re catching up in school, and they’re receiving proper medical and dental care.”