Tag Archives: Sharyn Hakken

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No bond for US couple accused of kidnapping kids

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The Florida parents charged with kidnapping their boys and fleeing to Cuba by sailboat after losing custody were ordered Thursday to remain in jail without bond and to have no contact with their two young sons.

Joshua and Sharyn Hakken made their first court appearance Thursday morning in Tampa. Judge Walter Heinrich ordered them to have no contact with any of the victims or witnesses in the case.

They’ll face a judge during a pretrial detention hearing on Monday on charges of kidnapping, child neglect, false imprisonment, burglary and interference with custody. Judge Walter Heinrich told the couple that they could be ordered to remain in jail without bond until their cases are resolved, depending on the evidence presented at Monday’s hearing.

Monday’s hearing was requested by special prosecutor Jennifer Johnson, who declined to comment after the hearing on why she asked for it. The Hakkens are being represented by the public defender’s office, which has also declined comment.

Four-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase are now with their maternal grandparents, Bob and Patricia Hauser, who have legal custody. The children were taken from them last week. They planned to talk about the ordeal publicly later Thursday morning.

Joshua and Sharyn Hakken arrived in Florida early Wednesday with their sons and the family dog, accompanied by federal, state and local authorities after being handed over by Cuban officials. The children were “happy and sleepy” on a flight back to the U.S., sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said in an email Wednesday.

Friends of the couple say they seemed to have a charmed life, doting on their two young boys, buying a comfortable home and building successful careers as engineers.

“This is a train that went completely off the tracks, and I don’t have any explanation for how it can go off the track that badly basically in a year and a half. It’s very bizarre,” said Darrell Hanecki, who employed Sharyn Hakken for nearly a decade at Hanecki Consulting Engineers.

Hanecki said Wednesday that she was an easygoing and relaxed employee who worked from the home they owned in sunny Tampa so she could spend more time with the kids. She brought the boys into the office a few times to show them off to her colleagues.

“The kids were really well-behaved. From everything I

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Couple jailed for fleeing with kids to face judge

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The Florida parents charged with kidnapping their boys from their grandparents and sailing to Cuba on a boat called “Salty” to elude authorities were expected to face a judge Thursday for the first time since they were forcibly returned from the island nation.

Joshua and Sharyn Hakken face charges including kidnapping, child neglect, false imprisonment, burglary and interference with custody.

Four-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase are now with their grandparents, who planned to talk about the ordeal publicly Thursday morning.

The couple arrived with their sons in Florida early Wednesday morning, accompanied by federal, state and local authorities after being handed over by Cuban officials.

The couple seemed to have a charmed life, doting on their two young boys, buying a comfortable home and building successful careers as engineers. It all derailed last year when police in Louisiana found the family inside a hotel room with drugs, weapons and promises from the parents to take “a journey to the Armageddon.” The parents lost custody of their sons who were cared for by their grandparents.

Friends of the couple said the family seemed happy and had no marital problems.

“This is a train that went completely off the tracks, and I don’t have any explanation for how it can go off the track that badly basically in a year and a half. It’s very bizarre,” said Darrell Hanecki, who employed Sharyn Hakken for nearly a decade at Hanecki Consulting Engineers.

Hanecki said she was an easygoing and relaxed employee who worked from the home they owned in sunny Tampa, Fla., so she could spend more time with the kids. She brought the boys into the office a few times to show them off to her colleagues.

“The kids were really well-behaved. From everything I could tell, she was a great mom. Her kids were definitely her priority,” Hanecki said.

He said Sharyn Hakken was pragmatic and responsible, graduating from the University of South Florida in 2008. She occasionally gave advice to Hanecki’s daughter, an aspiring engineer, and encouraged her to stay in school and finish her degree.

She resigned in 2011, saying it was too difficult to juggle work with caring for an infant and toddler.

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US couple in jail after fleeing to Cuba with kids

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The Florida parents charged with kidnapping their boys from their grandparents and sailing to Cuba on a boat called “Salty” to elude authorities will face a judge for the first time since they were forcibly returned from the island nation.

Joshua and Sharyn Hakken make their first appearance in court Thursday to hear the charges they’re facing, including kidnapping, child neglect, false imprisonment, burglary and interference with custody.

Four-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase are now with their grandparents, who planned to talk about the ordeal publicly Thursday morning.

The couple arrived with their sons in Florida early Wednesday morning, accompanied by federal, state and local authorities after being handed over by Cuban officials.

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Cuba turning over Florida couple, children to US

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A Florida couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and fleeing by boat to Havana will be handed over to the United States, Cuban officials said after taking them into custody at a marina in the capital.

U.S. diplomats in Havana said in a statement early Wednesday that the two children had left Cuba and “are safely on their way home.” The statement did not mention whether the parents had left for the U.S.

“We would like to express our appreciation to the Cuban authorities for their extensive cooperation to resolve this dangerous situation quickly,” said the statement released by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

Earlier Tuesday, Foreign Ministry official Johana Tablada told The Associated Press in a written statement that Cuba had informed U.S. authorities of the country’s decision to turn over Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife Sharyn, and their two young boys.

U.S. authorities say Joshua Michael Hakken kidnapped his sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, from his mother-in-law‘s house north of Tampa. The boys’ maternal grandparents had been granted permanent custody of the boys last week.

Tablada did not say when the handover would occur, but reporters saw Sharyn Hakken leaving the dock of the Hemingway Marina in the back seat of a Cuban government vehicle and workers later said that all four Hakkens had been taken away.

An AP reporter spotted the family earlier Tuesday beside their boat at the marina. A man who resembled photographs of Joshua Michael Hakken yelled out “Stop! Stay back!” as the reporter approached, but there was no outward sign of tension or distress between the family members.

Tablada said Cuba tipped the State Department off to the Hakkens’ presence on Sunday and that from that moment “diplomatic contact has been exchanged and a professional and constant communication has been maintained.”

The U.S. and Cuba share no extradition agreement and the island nation is also not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international treaty for governmental cooperation on such cases.

Cuba has harbored U.S. fugitives in the past, though most of those cases date back to the 1960s and 70s, when the island became a refuge for members of the Black Panthers and other militant groups. More recently, dozens of Cuban Medicare fraud …read more

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Cuba to turn over Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped children

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Cuba said Tuesday that it will turn over to the United States a Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped their own children from the mother’s parents and fled by boat to Havana, ending days of drama that evoked memories of the Elian Gonzalez custody battle of more than a decade ago.

Foreign Ministry official Johana Tablada told The Associated Press in a written statement Tuesday that Cuba had informed U.S. authorities of the country’s decision to turn over Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife Sharyn, and their two young boys.

She did not say when the handover would occur, but reporters saw Sharyn Hakken leaving the dock of Havana’s Hemingway Marina in the back seat of a Cuban government vehicle and workers later said that all four Hakkens had been taken away.

An AP reporter spotted the family earlier Tuesday beside their boat at the marina. A man who resembled photographs of Joshua Michael Hakken yelled out “Stop! Stay back!” as the reporter approached, but there was no outward sign of tension or distress between the family members.

Tablada said the Foreign Ministry had informed U.S. diplomats on the island “of the Cuban government’s willingness to turn over … U.S. citizens Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife Sharyn Patricia and their two minor sons.”

She said Cuba tipped the State Department off to the Hakkens’ presence on Sunday and that from that moment “diplomatic contact has been exchanged and a professional and constant communication has been maintained.”

U.S. authorities say Hakken kidnapped his sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, from his mother-in-law‘s house north of Tampa. The boys’ maternal grandparents had been granted permanent custody of the boys last week.

The U.S. and Cuba share no extradition agreement and the island nation is also not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international treaty for governmental cooperation on such cases.

Cuba has harbored U.S. fugitives in the past, though most of those cases date back to the 1960s and 70s, when the island became a refuge for members of the Black Panthers and other militant groups. More recently, dozens of Cuban Medicare fraud fugitives in the U.S. have tried to escape prosecution by returning to the island.

But Cuba has also cooperated with U.S. authorities in returning several criminal fugitives in recent years, including Leonard B. Auerbach in 2008. Auerbach was wanted in California on federal charges of sexually abusing a Costa Rican girl and possessing child pornography. He was deported.

In 2011, U.S. marshals flew to Cuba and took custody of two American suspects wanted in a New Jersey murder.

Hakken lost custody of his sons last year after a drug possession arrest in Louisiana and later tried to take the children from a foster home at gunpoint, authorities said. A warrant has been issued for his arrest on two counts of kidnapping; interference with child custody; child neglect; false imprisonment and other charges.

“My team and I working very hard to ensure safety for two Amcit kids,” Conrad Tribble, the No. 2 U.S. diplomat on …read more

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Missing Florida man allegedly kidnaps kids after judge's ruling, flees to Cuba

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A Florida man allegedly kidnapped his two young sons last week after a judge ruled that his parental rights had been revoked.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reported Monday that it received information that the Hakken family had arrived on the island nation. Joshua Michael Hakken, the alleged kidnapper, is believed to be travelling with his wife, Sharyn Hakken. Authorities say it is unclear if his wife is a suspect or victim.

A Spanish-language newspaper, El Nuevo Herald, reported that the couple is on the island and in custody of immigration officials. Investigators in the U.S., however, say they’re working with the FBI and the State Department to verify these reports.

Authorities say Joshua Michael Hakken entered his mother-in-law‘s house north of Tampa early Wednesday, tied her up and fled with his young sons. The children were sleeping at the time, Cristal Bermudez, a sheriff spokeswoman, told FoxNews.com. He was not armed at the time.

Bermudez said there is an arrest warrant for Joshua Michael Hakken.

Authorities had been searching by air and sea for a 25-foot sailboat Hakken recently purchased. The truck the family had been traveling in was found late Thursday, abandoned in a parking garage in Madeira Beach.

It is unclear why the couple would flee to Cuba. But The Tampa bay Times reported that the 330-mile trip by sailboat would have been arduous. The temperature during the day reaches 90 degrees and some of the swells at sea could reach up to 6 feet.

The boys, ages 4 and 2, had been living with their maternal grandparents, who were granted permanent custody last week.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that police say in June, Joshua Michael Hakkan was acting bizarrely inside a Louisiana hotel room while attending an ‘antigovernment’ rally. Police say they found marijuana, a gun and a knife in the room.

The boys were put in foster care and police say Joshua Michael Hakken showed up at a foster home in Louisiana waving a gun, the report said. The children, in turn, were sent to live with Sharyn Hakken‘s mother, the report said.

The alleged kidnapping occurred a day after the couple was told by a judge that their parental rights had been revoked, The Tampa Bay Times reported.

Tampa attorney Daniel Fernandez said it may be difficult for U.S. authorities to bring the Hakkens back.

“There are fugitives from the United States in Cuba, hundreds of them, that we can’t get back to prosecute. So, it’s going to be tough,” he told MyFoxOrlando.com.

But he added that diplomacy may improve those chances, because Cuba doesn’t have much to gain.

“I think from a diplomatic perspective, they’ve got nothing to gain and they’ve got a lot to lose in terms of public relations around the world. So there’s a chance that with the right diplomacy the child (children) could be returned,” he said.

The last time that the Unites States and Cuba clashed over a custody issue made headlines around the nation and around the world. Elian Gonzales was 6 years old in 1999 when his mother and 12 …read more

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