Katherine Lester’s parents use courts to keep her home

Tuscola County teen’s family trying to keep her home:

Remember when I posted the article that said Katherine Lester’s parents could use the courts to prevent her from running away again? It seems that’s what they’re doing…

TUSCOLA COUNTY (WJRT) – (06/19/06)–The family of a Tuscola County teen is making an attempt to keep her home. Katherine Lester, 16, of Gilford, recently flew to Jordan where United States authorities caught up with her.

Lester was on her way to Israel to meet a man she met on MySpace.com. A runaway petition has been filed in Tuscola County that could put limits on any of her future travel plans.

If granted, the court system will intervene to help the family deal with this Internet and international love story.

The runaway petition was submitted to the probate court and requested by the Akron-Fairgrove junior’s family in the hope of trying to keep her home.

“At this point, of course, the young lady leaving the country in the way that she did, obviously there’s tremendous concerns of her not following the reasonable and really legitimate commands of her parents,” said Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene.

MySpace.com is a social networking Internet site. Her family found out about her plans and FBI agents in Amman, Jordan, persuaded her to return home.

But the family worries she may try this again, and Reene says the probate court could help in trying to keep her in the county.

“The probate court can do a variety of things,” Reene said.

“One thing is counseling. It can provide certain things that the girl has to do at different times to keep track of her and be sure — again, help her — evaluate all the considerations in her life at this point.

While Lester turns 17 on Wednesday, the parents have legal supervision until she turns 18.

“But the family probate court can still intervene up until she turns 18 in an effort to keep her on the right path, provide her with counseling and intervene again to hopefully ensure her safety,” Reene said.

While the probate court judge did not sign the runaway petition this morning, that is expected, which would mean Lester and her family will be back in court soon.

Can you blame them?