A Morgan Hill grandmother who kept her 11-month-old grandson
from his mother last week said she never intended to break the
law.
A Morgan Hill grandmother who kept her 11-month-old grandson from his mother last week said she never intended to break the law.
Marion Smith, 52, who said her only previous brushes with the law were a parking ticket, a speeding ticket when she was 19 and a ticket for an illegal left turn, said the motivation in keeping baby Noah from his mother was to keep him safe.
“I was horribly afraid, afraid for the safety of my grandson,” she said Monday in a telephone interview.
A tearful Smith took the baby to the police station April 2 after deciding on March 28 not to return him to his mother. The child remains in the custody of the county’s Child Protective Services.
Smith has not been charged with a crime.
When Smith’s daughter Laura Cadei came to pick Noah up on that Sunday evening, March 28, she found all the locks changed on her mother’s residence. Smith said she was afraid of the reactions of Cadei and her boyfriend.
“She gets very very angry sometimes, and when she gets angry like that, she can be very aggressive,” she said.
Cadei could not be reached for comment on this story.
What precipitated the alleged kidnapping was the fear and distrust Smith said she felt about the relationship between Cadei and her boyfriend, and the added impetus of learning the couple might take the baby out of town.
Cadei, 24, had told her mother that she and the baby’s father were taking the baby and moving to Texas, where they were going to move in with another couple who have a 4-year-old child. Neither Cadei or the baby’s father have a job, nor do they have one lined up in Texas, Smith said.
Cadei told her they have enough money to buy food for two months.
The impeding move motivated her to take action, Smith said. Her daughter told her Sunday would be the last time she would see her grandson.
“She called me and asked me to watch the baby,” she said. “She told me if she couldn’t get help for her family, meaning her boyfriend and the baby, then they would have to go (to Texas).”
The baby’s father, Cadei’s boyfriend, was kicked out of his San Jose home – “a converted garage with no windows, exposed wiring, and lean-to added on to garage for a kitchen” – by his mother who owns the property, Smith said. Smith had already told Cadei that he could not move in with Cadei and Smith.
“She knows why,” she said. “She knew why I wasn’t going to allow it.”
Smith said when Cadei was pregnant, she was living with her boyfriend, and she called and asked Smith to come and pick her up, saying that she “couldn’t take it anymore.”
When Smith picked her daughter up, she said she noticed drug paraphernalia in the small apartment.
“I knew this wasn’t a good situation for her,” Smith said. “It was particularly unhealthy considering her pregnancy. And the relationship was not at all healthy.”
Throughout the pregnancy, Smith said, her daughter bounced back and forth between the boyfriend’s apartment and her home. Smith said she supported her financially and emotionally during that time, even getting health insurance for her.
After Noah was born, Smith said her daughter tried to be a good parent and tried to stay away from her boyfriend, but that didn’t last.
Almost as soon as she came home from the hospital, after a longer-than-normal stay due to complications, the boyfriend told Cadei he would be seeking custody of the baby. Smith said Cadei was very frightened and upset.
After she found out Cadei and her boyfriend were talking about going to Texas, Smith said she faced a terrible choice, basically between her daughter and her grandson.
“I felt really torn because I felt I had to a make a choice to do what was best for the baby,” she said. “I had to keep him safe.”
Planning to file for guardianship of the child, Smith sought advice.
“So I contacted a child custody network and talked to Ron Lais,” she said. “He advised me to take the baby and leave to keep him safe. Ron and his office were in contact with the police department the entire time.”
The case has been handed to the District Attorney’s office; no charges had been filed against Smith. She has a June court date to discuss the guardianship she has applied for. She has also applied for temporary guardianship.
Despite applying for full guardianship of Noah, Smith said what she really wants is to care for him until his mother is better able to do so.
“What I really want, what my dream is, is for my daughter to learn parenting skills, job skills, so she can have it all together and be able to raise this baby,” she said. “What I would like to do is just care for him until my daughter is capable.”
