Why Jean Paul Lacombe should not be a poster child for the “protective parent” movement

I was recently made aware of the case of the missing child Jean Paul Lacombe. He was abducted by his father, Juan Lacombe Vega, which on paper sounds typical enough. However, his father got temporary custody by presenting the court with phony documents. And he had previously abducted his son to France after custody was turned over to his mother. That’s pretty brazen, but not totally out of the realm of possibility. When Jean Paul was turned over to his father, it was videotaped and he protested he didn’t want to go.

And now this case is being cited by the dubious “protective mother parent” movement as a case that somehow vindicates their theory that mothers who abduct only do so to save children from evil abusive fathers. Which is problematic in several ways. First, Vega didn’t win permanent custody in court; he got a temporary order which was rescinded the minute they found out he had used forged documents. Second, the only abductor in the case is Vega and he had a previous abduction under his belt. Third, there is no evidence I have seen that indicates the mother claimed abuse or that she was ever denied custody for reasons of “false abuse accusations.”

The case is a tragedy, and I wish for Jean Paul to be with his mother again as soon as possible. But if this case is supposed to somehow validate the mother-the-hero-abductor movement, it is doing so under shaky ground of their own theories.

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4 Responses so far »

  1. 1

    Jean Paul Lacombe found safe « For the Lost Blog said,

    September 2, 2010 @ 7:04 pm

    […] Pages, Family Abductions, Located safe, Opinion, Website notes I have just received word that Jean Paul Lacombe has been found in France and reunited with his mother. I wish them the best in reuniting. This was […]

  2. 2

    Diamond said,

    January 19, 2015 @ 10:28 pm

    I was in a similar position as this boy’s mother. My now ex husband kicked me and our two young children out of the marital home in Sweden after years of abuse and virtual imprisonment. I returned to the United States to San Antonio Texas also ironically enough and demanded a divorce. With things not going his way my estranged husband once tried to abduct my children off the street after assaulting me but police were called and my children returned. In December 2003 when the final divorce decree was about to be handed down by Bexar County courts which had EXCLUSIVE jurisdiction over my children my ex showed up at their school demanding to be given my children and when police were called because he was causing a major disturbance trying to intimidate the headmaster produced fraudulent documents from Finland(he’s a citizen of Estonia&Finland). The police pulled my children out of class and handed them over to him! My children by then were 9 and 11 hadn’t forgotten seeing him beat me or being abused themselves so were crying and BEGGING to be left alone! My ex husband was acting sweet as pie just like this boy’s daddy in front of the police speaking Swedish and coaxing my children,”Come to daddy. Come to daddy now.” They weren’t stupid and knew his true character but the police officers ordered them to go with him anyway.No one bothered to consult me their mother nor any courts about anything or listen to my children who were showing by their obvious fear something wasn’t right. He took them to Finland where they remain till this very day abused by my ex,institutionalized,and deprived of their loving mother aka former battered woman who had VERY GOOD reason for taking them away. When I recieved my final divorce decree and a parallel judgement from Sweden I presented my case file which was 4 inches thick to the precinct here in San Antonio who sheepishly acknowledged my ex was indeed a dangerous unhinged person and issued a warrant for his arrest but refused to accept responsibility for their deputies handing over my children blaming a language barrier. Common sense says if documents in a language you don’t understand are thrusted in your face then you don’t just take the word of the person presenting them and obey their demands!

  3. 3

    BrownBelle said,

    January 19, 2015 @ 11:04 pm

    You too?!?!? There weren’t any police involved or foreign custody orders in my case(I was never married to my youngest child’s father&was in hiding after returning to the US with my child),but my little girl was released by her school without my knowledge or consent. Like any old Joe Blow off the street my ex just walked in and told the secretary he wanted to see my child. Without asking the reason or what gave him the authority to make this demand the secretary called my 6 year old out of her classroom then resumed typing. As you can probably guess as soon as her back was turned and my little girl was within sight my ex swooped her into his arms and fled. He had her head crushed forcefully against his shoulder in case she cried out and reading her body language on the security footage told me she was clearly confused and uncooperative. When I asked why my child was presented to someone not mentioned anywhere in her enrollment or emergency care paperwork the only explanation given was a bunch of BS. “Well she looks like him. She’s mixed and looks white. The secretary was busy and besides she didn’t act like she was afraid of him.” My ex is 6’6″. My little 4 foot tall 50 lb daughter could NOT resist in anyway being grabbed and carried out of the building by this grown man! Because of their laziness and lack of concern for the children trusted to them for 9 hrs a day my child was taken to Syria by her Greek father where she was concealed and brainwashed by his wealthy manipulating family for 12 years and to date I have not seen her again.

  4. 4

    Brian said,

    January 2, 2017 @ 2:56 pm

    Apperantly there was a lot more to this case than publiczed and John Paul was never supposed to be in the United States in Texas to begin with. His father got custody after the Mexican divorce and his mother had previously run off to Texas to San Antonio shortly after the divorce with Jean Paul leading to her arrest upon arriving at the airport back in Mexico City after several months for kidnapping. Jean Paul’s father still didn’t get him back then though and was allegedly lured into an ambush by his ex-wife, who used the boy as bait by promising to bring him to a restaurant to see his father. Dad showed up eager to see him and was shot after documented violent threats from his mother. Because of this, when Jean Paul’s father finally regained possession of him from the maternal family he departed to France, a country both Jean Paul and his father are dual citizens of, with Jean Paul and France refused to return Jean Paul to Mexico. His father later voluntarily returned Jean Paul to Mexico by private agreement only to have Jean Paul’s mother flee with him again on an unauthorized Mexican Passport, which was soon cancelled by a Mexican judge and again she was charged with kidnapping Jean Paul. In fact when she attempted to obtain a French Passport for Jean Paul by saying it was lost, the French Embassy contacted authorities and Jean Paul’s father, who told them NOT to release the document to her. It still took a while for Jean Paul’s father to locate his son in San Antonio, Texas, USA again though and when he did, demanded Texas authorities return Jean Paul to him in accordance with the Mexican divorce decree, which as we know was done. While these other mothers might have had valid reasons to complain American authorities turned their children over to abusive non-citizen fathers based on fraudulent claims, Jean Paul’s Mexican national mother has been proven to have deliberately and severely misrepresented the facts of her custody case and remains a wanted fugitive in her own respective homeland, Mexico as the true abductor of her son from there to Texas specifically to deprive her ex-husband of access to their child. That is not a “protective parent”, but rather a vindictive woman scorned!

    Here’s a copy of the facts of the case presented to media.

    http://images.bimedia.net/documents/To+S.+Reed_Letter_08.18.10.pdf

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