'Cherokee' tribe at center of bizarre kidnapping

Friday, January 26, 2007  

A group calling itself the Cherokee River Indian Community of Alabama is at the center of a bizarre kidnapping and child custody dispute in Arizona.

Two women face kidnapping charges for removing Raven Laws, 4, from her family's home in Mesa, Arizona. Brenda Byers Couture, 49, and Iva Marie Peters Badone, 62, were armed with a "court order" from a Cherokee River judge who claimed to have jurisdiction over the dispute.

Accompanying the two women was a Maricopa County Sheriff's deputy. He claims not to have known Couture and Badone removed Raven, whose mother wasn't at home at the time. Her older sister, citing the presence of the deputy, handed Raven to the women.

Raven was eventually found at a safe house in Phoenix. She was returned to her mother's care on Thursday.

The Cherokee River Indian Community is not a federally recognized tribe.

Get the Story:
New details in kidnapping of young girl (3TV / Azfamily.com 1/25)
Deputies err in giving child to women (The East Valley Tribune 1/24)

$rl Cherokee River Indian Community - http://www.cric.org

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