You may recall that on Sunday, I mentioned that Kiante Butler put his seven-year-old daughter, Angelina, on a plane from Cincinnati to Houston to visit relatives earlier this month, only to find out that Delta Air Lines had allowed the wrong person to pick her up. Even worse, that person turned out to be Angelina’s mother, Jennifer Lopez–who six years earlier had given Butler a savage beating and briefly kidnapped Angelina. Butler was so badly beaten that he still walks with a limp. Lopez spent almost six years in a Texas prison before being paroled this spring. Butler didn’t even know Lopez had been released. After a week and a half, Butler flew to Houston himself, and with a deputy’s help, was able to get his daughter back.
Well, it turns out that this stunt may earn Lopez a one-way ticket back to prison. WKRC-TV in Cincinnati confirms what I suspected from the time I learned about this story–Lopez may have violated the terms of her parole by picking up Angelina at the airport. Earlier, WKRC-TV reported that Lopez was under a court order to stay away from Angelina–an order she flagrantly violated when she came to George Bush Intercontinental Airport to pick up her daughter. According to WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Lopez’ mother found out that Angelina was coming to Houston and told Lopez. Unless Lopez’ mother has a good explanation for why she passed this information on to her daughter, to my mind, she belongs in an orange jumpsuit as well for aiding and abetting. At last report, Delta is still conducting its own internal investigation into this snafu–one that, if Delta has any decency, will result in a lot of people getting fired.
I’ve chewed on this story a lot this week–if only because as a male victim of domestic violence myself, I have some idea what Butler is going through. Besides, Delta’s admitted their failure to follow its own policy on unaccompanied minors. The one thing that really bothers me about this case is that Texas didn’t inform Butler that Lopez was out on parole. Texas has what looks like a pretty modern system for notifying crime victims about such things as when a defendant is paroled. From where I’m sitting, unless Butler forgot to keep his contact information updated, he has every right to demand answers about this. At least with the announcement that Lopez will have to face a hearing for her actions, Butler and Angelina have some measure of justice.
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edited by hl
Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
